Talk Shows Prove to Be a Tough Market to Crack in L.A. : Television: November ratings sweeps finds local viewers sticking with the tried and true despite onslaught of new shows.

All of this year’s new crop of talk shows were rejected by local viewers during the just-concluded November ratings sweeps, proving that it takes more than a celebrity host or quirky accent to make a splash in the potentially lucrative but overcrowded talk field.

But perhaps all that some of these shows need is time, because several seemingly flat-lined veteran talk hosts made big gains simply by sticking around, according to statistics released Thursday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. for the November sweeps--one of four annual ratings periods used by local stations for bragging rights and to set some advertising rates.

Marilu Henner and Suzanne Somers, two prime-time stars turned daytime hosts this fall, showed little acceptance. Henner’s show at 11 a.m. on KNBC-TV Channel 4 drew only 8% of those watching television at that hour, and Somers’ did even worse at noon on Channel 13, losing to reruns of “The Brady Bunch” and tying for last in the time period with “Gordon Elliott,” another rookie talk show on KTTV-TV Channel 11.

Shows starring Susan Powter, Star Jones and Marilyn Kagen on KCAL-TV Channel 9 and Dennis Prager on KTTV similarly bombed in the local market, which includes Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. So did KCOP’s entire late-night lineup, including the Brandon Tartikoff-produced “Last Call” and the Arsenio Hall replacement, “The Jon Stewart Show.” “Last Call” attracted only 2% of the audience at 10:30 p.m., while Stewart, the MTV graduate, saw Conan O’Brien on KNBC grab more than four times his audience in their head-to-head contest at 12:30 a.m.

On the other hand, the news for KCOP was glorious for several of its veteran talk hosts. The audience for “Jenny Jones” at 2 p.m. was up 34% over a year ago. “Montel Williams” at 4 p.m. leaped 41%. And “Ricki Lake” at 5 p.m. soared 61% over November, 1993.

Despite talk of risky changes and an early slump in September, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on KABC-TV Channel 7 did about as well as always and won the 3 p.m. showdown to remain the overall talk-show champ here, beating runner-up Lake by nearly 100,000 households.

“Oprah” also proved its worth by providing KABC with a huge lead-in advantage for the station’s afternoon news block, propelling the Channel 7 newsroom to wins at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., even though the station’s numbers overall for the 2 1/2-hour stretch were down a few percentage points from a year ago.

Channel 4 was second throughout the entire news block, showing some small gains over last year, while KCBS again was third.

While KCBS also trailed at 5 p.m., its ratings were 27% higher than a year ago, apparently thanks to the addition of anchor Ann Martin, whom Channel 2 lured away from KABC last summer with the most lucrative contract in local news history.

But that was nothing compared to the station’s numbers with Martin at 11 p.m. Helped also by the station’s series on Judge Lance Ito and the huge lead-in audience delivered by CBS’ miniseries “Scarlet,” Channel 2’s late news jumped 80% over last year and leapfrogged over slumping KABC, which lost about 8% of its audience, into second place.

KNBC gained about 25,000 households from the previous year to win the advertising-rich 11 p.m. competition. Channel 4 also convincingly won the early-morning news battle from 6 to 7 a.m., increasing its audience by nearly 25%. KABC finished second, KTLA third and KTTV fourth.

Among the independents, “The KTLA Morning News” continued to pound all competitors at 7 a.m., easily knocking off all three network morning shows and KTTV’s local offering. KTLA again won the 10 p.m. news battle with a gain of 13% over last year.

At the network level, CBS won the sweeps competition in total households, followed by ABC, NBC and Fox.

But in what most executives consider the far more important demographic categories for which advertisers pay a premium, ABC was first among adults aged 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 and tied with NBC for top honors among adults aged 25 to 54.