My first job in TV news was a daily pressure-cooker; producing the 6 p.m. news in the early 1990s at WIFR-TV, the CBS affiliate in Rockford. Despite furious script typing, crunch-time video editing and racing every day to meet an immovable deadline (“Good evening, this is the 6:07 news?”), I didn’t like it that my hard-fought newscast was regularly getting beat in the ratings by competing newscasts on the other network affiliates in town and by re-runs of “Hee Haw” on the local independent station.
Yes, I was getting beat by “Hee Haw” and I wasn’t exactly “Hee Happy” about it.
That’s what I first thought of after reading a recent blog post from veteran Chicago media reporter Robert Feder about WGN-TV’s debut 10 p.m. newscast jumping ahead of CBS 2, in the ratings in only its first week on the air. More late local news viewers checked out channel 9’s newscast, which didn’t even exist a month ago, instead of watching a decades-old newscast on channel 2. You know, the show once billed as “The Ten O’clock News” featuring the most iconic Chicago TV news anchor team of all time — Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson. Ouch. Times have changed.
So what’s the reason for WGN’s sudden surge at 10? Many are pointing to the “Skilling factor.” Basically, when mega-popular meteorologist Tom Skilling talks, people listen. Even though Skilling’s atmospheric insights are a prominent part of this new newscast, it has to be more than his multi-colored radar blobs and five-day forecasts that are (forgive me) “Skilling it,” right?
So what highly scientific way can we measure a weathercaster’s impact on local TV news ratings? Should we compare temperature prediction accuracy or who was closest to forecasting the actual snowfall inch totals for our last blizzard? Nah, forget all that. We’re going with Twitter followers.
Here’s the first-ever Chicago “Tweet-o-meter” measuring the total number of Twitter followers for some of our most popular weather experts. As of this writing:
Tom Skilling WGN 9, @Skilling: 55.4K
Cheryl Scott ABC 7, @CherylScottWX 32.4K
Paul Konrad WGN 9, @PaulKonrad: 22.4K
Jerry Taft ABC 7, @jerrytaft: 21.5K
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Megan Glaros CBS 2, @MeganGlaros: 12.6K
Tracy Butler ABC 7, @TracyButlerABC7: 10.4K
Tammie Souza, FOX 32, @TammieSouza: 9,257
Ed Curran CBS2, @EdCurran: 8,758
Alicia Roman NBC 5, @AliciaRomanNBC: 6,954
Demetrius Ivory WGN 9, @DIvory_WGN: 6,373
Phil Schwarz ABC 7, @SchwarzABC7: 5,777
Andy Avalos NBC 5, @NBCAndyAvalos: 4,776
Tim McGill WGN 9, @WGNWeatherGuy: 2,907
Bill Bellis FOX 32, @BillBellis: 1,966
Brant Miller NBC 5, @BrantMillerNBC: 1,753
Mark Strehl FOX 32, @MarkStrehlWx: 1,344
Mary Kay Kleist CBS 2, @MaryKayCBS2: 1,289
Steve Baskerville CBS 2, @BaskervilleCBS2: 804
Pete Sack NBC5, @PeteSackweather: 582
Yes, Skilling is the runaway leader, but obviously this scale has nothing to do with how well our TV meteorologists do their jobs. So how does the weather expert “Tweet-o-meter” stack up against the latest local 10 p.m. TV news ratings for all households, also reported by Feder
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ABC 7: 7.1 rating; 12.0 share
NBC 5: 6.2 rating; 10.5 share
WGN 9: 2.9 rating; 4.9 share
CBS 2: 2.5 rating; 4.3 share
With WGN being the newbie in this category, it could pull away from struggling CBS 2 unless it harnesses some Megan Glaros Twitter magic. But cheer up CBS 2, at least you’re beating Hee Haw on the “Tweet-o-meter.”
@heehaw: 679 followers
Eric Scott is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.