Struggling Chicago Stations Continue Ratings Slide

With the November 2013 Nielsen sweeps ratings book just about wrapped up, it's apparent the huge upheaval in two Chicago news departments has not started to pay off.

The Chicago Business Journal says that at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 and a change in on-air anchor talent at the station isn't helping to pull the station out of its last-place — and dropping — standing among all the local late evening newscasts.

Additionally, CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2's flagship 10 p.m. newscast continues to show significant erosion in its ratings year over year.

Three weeks into the November ratings book, Channel 32's 9 p.m. newscast had dropped to a 1.5 rating from the 2.1 rating it had a year ago Monday through Friday. That puts the station a whopping 2.7 rating points behind Tribune Co.-owned WGN-Channel 9, which currently has a 4.2 rating, up from 4.0 a year ago. Channel 9's hour-long 9 p.m. newscast directly competes for viewers with the sinking Channel 32 newscast at 9 p.m.

Among the stations that air their flagship late newscasts at 10 p.m., so far all are showing slight increases in their November ratings year over year. ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7's late news continues to lead by a comfortable margin with a 8.7 rating. In second place is NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 with a 5.9, and then Channel 2 with a 4.6, down from a 5.5 a year ago.

The old spin line is that "change takes time to resonate with the viewers". And it's true. But, you never hope that after the changes are made your ratings go down even further. 

Stay tuned...