In the wake of diminishing ratings, the producers of the syndicated “Rosie O’Donnell Show” are shaking things up a bit.
When the show debuts for its third season on Sept. 7, the format will be a little looser, with O’Donnell spending more time on celebrity interviews and an added emphasis on lifestyle issues.
Also, O’Donnell will be adding a segment where she’ll talk up a group of kids on the show, according to the trade paper Daily Variety.
The show is also getting a new set, according to a source.
“Change is always part of the process with a Monday-through-Friday show,” Jim Paratore, president of “Rosie” producer Telepictures Productions, told Variety. “The sands in TV shift every year. If you stand still, it turns into quicksand and your show goes down with it.”
While certainly a dominant show in many markets, “The Rosie O’Donnell” show has lost some of the buzz and momentum it garnered when it launched three summers ago.
In the most-recent weekly Nielsen accounting, “Rosie O’Donnell” averaged a 3.4 rating (percentage of the nation’s 98 million TV homes), which put it in a tie for sixth place among talk shows.
Compared to the same week a year ago, ratings for “O’Donnell” were down 13 percent.
Also, last May, the most recent full-strength representative ratings period, ratings were down 9 percent from the same period the year before, according to Nielsen.
Industry observers suggest “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” should be showing year-to-year increases rather than declines because after its super-hot first season many stations moved the show to better time slots.
– NBC’s “Today” show continues to plow on in the Nielsen department.
In the most recent Nielsen survey, for the week ending Aug. 14, the popular morning show drew more viewers than its two primary competitors combined — for the second straight week and for the 11th time ever, according to NBC.
For the week, “Today” averaged 5,510,000 viewers. ABC’s “Good Morning America” averaged 2,840,000 viewers while CBS’ “This Morning” averaged 2,530,000.
“Today” has been the No. 1 morning show for 138 consecutive weeks, the second-longest current winning streak on network TV. (The soap opera “Young and Restless” has been No. 1 in daytime for an astounding 503 straight weeks.)