Photo by Randee St. Nicholas/CBS
Less than a year since shaking up its panel of co-hosts, first with the departure of Sharon Osbourne, followed by the departure of Carrie Ann Inaba and the exit of Elaine Welteroth, it looks like CBS’ “The Talk” is finally hitting the right mark with viewers. During the week of January 31-February 4, 2022, the daytime talk show attracted its largest overall audience since the week of April 20–24, 2020, averaging 1.662 million viewers.
Even before launching its 12th season in September, “The Talk” had been struggling to find an audience after virtually cleaning house with only Sheryl Underwood remaining in terms of veteran status (Underwood has been with the show since season two). In January 2021, Amanda Kloots joined the panel followed by Jerry O’Connell in July, Akbar Gbajabiamila in September, and lastly Natalie Morales in October. Four months since completing the new and improved roster of co-hosts, the show seems to have finally found an audience in recent weeks, as evidenced by the show’s performance among Total Viewers during the week of January 31-February 4, 2022.
While it wasn’t enough to move the show out of last place in viewers, nor the key Women 18-49 and Women 25-54 sales demos, the show still saw marked improvement compared to one week earlier and the comparable week last year in viewers. Demographically, the show is virtually on par with one week earlier and the comparable week last year.
See the chart below for a breakdown of the show’s performance during the week of January 31-February 4, 2022 compared to last week, the same week last year and the comparable week in 2020 among Total Viewers, Households, Women 18-49 and Women 25-54 rating.
Note: Total Viewers and Households for “TODAY 3rd Hour” and “TODAY with Hoda & Jenna” were not available at press time which currently skews the rankings in each category. Regardless, “The Talk” would rank 13th in both categories despite how the show is listed below and the Daytime Broadcast Ratings for the Week of January 31-February 4, 2022 report.
Women 18-49 Rating
| Rank / Show / Network | This Week | Last Week | Last Year | 2020 W18-49 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13. The Talk (CBS) | 0.21 | 0.23 | 0.22 | 0.27 |
Women 25-54 Rating
| Rank / Show / Network | This Week | Last Week | Last Year | 2020 25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13. The Talk (CBS) | 0.33 | 0.32 | 0.36 | 0.41 |
Households
| Rank / Show / Network | This Week | Last Week | Last Year | 2020 Households |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11. The Talk (CBS) | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.6 |
Total Viewers
| Rank / Show / Network | This Week | Last Week | Last Year | 2020 Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11. The Talk (CBS) | 1,662,000 | 1,580,000 | 1,529,000 | 1,994,000 |