Dr. Laura: Bad Apple

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/31/1997 at 12:00 AM EST

Radio show host Laura Schlessinger got off to a weak start in the Big Apple on Monday with her new syndicated daytime TV series, "Dr. Laura." The series was watched in just 54,500 metropolitan New York homes, reports the city's Daily News. That put it dead last in its 3 p.m. time slot. The figure represents a 27% drop from what the local CBS station did in the time period in May with reruns of "Inside Edition" and "Hollywood Squares." The show by the controversial host -- who once said on air that homosexuality was a "biological error" -- has been protested by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and lost sponsors before its first broadcast.