KNBC Overtakes KABC in Local News

The May sweeps, local television’s four-week foray into the business of P.T. Barnum, are all over, and as the dust begins to settle on a month crammed with UFOs, swimsuits and the resurrection of Elvis Presley, the A.C. Nielsen Co. reports that for the first time in more than 10 years, KNBC-TV Channel 4 has caught and slightly overtaken perennial local news ratings champ KABC-TV Channel 7.

In four time periods of head-to-head local news competition, Channel 4 beat Channel 7 in two and tied Channel 7 in a third. KABC scored its only local news victory at 6 p.m., but its half hour of local news at 6:30 p.m. lost badly to the “NBC Evening News.” KCBS-TV Channel 2 trailed in all four head-to-head local news time slots.

KNBC prevailed in both the 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscast time slots this week, despite KABC’s strong advantage with the highly-rated “Oprah” as lead-in to its 4 p.m. news and the station’s last-ditch attempt to boost ratings with a series about people who claim Presley faked his own death and is still alive.

Channel 4 registered a 6.1 rating to Channel 7’s 6.0 at 4 p.m. (each local rating point represents 46,527 homes), and used NBC’s big prime-time lead-in to score an 8.8 to 8.4 victory Monday through Friday at 11 p.m. Last February, buoyed by ABC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, KABC had trounced Channel 4 at 11 p.m. by two full rating points.

Channel 2’s “Action News,” hurt badly by CBS’ last-place showing in prime time, dropped almost two rating points from last May, earning a lackluster 5.5 rating at 11 p.m.

Channel 2’s rating dropped so low, in fact, that reruns of “Cheers” on KTLA Channel 5 beat the news at 11 p.m, marking the first time that Channel 5’s news at 10 p.m., with a 6.1 rating, scored a higher number than a late-night network station, according to a KTLA spokesman.

The one bright spot for KCBS this month was the impressive debut of “Geraldo” at 4 p.m. Though the syndicated talk show trailed slightly behind Channels 4 and 7’s 4 p.m. newscasts, “Geraldo” did manage a 5.7 rating, KCBS’ highest in that time period in four years.

Among the independents, KCOP Channel 13 came out on top, edging slightly ahead of KTLA with a sign-on to sign-off rating of 3.8 and a 10% share of the audience, while KTLA received a 3.5 rating with a 10 share and KTTV Channel 11 registered a 3.4 rating with a 9 share. KHJ-TV Channel 9 trailed with a 2.3 rating and a 6 share.

KABC’s “Eye On L.A.” became the highest-rated local program with a 9.3 rating at 7:30 p.m. While “Eye” crushed longtime rival KCBS’ “2 On the Town,” which scored a 5.9 rating, the KABC show faced stiff competition from Channel 11’s reruns of “M.A.S.H.” (8.3), Channel 13’s “Jeopardy” (7.9) and Channel 9’s “Hollywood Squares” (6.4).

“Wheel of Fortune” on Channel 13 beat back all comers at 7 p.m. with an 8.0 rating. Syndicated reruns of “Family Ties” on KTTV was a close second with a 7.9 rating and ABC’s “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” was third at 7.5.

Other results:

Oprah-Phil-Geraldo: “Oprah,” in competition with “Donahue” at 3 p.m., remained monarch of the afternoon talk shows with a 7.5 rating on Channel 7, though that mark is far below the 9.8 she earned in February. Channel 4’s “Donahue” mustered only a 4.7 rating, behind the upstart “Geraldo” (5.7) which airs opposite 4 p.m. newscasts.

Indie News at 10: KTLA continued to dominate the independent news game with a 6.1 rating in prime time. Fox Broadcasting-owned KTTV was second, posting a 3.8 rating for its half-hour of news, while KCOP received a 3.4 rating for its hour newscast. KHJ, with half-hour newscasts at 8 and 9 p.m., earned ratings of 3.7 and 3.3, respectively.

Network News in L.A.: Tom Brokaw nipped February sweeps champ Peter Jennings, while Dan Rather and CBS lagged far behind. Up against NBC and Brokaw at 6:30 p.m., Rather managed a 5.1 rating to NBC’s 7.6 rating. ABC’s “World News Tonight,” in its 7 p.m. time slot opposite “Wheel of Fortune,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “Action News,” earned a 7.5.

Spanish TV News: KMEX-TV Channel 34, the longtime leader in local Spanish-language television, crushed its competitor, KVEA-TV Channel 52, in the evening news game. KMEX’s “Noticiero 34” delivered a 67% share of the Latino audience at 6 p.m. compared to KVEA’s 33% share for its one-hour newscast, “Noticias.” Overall, Channel 34’s audience was nearly three times that of Channel 52’s, earning a 5 share of the total market audience compared to a 2 share for its rival.

Movies at 8: Channel 13, helped by the miniseries “Hemingway,” squeaked by in the battle of the independent prime-time movies, scoring a 7.5 rating to Channel 5’s 7.3 and Channel 11’s 5.2. Movies on the independents often beat some of the three major network’s prime-time offerings.