WWL‘s 38-year winning streak has come to an end.
Fox affiliate WVUE brought in a 7.6 weekday rating in May for its 10 p.m. newscast, beating CBS affiliate WWL’s which got a 7.03. WDSU (NBC) had a 5.45 and WGNO (ABC) got a .94.
“This is a tremendous achievement for the entire station,” said WVUE vp and GM Tim Ingram.
“Just for perspective, the last time a WWL newscast had fewer viewers than another local TV station, Jimmy Carter was president, John Paul II was pope, “Annie Hall” beat “Star Wars” at the Oscars, and “Dallas,” “Taxi” and “Diff’rent Strokes” were making their prime-time debuts,” writes the Times-Picayune.
While the WVUE victory is a milestone, it does not officially end the era of WWL’s overall ratings supremacy. The CBS affiliate won every other time slot in which they aired a newscast during the May sweeps period.
“We won the (May) book,” WWL News Director Keith Esparros said Thursday. “There is no question about that. We’re still the dominant, No. 1-rated television station in town.”
That is particularly true in the morning, where Esparros said WWL is often “more than twice the rating of our competition” on WDSU and WVUE.
And yet, the end of WWL’s winning streak — which dates to 1978 — is a noteworthy one.
Each ratings point represents 1 percent of the 633,140 TV Households in the New Orleans market (DMA 51)