Feder: As viewers vanish, Chicago's late-news ratings race ends in photo finish

Chicago's late-news viewership declined dramatically in May, resulting in a three-way tie for first place in a key audience measurement, according to Nielsen figures released Thursday.

ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, the perennial market leader, again finished first in total households at 10 p.m. Monday through Friday - although its ratings were off more than 20 percent from May 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was in effect.

Fallout from the controversial firing of popular sports anchor Mark Giangreco in March also may have contributed to ABC 7's year-to-year decline.

But the big story of the May sweep was the massive defection of viewers in the 25-to-54 age group, the demographic tied most closely to advertising revenue and the one followed most intensely by the industry.

In the adult demo at 10 p.m., ABC 7 was down 42 percent and NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 was down 30 percent, with both posting identical 1.4 ratings. Nexstar Media Group WGN-Channel 9 fell 37 percent to a 1.0 rating and CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 fell 50 percent to a 0.4 rating.

In the adult demo at 9 p.m., WGN was down 33 percent to a 1.4 rating, prompting the station to declare itself also a late-news winner (albeit at an earlier hour). Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 fell 50 percent to a 0.5 rating.

The unusually close finish had analysts at ABC 7, NBC 5 and WGN scrambling to discern who's on first.

Each station parsed its own version of victory.

In the end, all three were separated by only 203 viewers out of a total of 201,798 in the demo, according to Nielsen.

Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.