Ratings

WABC took the prize as most-watched station in New York. The just-concluded May sweeps give Channel 7 wins across virtually all dayparts, winning in households and other key demographics.

Eyewitness News at 11:00, led by Bill Ritter and Sade Baderinwa, with meteorologist Lee Goldberg and sports anchor Rob Powers, scored a 6.1 household rating, the highest for a major sweep in the last three years.

The 4 p.m. newscast was the only such broadcast that failed to produce a victory for Channel 7, and that can be traced to the success of Judge Judy on WCBS.

Thanks to that monster lead-in, WCBS declared itself a winner at 5 p.m. among households and total viewers.

WCBS says it’s the station’s first sweeps win since 1982.

“It is very gratifying to get such an incredible report card.  Achieving significant ratings growth in every daypart makes it clear that we are getting a great team effort from the best local news team in the business and more and more people across the tri-state area are appreciating the quality coverage that we are providing every day,” said Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations, and president and general manager, WCBS-TV.

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American Idol wrapped up season 11 with another star-studded event, culminating with Phillip Phillips being crowned champion.

Rewind a week, and American Idol had its best showing of the season in the New York prime time ratings.

Idol, which trimmed its field to the final two singers, nailed down the top two positions for the week.

Taking number one, Idol‘s two-hour performance on WNYW/Channel 5, according to Nielsen. The show generated an estimated 1.5 million viewers with a 7.6 rating. The penultimate results night yielded a number two with 1.2 million fans and a 6.4 rating.

Idol‘s rating rival, Dancing With The Stars grabbed hold of the next two slots for the week.

The 90-minute Dancing competition had a number-three finish on WABC (1.1 million/6.0), while elimination night settled for fourth (1 million/5.2).

America’s Got Talent returned for a new season amid the fanfare of new judge Howard Stern. The NBC summer series landed in seventh place (836,000/4.3). The second night also made the Top 10, at number eight (829,000/4.2).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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As the adage goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That could have been written about WLTW/Lite FM and its ratings prowess.

Once again, the Clear Channel heavyweight was tops on the overall PPM Arbitron ratings for April by maintaining a 7.5 rating for the second straight month.

WCBS-FM, which last week announced programmer Brian Thomas is leaving to run the CBS Radio cluster in Tampa, kept its number two position by posting a slight gain to 6.4.

The number three and four stations are familiar dwellers as well. Clear Channel sister stations WHTZ/Z100 was third with a .4 boost to 5.6. WKTU marked time at fourth by again registering a 4.7.

It was a strong finish for KISS FM/WRKS, jumping to fifth place with a 4.0. Last month, ESPN/Disney took over the Emmis’ 98.7 FM frequency.

More from the monthly radio ratings after the jump.

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The countdown is on until the season finales. And it was another successful week for ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, topping the Nielsen prime time ratings in New York.

The show had an estimated 1.2 million viewers and a 6.3 rating for its two-hour Monday night broadcast. However, elimination night settled for a fourth-place finish (1.1 million/5.6).

As for Fox’s singing competition, the two installments of American Idol tied for second place. The episodes averaged more than 1.1 million WNYW viewers and a 5.9 rating.

However, NBC’s The Voice, also ending to the finish line, hasn’t gained the same popularity for season two. The performance show landed at 26th (529,000/2.7). The results edition fared better in a tie for 19th (626,000/3.2).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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As the calendar moves to May, that means it’s the final weeks of TV’s regular season. To put it another way, time is drawing near until the season finales for ABC’s Dancing With The Stars and Fox’s American Idol.

The real competition has been in the ratings between the two shows. In the weekly New York prime time numbers, according to Nielsen, it’s Dancing that won the week. The Monday night, two-hour performances had an estimated 1.4 million WABC viewers with a 7.3 rating.

Dancing held its audience for the Tuesday elimination program, with a number-two translating to 1.2 million viewers and a 6.2.

At Fox, Idol “struggled” to the next two slots for the week. It’s two-hour singing showcase came in third with 1.1 million viewers tuned to WNYW and a 5.7. The results show had a shade under 1.1 million people watching and a 5.6.

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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The New York Rangers are poised for a decisive seventh game tomorrow night in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals with the Ottawa Senators.

And if Game 6 is any indication, it could a record setter.

Monday night’s action on MSG was the highest-rated Rangers game since the Eastern Semis on May 6, 1997.

Through the first six games of the first round series, MSG Network’s coverage is averaging a 3.52 HH rating. That’s up 52 percent from the Rangers last six game playoff appearance–2008-09. (Games 2 and 6 were telecast by NBC, all others were broadcast by MSG.)

Back to this season, Game 6 also marked wins for MSG in two key demographics.  The game garnered a 3.38 rating in the pivotal Male 25 to 54 group.  That helped the game become the highest-rated prime time program among broadcast and cable networks in New York.  Game 6 also scored well with Adults 25 to 54, enough to win the evening among cable sports networks.

Game 7 is tomorrow night at the Garden at 7 on MSG. “Game Night” starts an hour prior to the puck drop.

There is a definite battle brewing each week between ABC’s Dancing With The Stars and Fox’s American Idol. While the shows don’t compete against each other, they do face-off in the weekly prime time ratings. In New York this season, the slight nod has gone to Dancing.

DWTS generated an estimated 1.3 million WABC viewers for its two-hour broadcast and a 6.9 rating, equaling a first-place result, according to Nielsen.

Idol‘s two-hour night of singing had a number-two showing on WNYW with 1.2 million and a 6.4 rating.

It’s back to Dancing for number three, as the elimination episode tallied 1.1 million viewers and a 6.0. As for the Idol “cut-down” show, it landed in a fourth-place tie (1 million/5.4).

Joining American Idol at number four was the venerable 60 Minutes.

There’s more from the Top 10 after the jump.

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The weekly ratings battle between American Idol and Dancing With The Stars gave neither program an outright victory. Two-hour editions of Dancing and Idol each were number one for the week, according to Nielsen.

The Dancing and Idol telecasts had an estimated 1.3 million viewers and a 6.7 rating on WABC and WNYW, respectively.

Elimination night proved slightly more successful for Idol, which came in third (1.1 million/6.0). The evening featured the shocking result of Jessica Sanchez being the lowest vote-getter.

As for the Dancing, the results show also registered 1.1 million viewers, but had a 5.6 rating.

NBC’s The Voice just missed the Top 10 with a tie for number 11 (642,000/3.3). It was lumped with Fox’s musical Glee (639,000/3.3).

ABC’s sitcom Modern Family was fifth (1 million/5.1), while the 60 Minutes tribute to Mike Wallace was number six (938,000/4.8).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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Chalk up another victory for WLTW/Lite FM. The Adult Contemporary powerhouse ranked first again in the monthly PPM Arbitron ratings.

WLTW kept its huge audience with a 7.5 rating, a .2 increase from the previous month.

Top competitor WCBS-FM remained a consistent number two in the overall ratings for March. The Classic Hits station, though, lost .3 for the month to 6.3.

Clear Channel’s Z100/WHTZ held third place, and maintained a 5.2 rating for the second straight survey. Sister station WKTU got a .3 boost to 4.7 for March.

Popular Tropical station WSKQ has a slight increase to 3.9. The city’s other Spanish formatted station, WXNY, registered a 3.5 again.

WRKS/KISS FM made a slight gain to 3.8, while Classic Rocker WAXQ slipped to a 3.8.

More from the monthly ratings after the jump

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Make it another prime time ratings victory for ABC’s Dancing With The Stars in New York. In the battle with American Idol on Fox, Dancing once again took the top two positions, according to Nielsen.

The two-hour Dancing was number one with an estimated 1.3 million WABC viewers and a 7.0 rating. Elimination night had a second-place finish (1.2 million/6.3). An additional hour of Dancing With The Stars placed sixth (802,000/4.1).

As for Idol, it settled for number three for Wednesday’s show (1.1 million/6.0) and a fourth-place finish for Thursday’s results (1 million/5.2).

NBC’s version, The Voice, cracked the Top 10, tying for ninth (723,000/3.7).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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