Page Six has ignited quite the firestorm with their report today that Rachael Ray, the homecooking guru whose open-mouth circumference quite improbably exceeds that of her entire head, is at high risk for cancellation. The reason: dwindling ratings and a rapidly aging demographic, whose calcified joints can barely manage to crack open a bottle of EVOO. (We wont get into the hard numbers here, but if you're really interested, the Sixers throw up a bunch of pie charts and nanaimo bar graphs to prove their point.) But wait! A representative from King World disputes their claims, saying Ray has managed to even outperformed the talk show deity who fashioned her in her own image out of a variety of dipping sauces. From HuffPo:

Some of what King World told HuffPost this morning:

"The "Rachael Ray" show is one of the best talk show performers and during the recently completed February sweeps period there was only one show performed better -- Dr. Phil. In today's Broadcasting & Cable you can see a story about how well we did during the February sweep that saw Oprah was down 15% from last February, Regis and Kelly was down 16%, Tyra Banks down 13% and Martha Stewart down 27%. [...]

[I]f we want to talk median ages in first run syndication let's talk about Regis at 56.1, Oprah at 54.6, Wheel of Fortune 64.1 and Jeopardy at 63.2. Our show has a wide appeal with audiences in all age groups."

And don't even get them started on such geriatric syndie smashes as Maury at 89.3, Merv Griffin's Crosswords at 94.5, and Judge David "Justice with a Snap" Young at 117.9! Once you put the numbers into perspective, Ray's 55.1 median age makes her audience the tweens of the syndicated viewership market. Certainly, with this youthful, trendy, spend-happy demo--the twolds--in her corner, Ray has nothing to worry about where cancellation is concerned.

• Report: Rachael Ray Getting The Ax, King World Vehemently Denies [HuffPo]

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