Fires Fan Ratings Hike; 67% Tune In During Prime Time

Television viewership jumped significantly during Wednesday’s heavy coverage of the 13 fires that engulfed portions of Southern California, according to figures released Thursday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

About 3.4 million of the 5 million households with television sets in the Los Angeles-Orange County market--or about 67%--had their sets on during prime time (8-11 p.m.) as KCBS-TV Channel 2, KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KABC-TV Channel 7 preempted network programming for fire coverage. (Independent KTLA-TV Channel 5 also preempted its regularly scheduled programming in favor of coverage while KCAL-TV Channel 9 devoted its regular prime-time news bloc to coverage.)

During the previous eight weeks, the weekday prime-time figure was 12.5% lower.

“It was a story of great interest to many people, but I wouldn’t compare it to (the 1992) riots or floods, which affected more people and (produced) a much higher increase (in viewing),” said Barbara Tenney, research manager for KNBC-TV Channel 4.

Prime-time viewing from 8 to 11 p.m. on April 30, 1992, the first full day of the civil unrest in Los Angeles, jumped 14.5%, from 62% to 71%, on a day when a citywide curfew was in effect and the final episode of the long-running “The Cosby Show” was shown.

On Wednesday, viewing reached its peak from 9 to 9:15 p.m., when 72.9% of the area’s sets were on, a 9.2% increase over the average for the month.

Not all the viewing was of the fire coverage. KTTV-TV Channel 11 opted for Fox Broadcasting’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Melrose Place.” Thanks to the decrease in competing entertainment programming, the shows received 3% and 3.9% increases over their ratings for the previous week.

“I decided to play ‘90210’ and ‘Melrose Place’ because the fire story was over,” said Tom Capra, KTTV’s vice president and general manager. “It just seemed the winds had died down, the Laguna fire had halted, and it didn’t seem anything more was happening. We had been on it long enough, and it was time to go back to regular programming. I was very surprised that (KABC, KCBS and KNBC) did not go back to regular programming.”

The viewing of individual stations reflected the usual local news patterns. KTLA, whose 7-9 a.m. morning newscast is the top rated in the market, had the most-watched coverage during that time.

Between 9 a.m. and noon, KABC, KCBS and KNBC each held hourly leads. KABC, whose afternoon and 11 p.m. newscasts are the market’s ratings leaders, took the lead at noon and held it for the rest of the day, with KNBC second and KCBS third.

Among the independent and Fox stations, KTLA was first, KCAL was second and KTTV was third. KCOP-TV Channel 13, which traditionally provides the least coverage of breaking news among the seven major commercial stations in the market, was fourth during its two-hour afternoon special report before coverage of an exhibition basketball game.