How big your pie looks depends on how big a plate you're using.
When Nielsen sliced up ratings for local television news for this month (ending July 29) the station that usually winds up on top - KCRA 3 - looked best by some basic measures, though there were other stations and other ways to claim honors.
Nielsen measurements of total households watching morning, evening and late newscasts all put KCRA 3 on top. It should be noted, however, that local news ratings - just like newspaper circulations - have generally declined in recent years.
The most households - 88,422 - watched the station's 5 p.m. show, KCRA 3 Reports, followed by the 6 p.m. show, with 77,075. CBS 13 News at 5 p.m. was next in the evening slot, with 46,310 households.
KXTV 10's 6 p.m. show was next.
KCRA's 11 p.m. newscast also topped the late news shows, with 70,393 households, followed by KOVR 13's 10 p.m. show, Fox 40's 10 p.m. show and KXTV 10's 11 p.m. show.
KQCA 58 - the sister show that broadcasts KCRA news at 10 p.m. - brought up the rear among late shows. KCRA, however, noted that it was the fastest-growing show while many others, including KCRA's 11 p.m. show, had lost viewers. That's where choosing your pie plate comes in.
KUVS 19, Univision's Spanish-language news at 6 p.m., said it matched KCRA at 6 p.m. among adults 18-49.
That however, is just a partial demographic and didn't represent a comparison with KCRA's most popular broadcast. Another case of putting the pie on a smaller plate.
It also represents a comparison between two groups that may not overlap much: households watching news broadcast in Spanish and households watching news in English.
