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WRAL-TV Smashes The Competition in February Ratings Book
FOX50 Brings Key Victories As Well

WRAL-TV absolutely dominated the Triangle market during the February Sweeps period, and sister station WRAZ-TV brought in some solid numbers as well. WRAL-TV made national news with its numbers; its 6pm newscast is the fourth highest rated newscast in America, its 5pm newscast is also fourth highest in America for its time slot, and the 5:30pm news on WRAL-TV ranks third in the country.

WRAL-TV showed gains across the board, winning many dayparts. WRAL's Noon News won its time period (12-1pm) and showed an astounding 60% increase in ratings from a year ago. WRAL won all local news time periods (5-6am, 5-5:30pm, 5:30-6pm, 6-6:30pm) and also took first in the 11pm news half-hour, increasing 45% in ratings year-to-year and 46% in share from year-to-year. WRAZ-TV won the 10pm newscast half-hour over competitor WLFL with a 32% year to year increase in ratings.

Understanding Sweeps:
Rating - percentage of the total TV universe during an average minute
Share - percentage of the people actually watching television during an average minute
Sweeps - four periods during the year when Nielsen Media Research measures viewership for both households & demographics. They occur in February, May, July & November.

Both stations shared the top spots in primetime ratings (8-11pm for WRAL-TV, 8-10pm for FOX50). In the Adults 25-54 demographic in primetime, WRAL-TV ranked first with a 7.1 rating, and FOX50 took second with a 5.7 rating. FOX50 won the Adults 18-49 demographic in primetime with a 6.2 rating, and WRAL-TV came in second with a 6.0 rating.

Among Adults 25-54 WRAL-TV's network, CBS, held four of the top ten primetime regular programming slots in the Triangle market (#1 CSI, #2 Everybody Loves Raymond, #4 Survivor, #10 CSI: Miami), and WRAZ-TV's network, FOX, held two of the top ten (#5 Joe Millionaire, #7 American Idol). In primetime special rankings, WRAL snagged three of the top five spots with two ACC Basketball slots and the Grammy Awards. FOX50 took another one of the top five spots with the Joe Millionaire Special coming in fourth.

Among the Adults 18-49 demographic FOX50 had four of the top 10 programs (#1 Joe Millionaire, #3 American Idol Tuesday, #4 The Simpson, #10 American Idol Wednesdays), and WRAL had three (#2 CSI, #5 Survivor: Amazon and #7 Everybody Loves Raymond).


POSTED: March 28, 2003