Boston Evening, Late News Viewing -23%

No one should be surprised that news viewing fell in Boston (DMA No. 7) a year after a May 2013 sweep crammed with news of the fallout from the Boston Marathon bombing. Overall, evening and latenight news viewing fell 23%, with each time period posting double-digit drops

Almost every station saw declines, according to a TVNewsCheck analysis of Nielsen’s count of weekday viewers aged 25 to 54 of news at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Some of the market’s time period losses are the biggest among the top 10 markets, notably at 11 p.m. which dived 28%, the largest time period drop in the study.

At 5 o’clock, NBC’s WHDH (-27%) took the lead away from ABC’s WCVB (-37%). CBS’s WBZ (-14%) came in third, followed by Fox’s WFXT which was flat.

WHDH (also flat) pulled off a similar coup at 6 p.m. against 2013 leader WCVB (-32%) simply by standing still. WBZ (-13%) and WFXT (-5%) landed in a tie for third.

Three stations compete at 10 o’clock: WFXT (-27%) was first; CW affiliate WLVI (15,000, -12%) came in second, followed by independent WSBK (-18%) with a program provided by WBZ,

Some of Boston’s biggest percentage drops showed up in the 11 p.m. race. Fourth-place WBZ, which had been tied for second in 2013, fell 38%. WHDH again stole a march by having the smallest drop in the time period, 3%, keeping it in first. May 2013 leader WCVB tumbled 26% to second place. WFTX (-33%) and WBZ (-38%), which had been tied for second place a year earlier, fell to third and fourth places, respectively.

Among Spanish-language stations at 6 p.m., the two contenders swapped places since last May. WNEU (Telemundo) posted a 100% gain to land the top spot, edging out Univision’s WUNI, which tumbled 73% from last year.

The one Spanish-language entry at 11, WUNI, was down 50%.