I was a bit surprised they didn't do more, but hey, I guess primetime is more important than the mayor and other races. What's interesting is how in Toronto on an election night, while a few stations choose to stay with regular programming and then opt for a one or two hour summary special (like City TV did during the last federal election) most of the CTVs, CBCs and Globals tend to do primetime specials with numbers as they come in and expert analysis of what it all means.

The American stations seem to reserve this for the battle for the White House. But the local races just get an in-between commercials update and back they go to regular network programming. 

And by the way, while I don't often pay attention to this kind of thing, the Buffalo Mayor's race had an astounding finish. The woman nominated by the Democrats was defeated by a guy who wasn't even technically on the ballot! Longtime Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown staged a "write my name in" campaign, a tactic that almost never works. Except for last night, when it did. What an amazing story that is.

The question might be does anyone watch primetime shows on Buffalo TV??  Just looking at the ratings for Tuesday primetime from ShowBuzz.  You have to wonder if anyone is watching OTA network prime time in some smaller US cities and markets..
Queen's on ABC had 1.159 million viewers age 2+.  ABC has 208 affiliates and owned stations. The total audience divided by the number of stations equals 5,573 viewers per station.  Now I know that this is not 
how ratings are measured. Large centres like New York, LA, Chicago, Miami etc. will have many many more viewers than 5,573.  However this also means that smaller markets and affiliates could have almost no audience for a show like Queen's and many others from Tuesday evening.  Even scarier for CW network.  Supergirl at 9pm, 402,000 viewers with 228 affiliates.   That's an average of 1,763 viewers per station!   Is anyone watching these shows off air in the smaller markets?
 
So you know- CBS has 243 owned and affiliated stations, NBC 235 and FOX clocks in with 245.

And indeed, they're already factored into the ratings. Generally, networks will look at not only the on-air numbers but three days to a week's worth of streaming to judge a show's real popularity. That's why some shows that appear marginal at best in the numbers get renewed, because they're attracting eyeballs on the web - and the right demos, too. 

From Broadcasting & Cable Magazine:

“Network buys are part of larger buys now — they buy the streaming service in addition to the network. The networks are rolling out shows more year-round, and the alternative networks are dropping shows 52 weeks a year.

”Broadcast network executives acknowledge their diminished role in the modern TV landscape, but insist the traditional season isn’t disappearing any time soon. “People like knowing that something special and new is coming,” said Bruce Helford, executive producer of ABC comedy The Conners. “Knowing a new season is coming is like knowing when the new cars come out. It allows people to gather their excitement and plan on watching something special.”

Why the Traditional TV Season Still (Mostly) Matters

RadioActive wrote:

From Broadcasting & Cable Magazine:

“Network buys are part of larger buys now — they buy the streaming service in addition to the network. The networks are rolling out shows more year-round, and the alternative networks are dropping shows 52 weeks a year.

”Broadcast network executives acknowledge their diminished role in the modern TV landscape, but insist the traditional season isn’t disappearing any time soon. “People like knowing that something special and new is coming,” said Bruce Helford, executive producer of ABC comedy The Conners. “Knowing a new season is coming is like knowing when the new cars come out. It allows people to gather their excitement and plan on watching something special.”

Why the Traditional TV Season Still (Mostly) Matters

All that is fine but not what I was talking about. The headline of this post was Will You Be Able To Watch Primetime Shows on Buffalo TV Tuesday?  My point was it looks like the question could be Does Anyone Watch Primetime Shows on Buffalo TV? 

It seems that many of the prime time programming could have next to no viewers in some of the smaller markets when comparing the viewer ratings and the number of affiliated stations running the program.  I know streaming, delayed viewing and all of the rest comes later and increases the national ratings.  So a show like Queen's on ABC had 1.159 million viewers when it aired on Tuesday according to the overnight ratings.  Over the next 4 or 5 days if we add in streaming and delayed viewing. That episode from Tuesday could have another 2 million viewers for example.  So the total in this case would be 3.159 viewers this week for Queen's which still better but still a brutally low rating for a network prime time show. 

The streaming viewership that came later is not on WKBW and doesn't help the local stations that much or any local advertising that ran originally.  The delayed viewing helps the station as long as it wasn't recorded specifically by the viewer on PVR with the ability to rifle through the commercials.  With Bell you have about 30 hours to still watch most shows even if you haven't recorded the program, but you can't skip through the commercials, or fast forward.  

Last edited by paterson1 (November 5, 2021 10:47 am)

I am sure Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News would be able to inform his readers as to how many viewers the local affiliates get during primetime.