From Friday’s Boston Globe:

Oprah’s goodbye tour lifts WCVB

From Friday’s Boston Herald:

Oprah Winfrey’s swan song fails to lift Ch. 5

Despite the dueling headlines, though, the ledes were oddly similar.

Globe lede:

Oprah Winfrey’s month of farewell episodes boosted overall ratings of the signature early evening news broadcast that follows her show on WCVB-TV (Channel 5), but it wasn’t enough to stem losses in some key demographics that advertisers covet.

Herald lede:

Oprah’s long goodbye had been touted for months, but the Queen of Talk’s farewell didn’t help WCVB-TV Channel 5’s evening news ratings in the two key age groups during the May ratings “sweeps.”

(For the record, both pieces also feature a mind-numbing array of TV ratings numbers that only a media buyer could love.)

Conclusion: Who the hell knows?