Two words...

... thank God.

November sweeps is finally over and I'm sure every promo department in the country is glad. Judging by the poll I did - most news departments continue to go into battle without a solid battle plan. Poor planning, poor stories and the fact that nearly every sweeps story has a "been there... done that" feel.

I used to love sweeps. I used to take sick pleasure in working like a mad man... coming up with ideas at 3am and in the end, coming up with some good spots and some good ratings. Maybe I'm getting too old for this crap. Maybe the situation is just different here.

I often wonder why many stations go into sweeps without a solid plan. But I think the answer is simple. News departments are at their best when they are doing daily news... breaking news... not news that's planned for weeks. Our news department is on their game during big, breaking stories. The station can really turn it on during big events. I should say we also had some decent sweeps stories as well.

I've worked for every kind of station. The one's that were well planned and actually had good material were the ones that won. KHOU in Houston was great... an amazing investigative unit, an A+ reporting staff and great management who understood what it took to win.

They also did what many stations cannot afford to do. They did a sweeps story, basically, every weeknight. It was called "Upclose" when I was there and it was a well produced, time invested piece that ran anywhere from 2-4+ minutes if needed. They have a reporter who only does work on Upclose. All the other reporters get to pitch in as well and work on stories that are not day of turns. Out of book they were interesting and teaseable... in book they were rocking. Not always... but they hit the mark day in and day out.

Not every station can do this. However, I do think just about every station in the country can do better in planning for sweeps.

Sure... today is a day to rest and lick your wounds.

Tomorrow should be your February planning meeting. Is your station already working on Feb?

Share your sweeps war stories below... along with any news stories that spiked ratings for you.

Lets go get em in Feb.