And the Winner Is . . . KABC : Ratings: November sweeps pile up the points for Channel 7, boosted by its news shows, ‘Oprah Winfrey’ and the network’s prime-time schedule.

In the past few years, KABC-TV Channel 7 has lost anchors Jerry Dunphy and Paul Moyer--stalwarts from the station’s news heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s--and yet “Eyewitness News” is stronger than ever, according to data for the November ratings sweeps released Wednesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

Gaining audience in all news time periods over a year ago, when Moyer was the station’s primary male anchor, Channel 7 swept every newscast time period this month. KABC even squeaked past KNBC-TV Channel 4’s early-morning newscast, which has dominated that arena since it was launched in 1986.

It was bad news all around this month for KNBC, which lured Moyer away from Channel 7 with the richest contract in local news history last summer in hopes of stemming its ratings decline. With Moyer in the anchor chair, KNBC saw its ratings slide even further--down 11% at 5 p.m. and 14% at 11 p.m. over last year’s numbers.

In fact, at 11 p.m. in November, 1991, KNBC beat Moyer on KABC, averaging 360,000 homes per night to Channel 7’s 312,000. This year, with Moyer and Wendy Tokuda, KNBC averaged about 313,000 homes compared to about 402,000 for KABC’s team of Ann Martin and Harold Greene.

As usual, KABC was buoyed by the whopping success of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which as the 3 p.m. lead-in to its afternoon news block scored nearly three times the viewers of KNBC’s slumping “Donahue.”

Channel 7 also benefited from ABC’s success in prime time. The network won the network ratings battle during all four weeks of the ratings period to capture its first November sweeps since 1978. November is one of three major ratings periods that stations use to set advertising rates. CBS finished second and NBC third, while Fox increased its numbers 5% over a year ago in finishing fourth.

A KNBC spokeswoman blamed the station’s poor showing on the failure of “Donahue” and NBC network programs. Since audience levels for non-news programs on KNBC, which just two years ago was the dominant news station in the Los Angeles/Orange County market, are so far behind those on KABC, the station’s promos for newscasts are seen by far fewer potential viewers.

KNBC’s biggest problem now seems to be hanging onto second place. For the third consecutive sweeps period, longtime doormat KCBS-TV Channel 2 beat KNBC with news at 6 p.m. as Channel 2’s ratings soared 24% over a year ago. And at 5 p.m., Moyer and company on Channel 4 hold just a tiny lead over KCBS. (The Nielsen numbers reported here do not include the final night of the sweeps period, Wednesday, but the standings were not expected to change when the final averages are figured.)

The news was not all good at Channel 2, however, as its 11 p.m. newscast declined 10% over a year ago and now trails both first-place KABC by almost 170,000 homes per night and reruns of “Cheers” on KTLA-TV Channel 5 by nearly 70,000 households.

Results in the Arbitron ratings were generally the same as in Nielsen, except that KNBC won the 6 a.m. newscast in Arbitron and finished a solid second in all other news time periods.

Among the other stations, KTLA again easily won the 10 p.m. news race, with KTTV-TV Channel 11 second and KCAL-TV Channel 9 third. KCOP-TV Channel 13--which plans to debut an entirely new kind of broadcast around the beginning of the year, reportedly complete with roving in-studio cameras and anchors--brought up the rear.

Though KCAL’s 10 p.m. newscast trailed in direct competition with other news shows, the station’s three-hour block of prime-time news gained 15% over a year ago. That increase was spearheaded by Channel 9’s 9 p.m. broadcast, which increased its audience by more than 36% from last November. The station’s noon news fared well too, crushing KCBS’ noon show in Arbitron and trailing by just a few thousand homes in Nielsen. But KCAL’s 6:30 p.m. newscast finished last in the time period.

KTLA’s slightly wacky morning newscast continued to sail, again beating all three network morning shows in Nielsen. In Arbitron, which uses a different sample of Southern California households to monitor audience levels, the show finished third behind “Today” on KNBC and “Good Morning America” on KABC.

KTLA’s reruns of “Full House” between 6 and 7 p.m. also proved to be a ratings smash, knocking off all competition, including KABC’s top-ranked local newscast and all three network news broadcasts.

Similarly, KTLA’s “Saved by the Bell,” the slapstick sitcom about a bunch of preppy adolescents, beat local newscasts on both KNBC and KCBS in finishing second in the 5:30 p.m. time period to KABC’s news.

At 5 p.m., KTTV’s animated “Batman,” which on Tuesday was given a regular spot in Fox’s prime-time lineup beginning in December, also beat all competition save KABC’s newscast.

KABC dominated the 7-8 p.m. hour with “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.” KTTV’s “Married . . . With Children” finished a strong second at 7 p.m., easily besting KCOP’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” KNBC’s “Entertainment Tonight,” KCAL’s “Inside Edition” and KTLA’s “Murphy Brown.”

KCBS, which gave up “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” to carry Bill Cosby’s “You Bet Your Life,” came in last with that remake of the old Groucho Marx hit at 7 p.m. and second to last at 7:30 p.m. with “Family Feud.” KNBC’s “Hard Copy” ended up second at 7:30 p.m.

Other highs and lows from the November sweeps include:

* Daytime Talk: “Oprah” on KABC is queen of the hill, easily crushing KNBC’s “Donahue” and KCOP’s “Rush Limbaugh” at 3 p.m. and outpointing all other talk shows by a wide margin. KCBS’ “Geraldo” scored the second highest rating of all daytime talk shows in beating KCOP’s “The Montel Williams Show” at 4 p.m. KCAL’s “Sally Jessy Raphael” defeated KNBC’s “Jenny Jones” at 2 p.m, while “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee” on KABC easily won the 9 a.m. battle over “Talk With Dr. David Viscott” on KNBC, KCAL’s “Vicki” and KTLA’s “Joan Rivers.”

* Late Night: In the wake of the election, “Nightline” crushed the talk-show competition, with “The Tonight Show” finishing second and “The Arsenio Hall Show” trailing badly. The fading “Arsenio” also lost to a combination of “Cheers” and “Designing Women” reruns on KTLA and “Cops” and “MASH” on KTTV. The only show “Arsenio” beat was “The Whoopi Goldberg Show” at 11 p.m. on KCAL.

* Network News: Peter Jennings is by far L.A.’s favorite network news anchor as his “World News Tonight” capitalized on KABC’s news advantage to wallop both “The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather” on KCBS and “NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw” on KNBC, which finished in a virtual tie for second.

* Weekends: Perhaps the only good news for KNBC this month was that its new weekend morning newscasts, which premiered in September, delivered a good-sized audience. The Saturday broadcast at 8 a.m. finished second in the time period behind “Tom & Jerry” cartoons on KTTV, while the Sunday edition finished a respectable third.