What was unusual was the coverage of Donald Trump -- with more than twice as much airtime as Hillary Clinton -- both unprecedented free publicity and unprecedented scrutiny. With ABC's Tom Llamas in the lead, this election was presented as a contest of personalities rather than of public policy issues.

This was truly a lame-duck year for the Obama Administration, with the least coverage of US foreign policy in the 29-year history of this database, the least on the economy, and the third-least on federal domestic policy. The DC bureaus at ABC and NBC have never received less airtime.

The major global datelines of the year were in the Middle East: Aleppo was reconquered by Syrian government forces; and Iraqi government forces massed to try to reconquer Mosul. CBS treated both as major stories, unlike ABC, which barely mentioned either. Domestically, the ghastly massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando was the most newsworthy crime.

NBC, as is its habit, shilled for its sports division during the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Brazil, mosquitoes spread a virus that caused birth defects and CBS in-house physician Jon LaPook led coverage.

Most Newsworthy Man of the Year and Woman of the Year are no-brainers: the aforesaid Trump and Clinton, naturally.