Cheryl Burton, Ron Magers and Kathy Brock

Longtime market leader ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 was back on top of the late-news ratings in July after NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 won the key adult demographics by a slender margin in May.

Nielsen numbers obtained through independent sources Thursday initially showed ABC 7 ahead at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. weekdays in overall households and among viewers between 25 and 54 — the prized demo for advertisers. Figures later provided by NBC 5, however, showed the 10 p.m. race was a tie for first place in the adult demo.

In any case, NBC 5 remained highly competitive, narrowing the gap with ABC 7 in every time period from one year ago.

Jorge Barbosa and Erika Maldonado

The increasing potency of Hispanic viewership was evident in the strong performance by WGBO-Channel 66. Among adults between 25 and 54 and between 18 and 49 the Univision Spanish-language station finished in second place at 5 p.m. and third place at 10 p.m.

It’s a validation for the Univision Chicago anchor team of Jorge Barbosa and Erika Maldonado, who’ve been on a roll since Maldonado, a reporter at the station since 2004, was promoted to anchor alongside 20-year veteran Barbosa.

Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9 again swept the adult demos for its “must watch" WGN Morning News and widened its commanding lead in households and demos at 9 p.m. weekdays over Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32.

The biggest loser was CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2, where ratings were down substantially from last year in every news time period. Simply put, the station appears to be in free fall.

Consider this: Not one of CBS 2’s newscasts from morning to night exceeded a 0.6 percent rating among viewers between 25 and 54. Some barely registered with a 0.1 rating. Lower than that and you’re invisible.