TV Viewership Surges as Curfew Goes Into Effect

Television viewing levels in Los Angeles during Thursday’s marathon of news coverage hit their peak at 8 p.m., shortly after the city-wide curfew went into effect, when 3.7 million, or 76%, of the area’s nearly 4.9 million TV households were watching the tube.

Overall, from 7 a.m. Thursday through 1 a.m. Friday, 79% of all TV viewing was of the seven major local commercial stations--which filled all or most of that time with live reports of the unfolding drama on the streets of Los Angeles. Viewing levels were up slightly over the day before, according to preliminary ratings figures released Friday by A.C. Nielsen Co.

At 7 a.m. on Thursday, almost twice as many TV households in the Los Angeles market (which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Riverside counties) were watching television than at the same time a week earlier.

During prime time, from 8 to 11 p.m., 71% of homes in the Los Angeles area were watching television, compared to 62% during that same time frame one week earlier. That increase is more significant than it would appear because Thursday is normally a heavily watched TV night with “The Cosby Show” on KNBC-TV Channel 4 and “The Simpsons” on KTTV Channel 11.

KABC-TV Channel 7 was the leading local station for the second consecutive day, with a 9 rating (each rating point represent 48,751 households) and 17% share of the audience from 7 a.m. Thursday through 1 a.m. Friday. KTLA Channel 5 was the top independent station with a 6.2 rating and a 12% share.

Bolstered by the one-hour series finale of “Cosby” at 8 p.m., which easily won its time period, KNBC led the prime-time hours with a 17.9 rating and a 25% share. It finished No. 2 in news coverage behind KABC for the entire day.

KTLA’s research director, Rozanne McMillan, reported that the sample of TV households in Los Angeles on Thursday was much lower than normal, with only 440 metered households reporting to Nielsen in comparison to the high 400s that the stations like to see. “We attribute that lower number to power and phone failures,” McMillan said.