Local Nielsen ratings snapshot — extended November “sweeps” edition

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

WFAA8 dominated the p.m. news competitions and Fox4 crowed in the early a.m. in the latest November "sweeps" wars.

Those are repeats from last year's final fall results, although the runnerup spots have shifted.

Here are the complete results in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. In each case, year-to-year population growth makes each point a bit more valuable. In the key 25-to-54 category, for instance, a single rating point now equals 30,353 D-FW viewers compared to 29,445 last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. And in total viewers the number has increased from 64,420 to 66,430 per rating point.

Even with inflation factored in, overall year-to-year local news numbers are down everywhere except in the early morning, with November to November plusses or minuses shown in parentheses.

10 P.M.

TOTAL VIEWERS

WFAA8 -- 292,292 (minus 42,692)

CBS11 -- 239,148 (plus 7,236)

NBC5 -- 159,432 (minus 20,944)

Fox4 -- 139,503 (plus 17,105)

25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS

WFAA8 -- 139,624 (minus 34,102)

CBS11 -- 100,165 (plus 52)

Fox4 -- 84,988 (plus 20,209)

NBC5 -- 72,847 (minus 30,211)

Note: Prime-time network programming gave CBS11 a significant 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in advantage in total viewers. But CBS and ABC programming ran virtually head-to-head among 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5's late night newscast finished last among 25-to-54-year-olds for the first time since the 1995 network ownership shift that made Ch. 4 a Fox station. And in another notable development, Fox4's 10 p.m. newscast had better ratings among 25-to-54-year-olds than the station's more prominently promoted 9 p.m. local news.

6 A.M.

TOTAL VIEWERS

Fox4 -- 146,146 (plus 17,306)

NBC5 -- 99,645 (plus 22,341)

WFAA8 -- 86,359 (minus 16,713)

CBS11 -- 53,144 (plus 1,608)

25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS

Fox4 -- 81,953 (plus 8,340)

NBC5 -- 66,777 (plus 28,498)

WFAA8 60,706 (plus 1,816)

CBS11 -- 36,424 (plus 12,868)

Note: Fox4 comfortably led from start to finish in both ratings measurements, with WFAA8 losing major ground from a year ago. NBC5 and CBS11 both made significant improvements among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 now must find a replacement for departing co-anchor Brad Hawkins while Fox4 has a greater urgency to re-sign co-anchor Megan Henderson, whose contract expires in December.

6 P.M.

TOTAL VIEWERS

WFAA8 -- 225,862 (plus 13,276)

NBC5 -- 126,217 (minus 2,623)

CBS11 -- 112,931 (minus 22,351)

Fox4 -- 106,288 (minus 9,668)

25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS

WFAA8 -- 94,094 (plus 8,703)

Fox4 -- 51,600 (minus 1,401)

NBC5 -- 48,565 minus 10,325)

CBS11 -- 36,424 (plus 1,090)

Note: WFAA8 is more unbeatable than ever at this hour, with the other stations pretty much out of the conversation.

5 P.M.

TOTAL VIEWERS

WFAA8 -- 139,503 (minus 40,873)

NBC5 -- 119,574 (plus 10,060)

Fox4 -- 112,931 (minus 15,909)

CBS11 -- 70,873 (minus 9,019)

25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS

WFAA8 -- 66,777 (minus 9,780)

Fox4 -- 54,635 (plus 10,464)

NBC5 -- 45,530 (minus 4,527)

CBS11 -- 21,247 (minus 8,198)

Note: -- WFAA8 scraped by minus anchor Macie Jepson, who was dropped in late August. But its victory margin shrunk significantly, with both Fox4 and NBC5 now seemingly in contention during future sweeps contests.

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Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

Mike Orren, says:

Whoah. 10 PM newscasts lost more than 15% of their audience yoy?

Catching up with the newspapers...

Staff

12 months ago
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jtmbls, says:

I caught a part of one of the local newscasts a couple of weeks ago when I accidentally hit the stop button instead of fast forward on my DVR. The sudden wave of nostalgia I felt as I watched the newscasters for a few moments made me realize I had not watched local TV news in a very long time. I remember thinking “Gosh, I really miss this!”…and then a commercial came on and my love fest was over. I get 90% of my news from the net and the other 10% from the radio.