WDIV-TV Local 4 News February Ratings Crush Competition

DETROIT, March 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WDIV-TV Local 4 News won at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. during the February 2011 Nielsen ratings period in the Detroit television market.  In addition, Local 4 News Morning at 6 a.m. ratings continued to grow, finishing second in the market. Local 4 News is the only station to experience growth in every newscast in the key demographics of Women 25-54 and Adults 25-54.

Local 4 News Morning anchored by Guy Gordon, Rhonda Walker, meteorologist Andrew Humphrey, and traffic reporter Ashlee Baracy was #2 at 6 a.m., delivering a 3.7 Household Rating and a 14 Household Share, a 16% increase in ratings over the previous year.*  Local 4 News Morning demonstrated the most momentum of any morning newscast with the largest growth. In the coveted Women 25-54 demographic, Local 4 News Morning increased ratings an impressive 27% year-to-year* while garnering a 2.8 rating and an 17 share to easily beat WXYZ's 6 a.m. morning news (2.1 RTG, 13 SHR W25-54).  In Adults 25-54 ratings, Local 4 News Morning is up 25%.

Local 4 News at 4pm, anchored by Ruth Spencer, delivered a 5.2 Household Rating and 12 Household Share.  In the key demographics, Local 4 News at 4pm experienced tremendous growth year-to-year*, up 67% in Adults 25-54 with a 2.0 Household Rating and up 63% in Women 25-54 with a 2.6 Household Rating.

Local 4 News at 5pm won the time period, garnering a 6.7 rating with a 14 share to best both WXYZ (6.4 RTG, 13 SHR) and WJBK (5.1 RTG, 11 SHR) in household ratings. Local 4 News at 5pm was also tops in growth in the highly coveted Women 25-54 demographic (3.4 RTG, 14 SHR) and Adults 25-54 (2.7 RTG, 11 SHR) posting a year-to-year increase of 42% and 29%, respectively.  This marks the 8th month in a row that Local 4 News at 5pm has experienced ratings growth in these key demographics, while in the same time period WXYZ experienced significant decline, down 17% in Women 25-54 and 10% in Adults 25-54 over last year*.

In the 6-6:30 p.m. time period, Local 4 News at 6 p.m. was a bona fide #1 in household ratings as well as in all key demographics.  Local 4 News at 6 p.m. scored an 8.3 household rating and a 16 share (compared to WXYZ 6.6 RTG, 13 SHR and WJBK 4.4 RTG, 8 SHR).  WDIV also placed first in key demographics, up 41% in Women 25-54 (4.1 RTG, 15 SHR) and up 27% in Adults 25-54 (3.3 RTG, 12 SHR) over the previous year*.        

Local 4 News at 11 p.m., the long-standing stronghold of late news anchored by Carmen Harlan, Devin Scillian, Chuck Gaidica and Bernie Smilovitz, was #1 across the board dominating the time period with a 9.4 household rating and a 17 share (compared to WXYZ 7.0 RTG, 13 SHR, WJBK 10pm 7.4 RTG, 12 SHR, and WJBK 11pm M-F 4.2 RTG, 8 SHR). While Local 4 News at 11 p.m. experienced growth of 15% in Women 25-54 (5.4 RTG, 15 SHR) and 5% in Adults 25-54 (4.3 RTG, 13 SHR), WJBK's 10 p.m. late local newscast experienced declines, down 18% (5.0 RTG, 12 SHR W25-54) and down 15% (4.4 RTG, 11 SHR A25-54) in the key demographics, despite being the station of the NFL Super Bowl and American Idol.

In addition, other dayparts in the WDIV programming lineup garnered strong ratings.  At 10-11 a.m., The Ellen Degeneres Show was #1 (4.2 HH RTG, 13 SHR) with a year-to-year increase of 11% in household ratings, and continues to win in all key demographics.  Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy dominate the competition in the all important access time period of 7-8pm.  WDIV's 7-8pm game show hour averages a 9.5 rating with a 17 share in household ratings.  WDIV out-delivers all of its access competitors, topping WJBK by more than a 2 to 1 margin (3.9 HH RTG) and beating WXYZ (6.2 HH RTG) decisively by 53%.  The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was also #1 in the 11:35 p.m. time period with a 4.9 household rating and a 12 share.

In addition, Local 4's website, ClickOnDetroit.com, achieved record-breaking numbers for the month of February with 27.3 million page views, and an additional 3.5 million mobile page views.

*Year to year comparisons are based on Nielsen data from February 2011 compared with March 2010.  February 2010 ratings are a non-traditional comparison as the month included the Winter Olympics.

About Post-Newsweek Stations

Post-Newsweek Stations is owned by The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), a diversified education and media company.  Post-Newsweek Stations owns and operates six television stations:  WDIV, the NBC affiliate in Detroit; KPRC, the NBC affiliate in Houston; WPLG, the ABC affiliate in Miami; WKMG, the CBS affiliate in Orlando; KSAT, the ABC affiliate in San Antonio; and WJXT, an independent in Jacksonville.   Post-Newsweek also has ownership interests in LATV Networks and Internet Broadcasting (IB).

SOURCE WDIV-TV