PBS wins but not by a landslide

PBS, which normally shies away from ratings boasts, hustled out a news release earlier this week trumpeting boffo numbers for the Sunday premiere of Ken Burns’ “The War,” a heavily publicized miniseries focused on the U.S. home front during World War II. The network bragged of an “estimated gross audience” of 18.7 million viewers for two airings of the two-hour debut.

At first glance, that would seem to make “The War” an early winner in the fall season ratings derby.

But wait. It turns out that PBS was using a different yardstick than the one other broadcast networks commonly use. That high “gross audience” figure counted any viewer who watched at least six minutes of the program, a technique that invariably plumps the final tally. And the estimate was extrapolated from data in the 56 largest TV markets, not the entire nation, according to PBS spokeswoman Stephanie Aaronson.

The preliminary “total viewer” figure -- in other words, the average number of viewers who were watching at any given moment, and the statistic virtually all network officials cite when discussing ratings -- was in fact 7.3 million, Aaronson said.

That’s roughly double what PBS typically does with original programming. But it’s a far cry from some of the big headlines PBS grabbed with its initial release on “The War.”

During special events such as the Academy Awards, broadcast networks sometimes advertise a so-called reach figure, which tallies anyone who watches a program even for a few minutes.

But it’s a statistic that can be misleading. Univision drew complaints this month after claiming that its telecast of a Democratic forum drew 4.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched presidential debate so far. In fact, the average total-viewer figure was 2.1 million.

The total ratings picture for “The War” won’t be complete for weeks, Aaronson said, because PBS member stations often schedule things differently.

But filmmaker Burns has a good track record for the network. A cumulative audience of 38.9 million viewers watched at least part of his landmark 1990 documentary “The Civil War,” according to PBS. Again, that’s “cumulative,” as in “not how the other networks do it.”

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scott.collins@latimes.com