Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Almost No One Watches Alec Baldwin Talk Show Debut: Lowest Rated Sunday Night Show

Share

Yikes.

Alec Baldwin’s talk show debut on ABC scored just 2.71  million viewers. It was the lowest rated show on the big three networks. Twice as many people watched “Madame Secretary” on CBS.

The talk show got a lower rating that daytime soap operas, actually.

Last Sunday, “Shark Tank” did slightly better in the time period.

Alec has been hosting “The Match Game” on ABC Sunday nights. The talk show had to have been a contractual perk to keep him going as a modern day Gene Rayburn. His guests were Robert De Niro and Taraji P. Henson.

The interviews were fine. But it turned out that between being on “Saturday Night Live” the night before and broadcasting this tape, Alec gave a speech in New Haven where he announced that we have to overthrow the government. What a twenty four hours!

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News