Olympic Kick Has KNBC News Reaching for Gold : TV ratings: Channel 4 reclaims supremacy at 6 and 11 p.m., but even without star anchor Paul Moyer, KABC leads at 4 and 5 p.m. in July sweeps.

The Olympics helped boost KNBC Channel 4 back into gold-medal contention during the July ratings sweeps--just two months after the station recorded a dismal sweeps performance that prompted management to re-examine all facets of the station’s news operation and to invest more than $8 million in anchor Paul Moyer.

KNBC reclaimed leadership in news ratings for its 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, according to numbers for the just-concluded ratings period released Thursday by the A. C. Nielsen Co. The station also won the 6 a.m. news race. Arbitron numbers for the month showed basically the same results.

But the figures also show that KNBC’s victories were largely tied to its Olympic monopoly.

Nonetheless, KABC Channel 7 easily won the 4 and 5 p.m. battles, even though Moyer, who anchored KABC’s winning 5 p.m. broadcast in May, is now competing against his former station in that same time period for Channel 4. With Moyer, KABC had swept all news time periods during the May sweeps, when news ratings at all stations were inflated by keen interest in the city’s civil unrest.

But even without its former star anchorman, KABC’s numbers at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. this past month improved over those from a year ago. And even against the stiff competition of the Olympics, ratings for the station’s 11 p.m. broadcast were about the same as those last summer, while KNBC’s numbers declined from a year ago, although the station again was in the top spot. These comparisons are consistent with changes that have been noted through the first half of this year in news competition, with KABC’s fortunes rising while KNBC’s declined.

Though Channel 4 proved more competitive with its new Moyer-powered anchor lineup, the effect of the $8-million-plus man was overshadowed by the Olympic kick that not only cut into the ratings of KNBC’s rivals, but also necessitated a good deal of schedule shuffling at his new station. For example, KNBC’s 4 and 11 p.m. newscasts were preempted during all or part of the Olympic period, the 5 p.m. newscast was cut from one hour to 30 minutes, and the 6 p.m. was extended from half an hour to one full hour.

Not counting the eight weekdays during the July sweeps that included the Olympics, KNBC again trailed KABC in all afternoon and nighttime news time periods, according to Arbitron. KABC also won out at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. as measured by Nielsen, and the two stations finished in a virtual tie at 11 p.m. KNBC won the 6 a.m. battle with or without the Olympics.

KABC’s news numbers are enhanced by the consistently dominant ratings performance of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which leads directly into the afternoon newscasts.

KCBS Channel 2, despite its new news director and a new attitude, finished third in all news time periods as competition from the Olympics pushed news ratings a bit lower than they were last year. During the two weeks before the Olympics, however, Channel 2 trailed second-place KNBC by just a small margin at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., according to Arbitron.

The effect of the Olympics on all ratings was clear. Over eight weeknights in prime time, coverage of the Games on Channel 4 averaged a 22 rating and a 40% share of all area homes watching television between 7:30 p.m. and midnight. That translates to 1.1 million households tuned to the Olympics throughout the entire evening. By comparison, Channel 4 averaged only about one-third of that total for the same period last summer.

Morning coverage of the Olympics was seen in about 365,000 area homes each day, more than double the audience usually tuned to Channel 4 for the “Today” show. And KNBC’s special newscasts, designed to take advantage of the Olympics and anchored by new first-stringers Moyer and Wendy Tokuda, proved to be smash hits as well. The 7 p.m. broadcast leading into the Olympics scored a 10.3 rating (where each rating point represents 48,751 area homes), making it the most-watched newscast in the market. That broadcast even beat “Wheel of Fortune” on KCBS, a show that usually wins that time period.

KNBC’s midnight newscast similarly benefited from the Olympics and scored an 8.6 rating and a 33% share of the audience, far higher than any nighttime newscast on any other local station.

Meanwhile, the independent news race at 10 p.m. again showed KTLA Channel 5 on top, with 50% more viewers than its nearest competitor. KTTV Channel 11 finished second, with KCAL Channel 9 third and KCOP Channel 13 trailing badly.

Propelled by the extraordinary local news interest precipitated by the floods of February and the civil unrest during the May sweeps, Channel 5’s “KTLA Morning News” had beaten all three network morning shows in the past two sweeps periods. This time, facing the unusually stiff challenge put up by NBC’s morning Olympic coverage for a good portion of the ratings period, Channel 5’s cast of joke-cracking news personalities had to settle for the silver.

“Today” on NBC scored a higher average in its pre-Olympics run to finish first, although the program was preempted the past two weeks. “Good Morning, America” on KABC took third, while “This Morning” on KCBS lagged.

The Olympics also wreaked havoc on the 11 p.m. time period, as reruns of “Cheers” on Channel 5 beat news on both Channel 7 and Channel 2. KNBC’s newscast was the only news program to beat all late-night entertainment fare, as measured by Nielsen. Even more remarkable was KTTV’s “Cops,” which more than doubled the station’s rating from last summer and finished ahead of Channel 2’s nightly newscast.

Elsewhere, Channel 13’s “The Arsenio Hall Show,” undoubtedly a victim of the Barcelona Games as well, lost more than 33% of its audience of the previous July and slipped far behind Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” on Channel 4 and “Nightline” on Channel 7, according to Nielsen. Nielsen also showed that Fred Roggin’s Sunday night sports wrap-up on Channel 4 scored a higher rating than his competitors on Channel 7 and Channel 2 combined.

And KMEX Channel 34 remained the dominant Spanish-language station in Los Angeles, according to Arbitron, outdistancing KVEA Channel 52 by 67% and nearly tripling the audience of rival KWHY Channel 22. In news at 6 p.m., KMEX grabbed 64% of all those watching Spanish-language television at that hour. Overall, Spanish-language viewing on the three stations was up a combined 18% over the previous July.