Insider says:
Top executives and Nielsen are considering whether to cancel November sweeps altogether. Since so many people are .. and will be.. without power and cable, they think the prudent decision is to cancel next month’s ratings sweeps. November is known as the most cutthroat of sweeps months. Stations fight hard to earn top spots every year. Last November, WFOR swept with wins in all newscasts and hours except early mornings.
There are over half million households without power at the moment in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market with 95% to be restored by November 8 as per FPL’s schedule. Even though there’s hurricane coverage overload at the moment, I think most people are trying to get back on track with their lives, especially the ones hardest hit by the hurricane.
November sweeps begin this coming Thursday, November 3rd.
Update Nov 1: Word is that if the November sweeps get canceled, the ratings measurements from October will be used by most advertising buyers. Household results from October were released today, with the demos (age groups) to be released on November the 11th. In the household ratings WPLG is seeing increases in every newscast except noon, and they are now second at 11pm. WFOR is #1 at 11pm but they are seeing major declines in their other newscasts. WSVN still rules the mornings but they too are seeing major declines in all other newscasts.
So basically WPLG is now becoming a contender in the news race, their 11pm is strong because of ABC’s prime-time programming so they have a good lead-in for that newscast. But what I find interesting is that without lead-ins for other newscasts they are actually gaining viewers. 6pm newscast comes to mind.
Or maybe we are in the cycle of viewers getting tired of one station and moving to another one. In West Palm Beach everyone’s favorite is WPTV – NBC 5, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale is a market where people aren’t hooked on one station only. Something very evident in past ratings periods where stations were 10th of a percentage point apart from each other. WFOR used to be the underdog, then they were gaining steam, now they’re losing viewers. WPLG wasn’t performing untill recently and now they’re seeing audience gains even without any help from preceding programs. WTVJ were once at the top but now nobody seems to be interested in them at all. WSVN seems to be the only one not going thru any changes, but the other guys copying them might be having an effect on the ratings. I wonder why if what they do in the morning that keeps them at the top isn’t applied to the other newscasts? Of course once you start tweaking something a bigger disaster might happen so some things are better left unchanged.
It will be interesting to see what the demos are though. They are the most important part of the ratings game and that’s how stations make their money. I’m curious if WPLG’s gains in household numbers are close to the demos as well.
That would really suck for WTVJ. They already have to throw out the February book because of the olympics!
WFOR did NOT, i repeat, did NOT do that well in ratings last nov. sorry.
it might have been a fluke, but wfor really did do that well, behind wltv, of course.
wsvn’s advantage in the morning is that it’s local, not the national crap and fluff of the network morning shows. it’s the same advantage that’s helping the wbfs morning show to gain viewers, and that show’s nothing short of awful!
i wouldn’t say wplg doesn’t have a lead-in at 6:00. it’s lead in is its own 5 & 5:30 news. the fact that wplg gains viewers during that hour shows that people interested in news are purposely tuning in to channel 10 (because of the anchors or the reputation or whatever). the opposite goes for wfor, which starts strong at 5:00 with its Oprah lead-in, then drops by 6pm as the oprah audience turns away.
last nov. wfor did do that well… they won at noon, 5, 530, 6 & 11… go look it up before you state “they did not do that well” because the proof is in the numbers. pull it up.
The UPN 33 morning show is bad, captivating like a train wreck, but bad. I just like Diana Diaz. Her alone would make me turn into 7 in the monring, other than that, not a morning news fan in general.
Congrats to Diana on her new baby girl (Daniell or Daniella). Richard and Christine wasnt sure what it was thie morning. How can you be working with here and not know her baby’s name? The Dwight/Laurie duo at WPLG is really good and that is what is responsible for their growth. WSVN most times comes in second behind WFOR and I think they are loosing ground. They will remain stagnant or continue to decline unless they do something about their main female anchor Belkys Nerey. She is cool, hip, fun, funky and all those things but not credible as a primary anchor. I like her style but it’s out of place. Maggi/Robb has it going am much I like 7. When viewers need good solid information WPLG and WFOR will prevail in most cases. THe Laurie Jennings void has not been filled at WSVN. They wont get any better until they fix that.
Lead in to a newscast cant be the previous newscast. I like that Terrell Forney at WPLG. Cute guy and he can report. I think WSVN success in the morning has to do with it being local as someone said previously. Plus they have always had good morning anchors from Lynn Martinez to Julia Yarbough to Tom Haynes to Deliane Mathieu to Christine Cruz and now Richard Lemus and Diana Diaz.
I love WSVN and they really need to step it up. Move Lynn or Christine to 5 and 6pm and see the difference. I can wait for Diane Fernandez to start anchoring. I think she will be great. I think Sherene so start doing some real news too.
“ratings” thank god someone had the balls bc at last check and as far as I can remember, WFOR did very well last november. ahhhh finally put “Anony.” where he/she belongs, bad enough he cant tell us who he is, he sure opens his mouth alot that i know for a fact
if the lead-in to channel 10’s 6pm newscast isn’t the 5:30 newscast, then just what IS the 6pm’s lead-in?
I was refering to something like Oprah, Dr. Phil etc.
Back to the topic at hand, do we have any more information on whether or not the sweeps will be scrapped?
canceled.. its confirmed