Cubs' joy delivers top ratings to NBC 5

NBC 5 (October 13, 2015)

NBC 5 (October 13, 2015)

Chicagoans celebrated the Cubs division series-clinching win Tuesday night by turning to television, of course.

Local news viewership peaked at 10 p.m., with more than 830,572 households in the Chicago area tuned to one of the four late newscasts covering the jubilant aftermath of the historic victory at Wrigley Field, according to Nielsen figures.

NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 led with an 8.2 rating and 13.2 share at 10 p.m., followed by ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 with a 7.6 rating and 12.3 share, CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 with a 3.6 rating and 5.7 share, and Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9 with a 2.6 rating and 4.2 share. One rating point represents 34,752 households; share is percent of sets in use.

NBC 5’s late-news victory was more pronounced among viewers between 25 and 54, the advertiser-coveted demographic. At 10 p.m. NBC 5 scored a 4.6 rating in the adult demo, followed by ABC 7’s 2.7 rating, CBS 2’s 1.2 rating and WGN’s 0.8 rating.

NBC 5’s lead-in to the news was the season premiere of the NBC series “Chicago Fire.”

While NBC 5, ABC 7 and WGN preempted their primetime programming until 8 p.m., CBS 2 took heat for its decision not to broadcast wall-to-wall coverage immediately after the Cubs victory. Instead the station directed viewers to its live streaming online and broke in to the CBS series “NCIS” intermittently.

As usual Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 was pretty much a non-factor. At 9 p.m. Fox 32 had a 1.8 rating and 2.7 share, compared with WGN’s 4.4 rating and 6.6 share.