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Tis the season for twinkling lights, hot cocoa, &... Sweeps ratings. After the dead heat in May, Chicago's late news ratings returned to normal, with WLS on top. WGN also led at 9pm, as always. No immediate word on the rest of the day, but I can safely assume that WGN was on top from 4-10am and Noon, WLS led from 4-7pm, and 11am was likely a toss-up. (At last check, about 35,000 viewers equals a ratings point, which would put ABC 7 at about a 6.0.) https://www.robertfeder.com/2021/11/29/robservations-abc-7-wins-late-news-ratings-november-sports-anchor-dan-roan-talks-retirement-wgn-radio-overlooks-dan-hampton-arrest/

We should all be seeing ratings bumps throughout selective markets due to COVID-19 and Election Coverage. I'll Start with Pittsburgh Provided by Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. For the past 20 years, Pittsburgh’s Nielsen market rank has averaged around No. 22 or 23 (out of 210 TV markets nationally) even as growing cities surpassed Pittsburgh, including Portland, Ore., and Charlotte, N.C. In 2018 Pittsburgh fell to No. 24 and for 2021, Pittsburgh drops to No. 26 as Indianapolis pushes ahead to the 25th spot, just behind St. Louis (No. 23), and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. (No. 24). It’s the first time Pittsburgh has fallen out of the Top 25, but media consultant Brad Adgate said it’s unlikely to matter when it comes to local stations’ ability to attract advertisers. “If you do business in Pittsburgh, dropping out of the Top 25 will not impact market ad spend,” Adgate said. “It follows a trend of markets in the north that have been dropping in market rank to markets in the south and west (that have moved up in market rank).” Kathy Baldauf, associate broadcast director at Pittsburgh’s Brunner marketing agency, agreed, noting that while Pittsburgh’s market rank dropped two notches, the market actually gained 86,230 TV households (from 1,079,900 TV homes in 2020 to 1,166,130 TV homes in 2021). And she said the way advertisers allocate their resources has changed as advertising has become more data driven. At one time dropping out of the Top 25 could have hurt Pittsburgh TV stations if a national advertiser were to buy commercials in just the Top 25 TV markets, but Baldauf said that’s no longer how ad buys are made. “Clients are using so much information and they’re looking for markets that are going to make sense for their product, markets that have the highest propensity to purchase that product,” Baldauf said. “You might buy the No. 50 market or the No. 100 market. It’s not necessarily about the Top 10 or Top 20.” In addition, Baldauf notes that local TV newscasts in Pittsburgh, whether on KDKA-TV, WPXI-TV or WTAE-TV, draw higher ratings than prime-time programming in some Top 10 markets. (Indeed, even in Pittsburgh the 6 p.m. news on each station is generally higher-rated than what local stations draw in prime-time average viewership.) In the most recent sweeps ratings period that ended Nov. 25, the local news landscape remained highly competitive with near-ties in multiple time periods. In household viewers, a measure of overall popularity, WTAE took No. 1 at 5 and 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. KDKA was first at 12, 4, 5 and 11 p.m. Channel 11’s 10 p.m. news on WPGH had double the share of the audience of KDKA’s news on WPCW. In the more-important-to-advertisers key demographic of persons 25-54 years old, WPXI took first place at 5 a.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m. (Channel 11 News on WPGH) and 11 p.m. WTAE landed in first place at 6 a.m. KDKA was tied with WTAE at 6 a.m. and KDKA also took the top demo spot at 12, 4 and 5 p.m. At 4 p.m. on WTAE, syndicated talk show “Ellen” has long been a ratings laggard and that was especially true this ratings period, drawing just one-quarter of the household audience compared to “Judge Judy” on WPXI and news on KDKA. WTAE’s 5 p.m. news almost tripled its share of the audience compared to its “Ellen” lead-in. In prime time on weekdays (8-11 p.m.) KDKA (CBS) was first in households followed by WPXI (NBC) and WTAE (ABC). In the key demo, WPXI ranked No. 1, followed by KDKA and WTAE. Full Story HERE: https://triblive.com/aande/movies-tv/tv-talk-pittsburghs-nielsen-market-rank-drops-local-news-ratings-remain-competitive/?fbclid=IwAR0qv8E1jojCdM-WGz9bojkSGpsSbdzRM-vLnT46PcgMPuMN-xtPFg6ag7w Better view of the Graphic below: https://infogram.com/tv-ratings-1hkv2nz3pko7n2x