Sweeping Up in Orlando

WESH anchors Jim Payne and Meredith McDonough.

It was a split decision in the magic city.

In the November book, in 25-to-54 viewers, Hearst owned WESH was the winner at 5 a.m., 4 p.m. and 5 to 6 p.m. weekdays.

Cox owned WFTV was the victor at 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m., according to Nielsen ratings.

The Orlando Sentinel writes that in a sign of the heightened competition, both stations claimed wins at 11 p.m. WFTV was the leader Monday through Friday.

But WESH came out on top on a Monday-through-Sunday measurement. WESH highlighted that it had won at 11 p.m. for eight of the last 11 ratings periods.

WFTV also highlighted its strength in reaching all viewers 18 and older. At 6 p.m., for instance, WFTV averaged 111,791 viewers to WESH’s 71,536. They were followed by WKMG-Channel 6 with 55,193 and WOFL with 18,955.

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