Ratings: WAPT-Channel 16 gains ground By Gary Pttut gBBM0BBlBBB com WLBT-Channel 3 remained the No. 1 news station in mid-Mississippi's latest ratings battle, but WAPT-Channel 16 made inroads in the scuffle for second place. Nielsen Media Research declared NBC affiliate WLBT first in news and in the overall, sign-on to sign-off (6 a.m. to 2 a.m.) ratings during the May period (actually. April 24-May 21).
WJTY-Channel 12 was first in prime time, posting six of the top 1 0 network shows. The CBS affiliate's noon newscast was No. 1 in that slot (WAPT airs All My Children). WAFT, the perennial No. 3 news station, this time dosed in on No.
2 WJTV. WAPT tied WJTV for the 6 p.m. weekday news slot. The ABC affiliate also tied WJTV at lOp.m Saturdays, and was in a virtual tie tor the- weekda (WJTV. 8 16; WAPT.
815). ardy! beat out WJTVs newscasts (412 to 39). The overall ratings: WLBT, 618; WJTV, 516; WAPT, 310; WDBD-Channel 40,13. Prime-time: WJTV. 714; WLBT.
612; WAPT. 48; WDBD. 24. Fox affiliate WDBD has no local newscasts. Elsewhere in the mid-Mississippi ratings: WJTV aired the top two daytime shows: The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful WJTV also turned in the No.
1 afternoon program: The Oprah Winfrey Show. HneW of Fortune (WAPT) was first in the highly prized "prime access' slot pm). NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leoo was the choke of late Of the network evening news i I The No. 1 prime-time network show was also No. 1 in the nation: CSon CBS (WJTV).
How ratings work TV stations measure viewership two ways: by ratings and by share. A rating measures the number of people with TV sets who are watch-ing a certain program; the rating is a percentage: If there are 100.000 households in a TV market and a show receives a 10 rating, that means that 10,000 households are watching it. A share, on the other hand, is the percentage of sets actually in use tuned to that program. If 50,000 of those 100,000 TV sets are in use when that program is on. then a 10 rating also means a 20 share (1020).
TV stations use ratings to sell advertising. They use shares to determine programming. The four ratings periods are February, May, Jury and November. The mid-Mississippi viewing area Rank Program Station Network Rating Share 1 csi 2 Friends 3 BR 4 CBS Movie 5 Law A Order SVU (tie) 5 Judging Amy (tie) 5 JAG (tie) 5 Law A Order (tie) 6 CSI Miami (tie) Mid-Mississippi 6 Survivor (lie) WJTV WLBT WLBT WJTV WLBT WJTV WJTV WLBT WJTV WJTV 1220 1118 1117 1018 917 917 917 917 915 915 National 1 CSI CBS 15 524 2 Amencan Idol Wed FOX 15 2724 2 Friends NBC 14 224 4 EP NBC 13 923 5 Amencan Idol Tue FOX 13 722 6 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 13020 7 Law A Order Wed NBC 12 120 8 WB A Grace NBC 11918 9 CSI Mam CBS 11 318 10 Survivor Amazon CBS 11018 mas-I.