You may know that because of the digital TV transition that was supposed to happen last month, the pointyheads at Nielsen decided to conduct the February ratings sweeps in March. So you’re seeing some extra effort turned in by the local news teams, despite the general wisdom that these sweeps won’t really matter because they can’t be compared to other years.
What’s different about TV viewing in March? For one, fewer people watch TV. Apparently Daylight Savings Time affects viewership. So does the NCAA Tournament. March has other madness, like Spring Break.
All that said, we’re going to have some fun with numbers in a time slot less affected by all of the above — morning news. Let’s compare the share of the morning news audience, with a week to go in Sweeps.
WHAS remains in first place. but the hold Rachel Platt and Andy Treinen have is sliding. In fact, from 6-7, the WHAS share has dropped from 23 to 15 percent. Has the addition of Ray D’Alessio helped the WAVE morning team? Not much, as WAVE is also down slightly in every morning show time period.
And what about all the turmoil over at WLKY? Has adding John Boel to the morning team made a difference in the numbers? Not much, but the station hasn’t lost at much as the others.
From 7-9, WDRB goes against national programming on the networks, and it’s not surprising that its numbers are up there.
So there you go. Don’t put too much stock in these numbers, though. Besides, May is just around the corner.
7 responses so far ↓
1 CaveWoman // Mar 26, 2009 at 3:36 pm
So I take it the rundown from first to last is as follows…
WHAS
WAVE
WLKY
WDRB
Is that correct?
2 Tony // Mar 27, 2009 at 9:37 am
No. Not correct.
WLKY is ahead of WAVE.
3 Caveman // Mar 27, 2009 at 9:50 am
If you check the numbers, you’ll see 32 has won the 5 to 7 am news block 4 of the past 5 days. It’s been a long, long time, if ever, since they’ve been winning the entire morning on a consistent basis.
4 LocalViewer // Mar 27, 2009 at 10:36 am
FOUR WHOLE DAYS??? WOWW. uncork the champagne. and yes, they’ve done that before. they were first before they fired the whole morning team. and it’s BASKETBALL in the NUMBER one basketball market. come spew numbers at the end of May. and 32 will be right back where they’ve been since they screwed up their lineup…the basement. gimme a break. anyone who can’t see the basketball bounce has no clue about tv ratings.
5 correction // Mar 27, 2009 at 11:26 am
No, actually they were a poor third on a daily basis when the lineup got jacked up, and had been for some time.
6 LocalViewer // Mar 27, 2009 at 11:35 am
sorry, but you are wrong. flat out wrong. Check the numbers. We get ‘em every day. And just wait for May when there is no March Madness. Then come calling in corrections. The rating started to slip when the show lost Kim Stevens. Track it. It’s fact.
7 Tony // Mar 27, 2009 at 11:56 am
Someone just pointed out to me that WDRB is very close to passing WAVE for third place? That would put WAVE in last place.
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