Houston Evening, Late News Viewing -11%

Evening and late news viewing in No. 10 DMA Houston was down 11% from a year ago, due in large part to a 24% drop in English-language viewing at 10 p.m., according to a TVNewsCheck analysis of Nielsen’s count of weekday viewers aged 25 to 54 of news in the Central Time slots of 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. during the May sweeps.

Houston being a heavily Hispanic market, it should be no surprise that the news leader in the two time periods in which it competes (5 and 10 o’clock) is Univision’s KXLN. It beat its English-language rivals by 3,000 viewers at 5 and by 28,000 at 10.

There was no change in rank among English-language newscasts at 5 p.m., although the race has tightened. No. 1 is ABC’s KTRK (-3%); CBS’s KHOU (+67%) runs a close second; while NBC’s KPRC (+32%) is a contender in third place. Fox’s KRIV (-6%) remains fourth while and CW affiliate KIAH (-8%) trails.

The Big 3 networks — CBS, ABC and NBC — are Houston’s only 6 p.m. newscasters. Not much has changed in a year. KTRK (+2%) remains first followed by KPRC (flat) and KHOU (-3%).

The 9 p.m. race is more or less a romp for KRIV (-11%), as it was last year, followed by KIAH (+11%). There are no other broadcast competitors.

Houston viewers have created quite a shakeup at 10 p.m. First place this May went to KPRC (+4%) because last year’s No. 1, KTRK dropped 39% and landed in a tie for second with KHOU (-29%). 

Among Spanish-language newscasts, Univision’s KXLN is No. 1 at 5 o’clock, even though it was down 30%, followed by Telemundo’s KTMD (-13%). (Azteca’s KYAZ programs a 5 p.m. newscast, but it is not a factor.)

At 10 p.m., KXLN remained in first place (-18%); KTMD was second (-17%), with KYAZ’s new newscast a very distant third.