Finaly May Sweeps Ratings for Miami/Ft. Lauderdale

Another bad book for WTVJ, I see. Considering they were once a strong factor in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market, this is pretty said. They should REALLY consider dropping their slogan, “South Florida’s News Leader.” I’m not surprised, though. I’m also not surprised to see WBFS with their low ratings, considering MyNetwork TV is the lowest rated out of all six major network broadcast stations in the United States. Good for WPLG. They always do well. It’ll be interesting to see what their ratings are for the next book without Dwight Lauderdale around, but knowing WPLG, they should be fine.

Get the resumes ready. Looks like more layoffs at Ch4 and Ch6 to me. Ch 10 kills them at 6p and 11p. Both have half of 10’s audience.

At least Ch 6 late news seems to beat their prime numbers and builds and audience. 4’s audience evacuates at the 11p news.

Where are the 5p numbers?

I don;t think there will be any layoffs at NBC6. Nothing has been done for years after ratings have been in the toilet. We have a minority news director that I’m sure any management team would love. I don’t know why they don’t fire all the managers. We only have two managers, mid level at that, who are capable. Everyone else is an idoiot. Interesting to point out that we all got an email from our GM saying we won in the demo’s and that we are doing great. What BS!

Copy and post the whole email.

Demos?! I thought WSVN won the demos. Dont they win that like every sweeps? That’s the station everybody watches, except if you’re over 60 and you watch WPLG!

Its the OTHER way around!

Everyone watches WSVN?? If you consider everyone mindless morons who enjoy sensationalistic “alleged” journalism. Go watch your Deco Drive and stay off the “news” blogs.

MediaVet,
In all fairness the “Dirty Dining” station with a washed up 90’s, sleazy talk show host as the main anchor is not the pinnacle of journalism either.

Thank you, Fins and enough said about 7news MediaVet. As Everyone I know watches 7news and if u even mention the station everyone knows the anchors. Can the same be said about WPLG , WFOR or WTVJ?

Tru. & has done a fantastic job promoting themselves and choosing programming that brings people in to watch. But, I think every smart person knows that Channel 7 is not a smart persons newscast. It is made for young people who like flashy graphics and a fast pace and gore and celebrity news…sensationalism. Channel 7 is for people who have basic language skills and education. 7 does a great job at covering breaking news and being there, but there isn’t much intelligence in their reporting. WPLG does a better job at intelligent reporting and so does 4 and 6. Branding and programming is what made 7 the most watched.

“7 is for people who have basic language skills and education.”

i believe you just described about 85% of the south florida television viewing audience…

RE fins
he’s got it going on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcLoePETDE

Let me revise my statement. “if you live in Liberty City, you watch 7. If you live in Coral Gables or Fort Lauderdale, you’re watching 6 or 10.”

“if you live in Liberty City, you watch 7. If you live in Coral Gables or Fort Lauderdale, you’re watching 6 or 10.”

Yet if you live in Northwest Broward, you watch “the Simpsons” on CW. Let’s face it. Most, if not all TV newscasts are pretty much the same.

If anyone actually believes that a certian educational block of this community picks a specific newscast, then they are just kidding themselves. I’m well educated, professional job, and live just outside Coral Gables and watch Ch7. No real reason, its just what caught my eye when I moved down here.
I can watch Ch10 or Ch6 and it no different, they all report the same thing, again don’t kid yourself. If anything this is just a stigma some like to use because of their flashy graphics that they apparently made popular nationwide. The only thing these channels do is advertise and do big specials that wil get peoples attention, channel 7 just does a better job at it than some other stations.

and just wondering why put Ft. Lauderdale with Coral Gables? You can get the same people you get in Liberty City in Ft. Lauderdale. Bad grouping there.

Joel Cheatwood single handedly contributed to the stupification of the tv news business. He may have been ahead of his time in realizing we now live in a country full of simpletons with 10 second attention spans. Its been a sad, sad two decades since he reared his devilish little head in South Florida. Problem is, he was so successful the rest of the stations had to follow along for a time. Now, luckily, we’re seeing that come back around a big.

“7 is for people who have basic language skills and education.”

That is putting it kindly.

Those of us who have been in the biz and privy to who local news really targets know it is moderate to low income women. Men are not the primary target audience for LOCAL TV news. Highly educated people are not the target. Yes, there are exceptions, but those in the decision making process know this.

That is why every local station wants Oprah as a lead in. The Oprah/soap opera audience is the local news audience. Oprah’s success has been in attracting low to moderate income women with minimal formal education and generally don’t work. All you have to do is watch the news and all the stories locals do. The stories always involve emotion, feelings, emotional reactions on stories that are easy to digest and require little knowledge like crime and entertainment.

There is a reason you don’t see stories regularly on the types of issues that really impact people, like politics etc. if you do they come from the paper. It is because the local audience (women) generally don’t care about these things and are not active in politics. There is a reason why local TV stations report more about Brittany Spears, Paris H., Brad, Angelina Dancing with the Stars, American Idol contestants and the endless parade of mindless sweeps stories.

This low brow approach may have worked in the past (it did), but now I’ll bet stations like 6 and 4 wish they hadn’t turned off so many other potential viewers, namely men. I am sure they would like to add more people to their audience. But in order to attract men to local news again they would have to change things dramatically and even then there is no assurance they could win them back. Most stations are still in the stone age, trying to do things the way they have always done them without success. Many species of animals have done this before going extinct.

The declining audience for local news can only be blamed on the people who produce it. And the audience is declining rapidly and stations at the bottom are in a panic. These are the stations that are laying off people or are for sale.

I have sat in with management, I have seen countless research papers from consultants that is made available to only certain people in newsrooms. Most in the newsroom who work on newscast have no idea why they produce news the way that they do.

fins, you have made an excellent point with regards to to attracting women in news rather than men. It goes back to the whole idea of men are hunters (for journalistic news) while women are gatherers (of information.)

Ergo, if I had a choice, I would have watch Mora and Hori over on Channel 4, despite their ratings woes. Yet, nobody’s perfect and the only way they can regain their prominence if they can target ADULTS, instead of just the women.