Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

May sweeps are over and Channel 3 News at 11 pm with Kris Pickel, Russ Mitchell and Betsy Kling was Cleveland's #1 newscast in the all important money demo, adults 25-54, Monday through Sunday, despite a lackluster NBC Prime time lineup. The weeknight 11 pm is directed by your blogger Frank Macek and produced by Amanda Subler and Caitlin Kollar. The same was true for Channel 3 News Today beginning at 4:30 a.m. weekdays with Chris Tye, Erin Kennedy and Hollie Strano. Thanks to all our viewers in Northeast Ohio for making Channel 3 News their first choice for news when it comes to starting and ending their day. Click on our latest promo below to watch:

April not only brings April Showers, but also May Sweeps which start on Thursday. This year, the month long period will run from Thursday, April 23rd, through Wednesday, May 20th, thanks in part to an early Memorial Day holiday on Monday, May 25th. Nielsen likes to wrap up the survey period prior to the holiday since viewing generally decreases over the long weekend with people doing other activities and watching less television - in theory and a normal economy. In fact, May 21st through May 27th is a "non reported" week by Nielsen terminology. May sweeps will be the last analog book for the remaining stations who will finally convert to all digital on June 12th, including all those in the Cleveland market.

We have made it through another May Sweeps period which officially ends tonight. It will be interesting to see how the ratings tally after a rather unusual month where some of the most anticipated ratings winners did poorly, while others did better than expected. Fox will win the prime time lineup thanks to "American Idol." NBC, CBS and ABC all had some successes and some failures throughout the month. We'll comment on these as the final numbers come out. As far as news goes in the Cleveland market, not many surprises are going to be had this month. WKYC will retain its number one position at 11 pm... a second place finish at 6 pm.. and nice growth in the morning news block between 5 and 7 am. The next book will come in July.