Philbin Scores Without Gifford

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday November 07, 1997 12:00 AM EST

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In its first week without cohost Kathie Lee Gifford interrupting . . . rather, sitting beside Regis Philbin, "Live!" scored hearty Nielsen ratings, despite a 29% drop viewership from the previous week (when ratings had been boosted by Gifford's all-star farewell). "Live!" posted a 4.2 national household rating for the week ending Aug. 6. (A rating point represents 1,008,000 households, or 1% of the nation's estimated 100.8 million TV homes.) That's a 27% improvement over last year's rating for the same week, and was second only to "Oprah" (with a 5.1 rating) in the talk-show category.