Moyer Fails to Halt KNBC News Slide : Ratings: Rival KABC-TV Channel 7 has built up its lead over last year in the early evening news slots.

Neither the new fall programming nor the addition of Paul Moyer has stemmed KNBC-TV Channel 4’s slide in the early evening news ratings race so far this season, as rival KABC-TV Channel 7 has built its lead over last year at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

According to audience measurement figures provided by Arbitron and Nielsen for Sept. 23 to Oct. 20, KNBC’s ratings for the 5 p.m. broadcast anchored by Moyer were worse than one year ago, when Moyer was reading the news at KABC. The veteran anchor, who was lured to KNBC last summer by a multimillion-dollar contract, attracted about 60,000 fewer households than KNBC scored without him during the same period in 1991.

Ratings for KNBC’s 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts were also down substantially. At 6 p.m., KNBC held a 10,000-home lead over perennial also-ran KCBS-TV Channel 2, according to Nielsen. During the same period in 1991, KNBC’s lead was nearly 90,000 households.

KNBC’s 11 p.m. broadcast, anchored by Moyer and Wendy Tokuda, also registered a loss compared to the previous year, but it still came out No. 1 in Arbitron’s ratings. Nielsen showed KNBC and KABC tied at 11 p.m. KNBC also finished first for its hourlong 6 a.m. broadcast.

A big part of KNBC’s problem continues to be “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Airing at 3 p.m. as the lead-in to KABC’s afternoon news lineup, “Oprah” pulled in more than twice the audience of Channel 4’s “Donahue,” whose viewership was down 20% from a year ago. Both stations run promos for their newscasts during commercial breaks on these talk shows, and “Oprah’s” huge advantage means that thousands more see Channel 7’s spots than Channel 4’s.

“The ratings for the afternoon newscasts are down slightly in the October (ratings), partly partly due to the fact that ‘Donahue’ . . . and the entire NBC daytime schedule is down, not only locally but across the nation as well,” a KNBC spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Asked if KNBC planned any changes or harbored any concerns about the ratings decline in the wake of the station’s anchor changes, she responded: “We approached our somewhat significant changes in anchor lineup with the understanding that this was a long-term strategy, likely to yield some short-term disorientation (among) viewers.”

On the entertainment side, Channel 2’s investment in Bill Cosby’s “You Bet Your Life” looks like a bust so far as the comedian finished sixth out of the seven major commercial stations at 7:30 p.m., beating only “Love Connection” on KCAL-TV Channel 9, according to Nielsen. In Arbitron, Cosby finished last. KCBS has moved the show to 7 p.m., swapping time periods with “Star Search,” which trailed all of its competitors in both services.

The shows that once filled the 7-8 hour for Channel 2--”Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune”--won the time period for Channel 7. Reruns of “Married . . . With Children” on KTTV continued strong, finishing second at 7 p.m. to “Jeopardy!” and handily beating the newly released reruns of “Murphy Brown” on KTLA Channel 5.

Other new syndicated programs fared from mediocre to dismal. In Nielsen, reruns of “Roseanne” on KCOP-TV Channel 13 finished third at 6 p.m. with just a so-so 10% share of the audience. Repeats of “The Wonder Years” on KTTV at 6:30 p.m. did about the same.

Meanwhile, “The Rush Limbaugh Show” at 3:30 p.m. on KCOP-TV Channel 13 trailed “Oprah” badly, but finished in a pack with the other competition. And “The Whoopi Goldberg Show” crashed in its premiere, finishing last at 11 p.m. on Channel 9, drawing less of an audience there than the station earned with “Benny Hill” reruns last July.

KCBS, which has also undergone sweeping changes in news personnel and approach since last year, continued to run third in all news time periods. Even KCBS’ noon newscast suffered this past month, falling behind KCAL’s rival broadcast in Arbitron when last year it led by more than 80,000 homes. A KCBS spokeswoman cautioned, however, that the presidential debates and the baseball playoffs and World Series severely interrupted Channel 2’s programming lineup this past month.

KTLA’s news department again scored big wins. The station’s morning broadcast beat the three network morning programs in Nielsen, and finished second to “Today” on KNBC in Arbitron. Channel 5’s 10 p.m. newscast easily won the independent news race in both services, with KCAL second, KTTV third and KCOP fourth.