Drew Barrymore was always going to hard pressed to follow last year’s strong daytime debuts by Kelly Clarkson and Tamron Hall, but the actress still got off a strong enough start.
The CBS-produced “The Drew Barrymore Show” premiered to a 1.0 household rating/3 share in the 44 metered markets, according to Nielsen’s overnight data. For her first episode, Barrymore welcomed her former “Charlie’s Angels” co-stars Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz and “50 First Dates” co-star Adam Sandler.
Barrymore’s premiere fell below the season two debut of the Disney-ABC produced-“Tamron Hall,” which welcomed disgraced former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. Hall’s second season got off to a 1.1/4 start.
Even so, Barrymore’s start was a ratings boon for CBS stations, where her show led the 9 a.m. ET time slot in New York. “Drew” grew by double digits from both its lead-ins and prior Monday time periods and took its station’s ratings up dramatically in numerous key cities, including increases of 233% in Los Angeles, 300% in Baltimore, and 400% in Jacksonville. One of the show’s best opening day performances was in Portland, Oregon, where it increased that time slot’s performance by 233% and led at 3 p.m. PT.
Last year, both Hall and the NBCUniversal-produced “Kelly Clarkson Show” stormed into syndication with Clarkson notching the best debut for new talk show in 9 years, and finished in the top five for her debut season. The former “American Idol” contestant returns for the official start of her second season next week.