A Ratings Rainbow : Stormy Weather Helps Boost Viewership of Local TV News

Buoyed by CBS’ coverage of the Winter Olympics, KCBS Channel 2 scored big gains in the local news race for the first time in more than a decade, according to figures for the February sweeps released Thursday by thC. Nielsen Co.

Nonetheless, during a stormy, news-heavy month that raised the audience levels for many local newscasts over last year’s levels, KABC Channel 7 held onto first place in all afternoon news periods. And as the unpredictable weather fronts caused viewers to seek out local news most February mornings, KTLA Channel 5’s 7-month-old 7-9 a.m. newscast soared to an outright victory over all three network morning shows.

Channel 2 management was smiling brightest Thursday as the station, which has been stuck in third place among the three network-owned stations for the bulk of the past 20 years, saw its 6 p.m. newscast inch past KNBC Channel 4 for second place last month, while the station’s 11 p.m. newscast pulled into a virtual tie for second with KABC. KCBS hired news director John Lippman just prior to the sweeps period, and he has radically revamped the station’s approach to news, prompting many staffers to complain about what they call “the tabloidization” of their newscasts.

KCBS attempted to downplay the impact of CBS’ Olympic coverage on the ratings growth of its newscasts, but the extra viewers drawn to the station to watch the 16-day sporting extravaganza clearly helped. For example, ratings for KCBS’ 11 p.m. newscast were up 31% for the entire sweeps period compared to a year ago, but they increased only 8% on the nights without Olympics programming. The station’s 6 p.m. newscast jumped nearly 50% over a year ago, however, even on the days without the Olympics.

KCBS General Manager Steven Gigliotti insisted that while the Olympics helped, the improvement in the station’s ratings resulted because of “the improvement in the station’s newscasts.” He refuted charges that Lippman had resorted to sensationalism to jack up the ratings, stating that the changes at the station--which include constant “live” reporting and routine cross-talk between anchors and reporters--are designed solely to make the newscasts “more compelling and more satisfying for viewers.”

“I will tell you that the emphasis in our newsroom now is in covering the news, as opposed to in the past when it was just getting enough to get the job done,” Gigliotti said. “Now we’re getting the most complete story, getting the best video and making it as watchable and as interesting and as informative as possible.”

Not surprisingly, the competition put more emphasis on the Olympics in explaining KCBS’ growth.

“We got huge sampling during the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and we expected some sampling for KCBS’ newscasts during the current sweeps,” said Regina Miyamoto, a KNBC spokeswoman. “People are just too lazy to change the channel.”

“It may be a glow from the Olympics, and I think also that you do get flukes from time to time,” said Roger Bell, news director at Channel 7. “Let’s see how they do in the May and November (sweeps). If we see a trend then, we will have to assess it, but it may be nothing more than a fluke, or it may be the Olympics or there may be something to it.”

Benefiting from a huge lead-in from “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” KABC scored victories in news over both its rivals at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. KABC’s 4, 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts were all up significantly over their performance last year.

“We’re happy about the results because they show what we’ve seen over the last few years--that our news ratings continue to get stronger versus the competition,” Bell said. “And that says something about our news coverage. I think day-in and day-out what eventually make the difference for viewers is how well you cover the news that matters to them.”

KNBC, which only a couple of years ago had dominated in all news time periods, was second at 4 and 5 p.m. and third at 6 p.m. KNBC did manage to retain its advantage at 11 p.m., despite suffering the weakest prime-time lead-in of the three network-owned stations. KNBC also crushed its two rivals in the early-morning news race, scoring more viewers for its 6-7 a.m. newscast than KABC and KCBS combined.

In the rival Arbitron ratings, however, KNBC slipped to second at 11 p.m. behind KABC for the first time in about four years, while KCBS finished a close third.

KCBS again finished a distant third in the afternoon news time periods, according to Arbitron, while KABC swept all three races by a wide margin.

The slide of KNBC and the ascent of KCBS reflect the changing fortunes of their respective parent networks. While NBC has won network bragging rights in prime time for the past six seasons, CBS is a lock to capture that claim when the current season ends in April. CBS’ Olympics-heavy programming crushed both NBC and ABC last month in one of the most lopsided prime-time sweeps battles ever.

According to Arbitron, CBS scored a 16.7 rating and captured 26% of the prime-time audience during the 30-day sweeps period, compared to NBC’s 13.1 rating and 21 share and ABC’s 12.1 rating and 19 share. Since each rating point represents about 921,000 households nationwide, CBS beat its closest rival by an average of 3.3 million homes each night. Last February, without the Olympics, CBS beat NBC 13.5 to 12.9, or by only about 550,000 homes a night.

Nielsen’s numbers for the networks were about the same.

As at the local level, CBS’ rivals attributed its big win to the Olympics. According to NBC, on non-Olympics nights, it averaged a 13.6 rating, compared to 13.2 for CBS and 12.8 for ABC.

Fox, meanwhile posted its strongest-ever sweeps results, scoring an 8.7 rating and 14% of the prime-time audience for its five nights a week of programming. Those numbers marked about a 25% increase over the network’s performance a year ago.

The independent news battle at 10 p.m. was again dominated by the traditional newscast of KTLA Channel 5. The Hal Fishman-anchored broadcast grabbed nearly twice the audience of its two closest rivals, KCAL Channel 9 and KTTV Channel 11, as measured by Nielsen. KCOP Channel 13 finished fourth.

In Arbitron, KTLA again won handily, but KTTV finished a much closer second by doubling its numbers of last year. KCAL was third and KCOP finished fourth.

But the big news for KTLA was that its fledgling 7-9 a.m. newscast soared last month, beating “Today” on KNBC, “Good Morning America” on KABC and KCBS’ “This Morning” in Nielsen. Ratings for the broadcast rose from a 2 last November to a 3.5 in February, a 75% jump (each local Nielsen point represents 48,751 homes). In Arbitron, KTLA’s newscast trailed both “Today” and “Good Morning America,” but it easily crushed “This Morning.”

KCAL’s three-hour prime-time newscast continued to hang tough, rising 23% in Arbitron and 5% in Nielsen over last February’s numbers, which at the time were said to have been inflated by intense public interest in the Gulf War. KCAL’s 8 p.m. newscast snagged a 4.9 rating, an increase of 10% over last year and more than 40% over its mark two years ago.

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

- “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on KABC again crushed talk rivals “Donahue” on KNBC and “The Maury Povich Show” on KCBS at 3 p.m. Thanks to a huge audience for her interview with Elizabeth Taylor earlier this week, “Oprah” was seen in an average of nearly 500,000 homes each afternoon compared to about 200,000 for “Donahue” and about 100,000 for “Maury.” “Sally Jessy Raphael,” airing at 2 p.m. on KCAL, was the second-highest rated talk show in town with about 330,000 homes each afternoon, walloping KNBC’s “Jenny Jones” and her 120,000 homes. “Geraldo,” airing at 4 p.m. on KCBS, grabbed about 275,000 homes each afternoon compared with about 165,000 households for KCOP’s “Montel Williams Show.”

* ABC’s “World News Tonight” was Southern California’s most-watched network news show. NBC’s “Nightly News,” which was top dog last February, slipped to third as “The CBS Evening News” improved a whopping 35% over a year ago to finish second.

* “Wheel of Fortune” on KCBS wheeled into first at 7 p.m., followed closely by KTTV’s “Married . . . With Children,” KNBC’s “Entertainment Tonight” and KABC’s “Inside Edition.” “Star Trek” on KCOP was fifth.

* “Jeopardy” at 7:30 p.m. made it a clean sweep for KCBS in the all-important “access hour” preceding the start of prime time. “Hard Copy” on KNBC finished second, with reruns of “Full House” on KTLA third.

* On his way to retirement in May, Johnny Carson and “The Tonight Show” on KNBC again won among late-night talk shows. Carson was seen in nearly 260,000 local homes each night compared to about 160,000 for “Arsenio Hall” at 11 p.m. on KCOP and for “Late Night with David Letterman” at 12:30 p.m. on KNBC. The new “Dennis Miller Show,” airing opposite “The Tonight Show” on Channel 5, grabbed just over 125,000 homes a night. “Nightline,” on KABC at 11:30 p.m., had about 240,000 households.