THE Jerry Springer Show” – which this week was told to cut out its trademark brawling – is having ratings trouble.

Although he has reclaimed the crown as top-rated talk show, Springer has dropped 16 percent from last year in the weekly syndication rankings, according to the most-recent Nielsen data.

For the week ending May 16 – the third week of the all-important May sweeps – “Springer” moved back in front of King World’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

The week before, “Oprah” had beaten “Springer” for the first time in over two years.

Ratings on the first week of the sanitized “Springer” – when shows about bi-sexuality and porno performers were replaced with a week of soft shows from 1992-3 – will not be available until next week.

In all, Springer was seen in about 7 million households – up three percent from the previous week. “Oprah ” was down two percent.

“Springer” airs weekdays at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on WPIX/Ch.11. “Oprah,” meanwhile, airs weekdays at 4 p.m. on WABC/Ch.7.