2010 April Nielsen TV Ratings For Chicago

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: ABC's star of this show : In ratings contest, no topping WLS-Channel 7's 10 p.m. newscast : April 30, 2010 : BY LEWIS LAZARE | Sun-Times Columnist : : In the April Nielsen TV ratings book released Thursday, WLS-Channel 7's top-ranked 10 p.m. newscast showed no sign of loosening its grip on viewers. : The station's late newscast actually improved its performance -- scoring a 9.8 rating Monday through Friday at 10 p.m., compared to a 9.2 a year ago. As has typically been the case with the WLS late news product, viewers proactively switch stations to get to it: The station's 10 p.m. lead-in rating Monday through Friday was just a 6.2 in April. : The hourlong 9 p.m. newscasts on Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 and Tribune Co.-owned WGN-Channel 9 took the hardest hits in the April book. : Despite continued efforts to revamp and improve its 9 p.m. offering, WFLD saw its hourlong newscast slide to a 2.6 rating from a 3.3 a year ago. : The dip came even with some powerhouse prime-time programming on offer, including "American Idol" and "Glee," to draw viewers to WFLD. Though it is comfortably ahead of direct competitor WFLD at 9 p.m., WGN's 9 p.m. newscast also took a hit, dropping to a 4.4 rating from a 5.4 a year ago. Insiders at WGN speculate that the strong prime-time programming on competing stations this season has negatively impacted the station's 9 p.m. newscast. : Despite a strong 10 p.m. lead-in rating of 7.6, WBBM-Channel 2's newscast has slipped back into third place overall Monday through Friday. That suggests the station's ongoing efforts to produce a distinctively different newscast and encourage sampling aren't bringing in an especially large contingent of new loyal viewers. The station's 10 p.m. news, with a 4.8 rating in the April book, did show a modest improvement over last year's 4.4. : But WBBM's improvement certainly wasn't good enough to eclipse No. 2-ranked WMAQ-Channel 5, which seems to have rebounded nicely from the big ratings hit it took during the disastrous prime-time Jay Leno talkfest experiment on NBC. WMAQ's 10 p.m. newscast pulled a 5.9 rating, down slightly from its 6.1 a year ago. : : ---------------------------------- : NIELSEN APRIL LATE NEWS RATINGS (Monday - Friday) : Station April '10 April '09 Lead-in Newscast : WLS-Ch. 7 6.2 9.8 9.2 : WMAQ-Ch. 5 4.8 5.9 6.1 : WBBM-Ch. 2 7.6 4.8 4.4 : WGN-Ch. 9 2.4 4.4 5.4 : WFLD-Ch. 32 6.7 2.6 3.3

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