KABC Challenges KNBC for News Viewers in Latest Ratings : Television: Channel 7 stems its slide while Channel 2 slips further behind in the race for a shrinking audience.

KNBC Channel 4 continued to lead in the battle for local news viewers during last month’s ratings sweeps. But KABC Channel 7, seemingly recovered from the loss of veteran newscaster Jerry Dunphy, stemmed its recent ratings slide and beat its rival in one vital time period, tied it in another and made a close race of it in several more.

According to figures released Thursday by A.C. Nielsen Co., KABC, which before suffering a precipitous decline a year ago had dominated the local news ratings for more than a decade, increased its audience significantly over last November’s sweeps in all afternoon and evening time periods.

KABC’s 4 p.m. newscast made up 1.6 rating points (each point represents 49,315 households) to end the month in a dead heat with Channel 4. At 11 p.m., KABC’s team of Ann Martin, Paul Moyer and sportscaster Todd Donoho actually beat KNBC in the Arbitron ratings, though Nielsen showed them still trailing Channel 4 by half a point.

Channel 4, which had maintained a significant lead in news for the last year, squeaked ahead in all other news time periods.

KCBS Channel 2’s newscasts again finished a distant third in both ratings services, their numbers declining in several time periods from those earned last November.

Though Wednesday’s earthquake near Upland increased news viewership dramatically on the final day of the sweeps, the size of the average local news audience appears to be dwindling. News ratings for all three network-owned stations were down in several time periods from what they were last February. The 5 p.m. newscasts on both Channel 4 and Channel 7, for example, each lost nearly 75,000 viewers in one year.

Stronger counterprogramming on the four independent stations is certainly one contributor to this lack of interest in afternoon and early evening news, and one of the strongest programs last month was “Hunter” on KTLA Channel 5. Reruns of this long-running NBC series dominated the 6-7 p.m. time period in both Arbitron and Nielsen last month, beating local news, the Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw national newscasts and several high-profile syndicated sitcoms.

“Hunter” took deadly aim at the national newscasts in particular. In Arbitron, Rather’s CBS broadcast attracted only 8% of the local audience watching television at 6:30 p.m., finishing dead last behind even “Love Connection.” Brokaw on NBC proved to be Los Angeles’ favorite newscaster during last month’s sweeps--one of four annual ratings periods that help determine advertising rates--but his numbers were also down from last year.

Against even stiffer competition at 7 p.m., Peter Jennings’ broadcast on ABC was the second highest-rated national newscast, but it had about 90,000 fewer homes than a year ago.

In other sweeps highs and lows (using Nielsen numbers unless otherwise indicated):

Can We Talk?: A slightly plumper Oprah Winfrey again won the afternoon talk wars for KABC, trouncing both “Donahue” on KNBC and Joan Rivers on KCBS at 3 p.m. In his 4 p.m. time period on Channel 2, “Geraldo” also scored a higher audience than both Donahue and Rivers. Sally Jesse Raphael’s show on KCAL Channel 9 at 2 p.m. came in fourth overall, beating Rivers by more than a full ratings point.

Sitcom Sadness: The big bucks that local independents have paid for syndicated sitcoms has not propelled any of them to big ratings. KCOP Channel 13’s “The Cosby Show” scored the highest rating of any local sitcom, but it was down one point from last fall. “Growing Pains” and “Night Court” on KCOP were also beaten badly. Worst of all, KCAL’s “Who’s the Boss?” finished last and next to last in its two nightly airings. “Hunter,” by contrast, crushed it by more than 170,000 homes, despite KCAL having run a prize-giveaway to lure viewers to the program.

Fortunate Wheel: In the only good news for KCBS last month, “Wheel of Fortune” again won its competitive 7 p.m. time period. “Entertainment Tonight” on Channel 4 was second, “Cosby” third, ABC’s national news fourth, KTLA’s “Charles in Charge” fifth, KCAL’s “Love Connection” sixth and reruns of “MASH” on KTTV Channel 11 came in last. In Arbitron, “Cosby” nipped “Entertainment Tonight” for second.

Who is No. 1 at 7:30?: “Jeopardy” on Channel 2 topped all competitors in this heated time period with a whopping 11.4 rating, the highest mark for any local program. KNBC’s “Hard Copy” was second with an 8.9, while KTTV’s “Current Affair” slipped to third with an 8 rating. KABC’s “Eye on L.A.” and “Night Court” on Channel 13 tied for fourth, KTLA’s checkerboard of sitcoms finished sixth and “Who’s the Boss?” brought up the rear.

Independent News: In the most redundant sweeps category, perennial winner KTLA again wiped out all competitors in the 10 p.m. news race. In Arbitron, KTLA scored a 5.9 while Fox-owned KTTV managed only a 3 and KCOP got a 2.2. KCAL, which plans to unroll a three-hour newscast on Monday, could muster only a 2.8 rating for both its 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. newscasts.

Up All Night: Johnny Carson still holds a big lead in the late-night talk show battle, earning a 6 rating on KNBC last month. “Arsenio Hall” on KCOP was second with a 3.8, “Late Night With David Letterman” scored a 3.5 and “Pat Sajak” on KCBS checked in with a 2.6. “Nightline’s” 4.1 rating on KABC beat all the talk shows except “The Tonight Show.”

Early Birds: KNBC’s early-morning newscast crushed its competitors again last month, grabbing a whopping 4.5 rating and 32% of all those watching television between 6-7 a.m. KABC’s broadcast at 6:30 a.m. was second with a 2.2 mark while KCBS’s newscast at 6 a.m. trailed with a .9 rating.

The Big Picture: Nationally, NBC won its eighth consecutive sweeps period and 19th out of the last 20. The peacock network averaged a 15.2 rating, beating ABC’s 13.2 and CBS’ 12.5 (each national ratings point represents 921,000 homes).