The early morning TV landscape is really competitive, with the likes of The Ellen Show, the Steve Harvey Show and Dr. Phil all fighting for space among the likes of The Chew and The View. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how Meredith Vieira’s relatively tame The Meredith Vieira Show has had trouble competing. In fact, new reports indicate that the early morning show might be on the way out the door.
The syndicated morning show owned by NBC Universal hasn’t found a big niche since it premiered in the fall of 2014. The show has already changed formats since its inception a little over a year ago, but a new report over at Page Six indicates that even with the changes, the ratings haven’t been good enough for The Meredith Vieira Show to survive over the long haul. In fact, NBC Universal is expected to announce the show’s ultimate cancellation this March, before the season ends.
Obviously, The Meredith Vieira Show does garner some viewership and we’re assuming NBC Universal doesn’t want to announce the series is over until the company is ready to pull the show from syndication so that the ratings don’t falter any further. Still, the numbers don’t look good. The Season 2 premiere only did a .8 rating share in the advertising demographic, and Vieira’s morning show has only fallen against the competition in the time since. In fact, various outlets have been claiming the show has been on its way out since it premiered in September.
Currently, The Meredith Vieira Show, like most other daytime programs, is on hiatus for the holidays. It is expected to return to the schedule this winter when other midseason returns begin to happen. So, it’s not officially cancelled, yet. Instead, the numbers just aren’t looking good for the daytime talk show.
There’s a lot of daytime TV on the air right now, and a lot of alternatives to daytime TV for those who don’t want to watch the traditional television format but have free time during the daylight hours. It’s getting tougher and tougher to launch a new show during a daytime timeslot, as we’ve seen the exits of the likes of Katie and more soon after their respective launches. And long-running shows, including The View, have not held up as well in recent years.
Still, the daytime TV shows that do well do excessively well. Just ask Steve Harvey, Judge Judy and others. Plus, on the bright side, if Vieira’s daytime show doesn’t pan out over the long haul, she’ll still have plenty of gigs with NBC to fall back on, including primetime hosting at the Olympics, popping up on Dateline NBC and more. She’s probably not going anywhere, even if her daytime show does.
Photo courtesy of NBC.
