WKRC and WCPO tops in November TV demos

By Jarrett Hicks

(This analysis is provided by Jarrett Hicks, research director for Inside Media in Cincinnati.)

WKRC TV-12 and WCPO TV-9 remain the top-rated news stations in Cincinnati, as Nielsen Media Research recently released the local television demographic ratings from the November “sweeps.” The recent ratings period lasted from Nov. 2 to Nov. 29, but the demographic ratings, or “demos,” were just recently published.

Demographic ratings are highly important to both television stations and media agencies, which use the numbers to determine commerical advertising rates and gauge how often programs are watched by their target audience. Both adults and women between the ages of 25-54 are considered the two key demographics for area advertisers. One adult 25-54 rating equals nearly 9,550 Cincinnati-area viewers, while one women 25-54 rating represents 4,870 female viewers.

Interestingly, the rank order of the stations in most dayparts did not change since November 2005. However, the ratings for most programs on the five major broadcast stations have dropped since last November. In some cases, well-known programs, like “Oprah Winfrey” on WCPO Channel 9, have lost 10 percent to 20 percent of their audience in the last year. This drop may be due to a new method that Nielsen is using to determine viewership of cable television programs. This methodology change is known as “zero cell ascription,” and has caused certain cable channels to slightly increase their share of viewers at the expense of the broadcast networks.

Early morning news from 5-7 a.m. remains a key growth area for local news in Cincinnati, as the number of people watching early morning television news has gone up in the last year. WKRC Channel 12 and WCPO are tied for the ratings lead both at 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., followed by WXIX Channel 19 and WLWT Channel 5.

WCPO saw the most growth in those dayparts, growing by one rating point with women 25-54 at both 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Conversely, WXIX lost over a full rating point with women 25-54, tying it for third place with WLWT.

While WXIX struggled from 5-7 a.m., its local news from 7-9 a.m. achieved a higher rating than NBC’s “Today” Show on WLWT or ABC’s “Good Morning America” on WCPO. Among adults 25-54, FOX-19 averaged a 3.0 rating, versus a 1.9 for WLWT, a 1.8 for WKRC and a 1.7 for WCPO.

At noon, WCPO remains in first place with women 25-54, with a 2.1 rating for its full hour of news. WKRC finished second with a 1.7 rating and WLWT registered a 1.5.

From 4-5 p.m., “Oprah Winfrey” on WCPO continues to be the top program in Cincinnati, with a 5.5 rating among women 25-54. “Judge Judy” on WLWT finished second with 2.9 rating and WKRC was third with a 1.5 among women, less than three times the size of Oprah’s audience.

While “Oprah” maintained its large lead, its audience is shrinking. Compared to last November, Oprah’s female 25-54 audience fell 19 percent, from a 6.8 to a 5.5 rating.

For the past few years, WCPO has won the “early” news ratings race at 5, 5:30, and 6 p.m., but the distance of its competitors shrank in November. Among adults 25-54, WCPO, WKRC, and WLWT tied with a 3 rating at 5 p.m. WCPO and WKRC remained tied at 5:30 and 6 p.m., while WLWT lost viewers in those newscasts. With women 25-54, WCPO finished ahead of WKRC and WLWT at both 5 and 6 p.m., and tied WKRC with a 4 rating at 5:30 p.m.

WLWT saw noticeable year-to-year growth at 5 p.m. and finished ahead of WKRC. As WLWT grew at 5 p.m. from November 2005, WKRC saw 1 and 2 rating point losses with women 25-54 in each newscast.

Popular 7-8 p.m. game shows, “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy” on WCPO were the highest-rated among adults 25-54 in the time period. WCPO finished ahead of “King of Queens” / “Seinfeld” on WXIX and “Raymond” / “Entertainment Tonight” on WKRC.

While WKRC was among the November 2006 leaders in the 7-8 p.m. daypart, it suffered major ratings losses from November 2005, when it was the time period leader.

Unlike previous rating periods, “CSI” on WKRC (CBS) was not the top-rated primetime program among adults 25-54. The top program honor was shared by ABC dramas “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives” on WCPO. The remaining top five programs were all on CBS affiliate WKRC: “CSI,” “Survivor” and “Two and a Half Men.”

NBC and FOX had primetime programs in the top 10 among Cincinnati viewers. NBC affiliate WLWT’s highest-rated programs were Thursday night comedy “The Office,” and Monday night drama “Heroes.” FOX affiliate WXIX’s top show was medical drama “House” on Tuesday nights.

In overall adult 25-54 primetime ratings, WKRC (CBS) remains the local leader in the time period, despite a two-point rating drop from November 2005. WKRC was followed by WCPO (ABC), WLWT (NBC) and WXIX (FOX).

WSTR-64, an affiliate of the new MyNetworkTV, saw its primetime adult 25-54 ratings drop to nearly zero, since MyTV telenovelas replaced the programming from the now-defunct WB network.

The November “late” news rankings Monday-Sunday at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. remained similar to 2005. With adults 25-54, WKRC (5.6) finished ahead of the 10 p.m. news on WXIX (4.3). WXIX was closely followed by WCPO (3.9) and WLWT (3.6), and the 10 p.m. “Local 12 News on My64″ on WSTR (1.2).

WSTR was the only station to show year-to-year growth with adults 25-54. The 10 p.m. broadcast of WKRC-12’s news on WSTR registered double the audience of the “NewsCentral” newscast that aired on WSTR in November 2005.