This, remember, is all in Chicago, with a nationwide reputation as a very good news town. Here, Ted Koppel's "Nightline" routinely beats Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show."
[...]
Probably the most striking fact in this set of statistics is the illustration of a complaint that television networks have been making for years: that we in the media write way too much about cable news.
At 6 p.m. weekdays in the Chicago area, the audience for all the national cable news programs combined can't equal the viewership of PBS' stodgy old "NewsHour." Way up ahead, like an Olympic miler facing a Sunday jogger, are the numbers that the local news stations draw at the same time, or that the national newscasts do in the preceding half-hour.
The same is true at 7 p.m., where [PBS] WTTW-Ch. 11's newsmagazine "Chicago Tonight" not only kicks Bill O'Reilly's booty but that of all the national cable channels combined.
The most popular evening cable program is O'Reilly's hour of argument at 7 p.m., with 36,250 average viewers over the last four major sweeps months. By contrast, the least popular broadcast news program after 6 p.m. is WMAQ-Ch. 5's "NBC 5 Chicago News at 6," with 186,000 viewers.
Most popular cable show: 36,250 viewers. Least popular broadcast show: 186,000 viewers.
Note to O'Reilly: Shut up!
For confused readers on the east and west coasts — Chicago is Central Time, meaning that our eleven o'clock news is shown at ten. Adjust all showtimes accordingly.
