This article, Local News, Shameful Tactics, shows everything that’s wrong with “sweeps week.”
If I was a watcher of this station, I would have immediately written them a letter telling them I would never watch their station ever again. I would determine what local merchants were advertising on their station and write them as well, advising them to pull all advertising. In this case, the station was WABC, which is directly owned by the network, so sending a letter to the network would have been a duplicate effort.
This effort to boost ratings would backfire big time with me, and with permanent consequences. I can’t tell you how enraged I am over this. I am glad the only ABC I watch is Monday Night Football, and I am considering stopping that because of this incident.
A major trust was broken. I hope they lose big time over it.