Everyone is a winner (and loser) in the Milwaukee ratings...

The Milwaukee Journal says that WISN had the top-rated newscast at 5 and 6 p.m. during the May "sweeps" period, and WTMJ topped the field at 10 p.m., according to Nielsen Media Research data provided by local TV stations.

WITI led in the ratings in the increasingly important weekday morning news slot between 4:30 and 7 a.m., followed in order by WISN, WTMJ and WDJT.

Although the television season has become increasingly spread out vs. the old September-to-May calendar, "sweeps" periods like May are important to TV stations and networks, which use the ratings during those periods to set advertising rates.

The May "sweeps" ended Wednesday night.

At 5 p.m., WISN's newscast led with a 6.0 rating. WTMJ had a 4.9, WITI had a 3.8, and WDJT had a 2.7.

Each rating point represents 8,957 Milwaukee-area households.

At 6 p.m., WISN again had the top-rated newscast with a 6.2 rating — tied with WTMJ's 10 p.m. newscast for the highest-rated local newscast in May. WTMJ had a 4.9 rating at 6 p.m., while WITI had a 3.6. Per usual, all three 6 p.m. newscasts trailed "Jeopardy!" on WDJT, which had a 6.6 rating.

At 10 p.m., WTMJ had a 6.2 rating, followed by 5.2 for both WITI and WISN, and 3.0 for WDJT.

At 9 p.m., WITI had a 5.4 rating, while WMLW, which airs a newscast from WDJT in the time period, had a 1.2 rating.