Specials Win Sweeps for CBS; Fewer Tune In to Networks

CBS won network bragging rights for the first time in six years as it knocked off NBC in the four-week February ratings sweeps with a barrage of well-received specials, according to figures released Thursday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

The CBS victory broke NBC’s streak of eight consecutive major sweeps victories and 16 of the last 17. The only time in the past six years that NBC, which still maintains a narrow ratings lead over CBS and ABC for the prime-time season, had lost a sweeps period was in February, 1988, when ABC televised the Winter Olympics from Calgary, Canada.

CBS, which is tied with ABC for second place in the seasonal standings that began in September, scored an average prime-time rating of 13.5 (with each point representing 931,000 households), up 7% over February, 1990. NBC was down 15% from last year to a 12.9, while ABC was down 8% to a 12.1. Fox scored a 7.1 for its four-nights-a-week of prime-time programs.

The cumulative audience for the four networks, dented by viewer interest in CNN’s coverage of the Persian Gulf War, fell 4% from a year ago.

Locally, KABC Channel 7 took advantage of a huge lead in from “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and further erosion in KNBC Channel 4’s news audience to sweep every afternoon news time period, as measured by Arbitron, and two of three as measured by Nielsen.

KABC, which dressed its news anchors in yellow ribbons in support of American troops and excluded news about local anti-war demonstrations throughout the month, trailed KNBC newscasts badly at 11 p.m. and in the early morning.

KCBS Channel 2 finished third in all news time periods.

Despite the war and the public’s seemingly increased interest in news programming, ratings for newscasts on several local stations were down from a year ago. The cumulative audience for the 5 p.m. newscasts on Channels 2, 4 and 7, for example, was 930,000, down more than 100,000 households from the previous February.

It wasn’t that Southern Californians were tuning out news; they just seemed to be tuning out the network-owned stations’ afternoon newscasts. “Nightline’s” local audience soared during the crisis, up 30%, or about 95,000 viewers a night, over last year. And KCAL Channel 9, which next week will celebrate the first anniversary of its three-hour prime-time newscast, also benefited from the war, as all three hours of the newscast gained audience over November’s totals. KCAL’s 8 and 9 p.m. broadcasts, which face no local news competition, fared especially well as each gained one full rating point over the last sweeps period.

But KCAL’s numbers were boosted by a few extremely heavy news nights, when audience interest in the day’s events was particularly high. Wednesday, for example, the night President Bush announced the cessation of hostilities in the Gulf, KCAL’s newscasts drew nearly twice the audience that they averaged for the entire month.

While KCAL’s 10 p.m. broadcast was also up a bit for the month, it still finished 160,000 homes behind KTLA Channel 5’s perennially dominant newscast, which also received a small lift from the war. KTTV Channel 11 finished second in the independent news race, about 10,000 homes ahead of KCAL. With a new anchor team, KCOP Channel 13 continued to slide to a distant fourth. All four of these newscasts, however, were down from their ratings of last February, as measured by Arbitron.

A spokeswoman for KNBC said Thursday that some of the viewer erosion from the afternoon newscasts may have resulted from the fact that Channels 2 and 4 added newscasts at 3 p.m. during the month for additional war coverage, so that people who watched one of those broadcasts mights not have tuned in at 4 or 5 p.m. as they usually do.

Jeff Wald, KCOP’s news director, said that the decline in local news audience stemmed from both a viewer backlash to the flood of information about the war and the feeling that network news and CNN were better equipped to cover the story half a world away. He said that whenever KCOP interrupted an entertainment show to report breaking news from the Gulf, the station was besieged with hundreds of complaints from viewers who were “seeking an escape” from the war.

Warren Cereghino, KTLA’s news director, also blamed CNN for stealing news audience from many of the local newscasts.

“I certainly can’t say that viewers were uninterested in the war,” Cereghino said, “but for a while CNN became their window to the world. They knew that they could turn to CNN any time of day or night and find war coverage. Now that the war appears to be over, I think viewers will resume their old habits. Californians will now turn their attention to the drought, and nationally, people will turn their attention to the economy. And I have the feeling that they will return to their more traditional sources of information.”

CNN also also had a impact on prime-time viewership nationally. The combined audience on ABC, NBC and CBS was down 6% over the previous February, while CNN quadrupled its prime-time rating, gaining an average of nearly 2 million households each night.

CBS’ victory in the February sweeps signals that the race between the three networks is extremely tight. NBC researchers attributed CBS’ win to high-rated specials about “All in the Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Ed Sullivan Show,” as well as to such ratings grabbers as “The Grammy Awards,” “The Miss USA Pageant” and the miniseries “And the Sea Will Tell.” NBC pointed to the fact that 22% of CBS’ February schedule was specials. Measuring only regular series programs, the two networks finished in a tie.

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

* News at 3 p.m. performed feebly for KCBS and KNBC, enabling KABC’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to dominate the time period like never before. The newscasts scored lower ratings than what had been there the previous February--”The Joan Rivers Show” on KCBS and “Donahue” on KNBC. KCBS will junk its newscast after today’s broadcast.

* “Donahue,” meanwhile, scored a victory for KNBC in its new 9 a.m. slot, beating longtime morning talk champ “A.M. Los Angeles” on KABC by some 40,000 households, and nearly doubling the audience of KCAL’s “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.” “Donahue” nonetheless earned a lower rating than it grabbed last February at 3 p.m.

* KNBC again dominated the early morning news battle, although the station lost about 25,000 homes from its total in November. KABC finished second and KCBS was third.

* Despite the war, reruns of “Hunter” on KTLA at 6 p.m. handily beat all competition, including local and national newscasts on KCBS, KNBC and KABC.

* “Wheel of Fortune” on KCBS spun its way back into the lead at 7 p.m., followed by KNBC’s “Entertainment Tonight,” KCOP’s “The Cosby Show” and KABC’s “Inside Edition.”

* KCBS also won the 7:30 p.m. period with “Jeopardy!,” which drew a 12.1 rating, more than double the rating of all news programs aired by the station. “Hard Copy” on KNBC finished second and KCAL’s “The Golden Girls” came in third.

* KMEX Channel 34 won the Spanish-language news competition at 6 p.m. with a 2.9 rating compared to KVEA Channel 52’s 2 rating, according to Arbitron. KMEX also won the battle in prime time over KVEA and Spanish-language rival KWHY Channel 22. Over the entire day, the three stations combined for a 4.1 rating, up 8% from a year ago.

THE SWEEPS

How the Networks Rated

CBS

Rating: 13.5

Share: 22

NBC

Rating: 12.9

Share: 21

ABC

Rating: 12.1

Share: 19

(Each rating point equals 931,000 homes; share is the percentage of viewers.)

SOURCE: A. C. Nielsen Co.