WPTV’s Big Olympic Numbers

The Palm Beach Post notes that WPTV ranked No.1 station in the country for the Beijing Olympics with an 8.0 rating 0.2 ratings points ahead of KFOR-Oklahoma City and KSL-Salt Lake City which tied for number 2.

Then from 11 to 11:15pm on Saturday when Michael Phelps competed for his 8th gold medal WPTV had 50 share! As in 50% of Palm Beach and Ft. Pierce counties were tuned to Channel 5.

Unfortunately there may not be much fire in the “money demo”. The article quoted WPTV’s programming director Bernadette O’Grady who attributed the big ratings to large number of “elderly retirees”, “kids at home” and people home from work due to Tropical Storm Fay.

At any rate though No. 1 in the nation and half of your viewing area paying attention to you is not bad. No station would turn that down regardless of demo numbers, if only for bragging rights. Besides, those “elderly retirees” got all the cash stash anyway