Everybody Wins (or Loses) in Orlando
The May TV ratings reflect that Orlando is far from being a one-station town for local news. Central Florida viewers do shop around.
WFTV-Channel 9 returned to No. 1 at 11 p.m. in a tight race for viewers in the 25-to-54 age group, which is most important to news advertisers.
But WESH-Channel 2 won the 5 p.m. news hour, WOFL-Channel 35 dominated the 10 p.m. hour and WKMG-Channel 6 was tops at noon. The May ratings period ended Wednesday.
WFTV was the favorite destination for early morning news. And WFTV continued to win the 6 p.m. half-hour in a close contest with WESH. The numbers in this story focus on the 25-to-54 age group, unless otherwise noted.
At 6 p.m., WFTV averaged 29,900 viewers to WESH's 27,400, WOFL's 22,100 and WKMG's 10,600. But WESH highlighted that it was reaching more 25-to-54 viewers than WFTV from 5 to 6:30 p.m., which has long been a stronghold for WFTV. Both WESH and WOFL were ahead of WFTV at 5 p.m.
At 11 p.m. Monday-Friday, WFTV averaged 29,500 viewers to WKMG's 26,000, WESH's 24,700 and WOFL's 17,200. When the ratings are figured Monday through Sunday, WESH moves into second place.
At 10 p.m. Monday-Friday, WOFL averaged 24,000 viewers. It was far ahead of the WESH news on sister station WKCF-Channel 18 (nearly 8,900 viewers) and WFTV news on sister station WRDQ-Channel 27 (with 7,000).
WOFL certainly got a boost from the Fox prime-time lineup, which was most popular with the 25-to-54 age group. But the CBS schedule on WKMG reached the most total viewers in May, followed closely the ABC lineup on WFTV. The Fox lineup was third. WESH received spotty help from NBC, with "The Voice" a notable exception.
The most-watched series in Orlando for the month were "NCIS" and "The Big Bang Theory"(both on CBS), the Monday and Tuesday editions of "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC and the Thursday edition of "American Idol" on Fox.
The favorite series with the 25-to-54 group were "The Big Bang Theory," "Two and a Half Men" on CBS, the Thursday and Wednesday editions of "Idol" and "NCIS."
In household reach, WFTV remained stronger than the competition in many time slots. At 6 p.m., for instance, WFTV was seen in 101,900 homes to WESH's 80,000, WOFL's 33,000 and WKMG's 28,000.
But the 25-to-54 age group is the ballgame these days. And there were many winners in May.