KTTV’s 10 O’Clock News Pulls Into a Tie

For the first time since Hal Fishman was hired to anchor the news at KTLA-TV Channel 5 in 1975, his 10 p.m. newscast is not the undisputed ratings champion.

Buoyed by an enviable ratings performance in prime time here, Fox-owned KTTV-TV Channel 11’s 10 p.m. news tied Channel 5 in the February sweeps, according to data released Thursday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

Last year, KTTV’s newscast, anchored then as now by John Beard and Christine Devine, trailed KTLA by more than 60,000 households in the February sweeps. But last year, Fox finished fourth in prime time here behind all three major networks. This February, that prime-time lineup, which includes “The X-Files,” “Melrose Place” and “Married . . . With Children,” ended up second, ahead of both KABC-TV Channel 7 and KCBS-TV Channel 2. KNBC-TV Channel 4 was first.

Greg Nathanson, KTLA’s general manager, pointed to the huge lead-in disparity--KTTV outpointed KTLA by an average of 250,000 viewers in prime time every night--as the reason for the tie at 10 p.m. On Fridays, he said, the station’s newscast “really gets beat up” because “The X-Files” on Fox delivers as many as 650,000 more households to KTTV’s news.

Fridays have long been a problem for KTLA anyway because its usual 10 p.m. news audience often turns to ABC’s newsmagazine “20/20” instead.

“Their Friday advantage is just so strong that it keeps them in the game,” Nathanson said of KTTV. “We beat them just about every other night. Also, there was no big local story [last] month like flooding or the O.J. story and people especially come to KTLA for those big stories. But even so, we still should beat them.”

Jose Rios, KTTV’s news director, acknowledged the strength of the Fox lead-in, but he said that Channel 11’s newscast has been catching up gradually over the last few years, and just last November passed KTLA in all young-adult demographics--including ages 25 to 54--even as it lost in total households because of KTLA’s large over-50 audience.

Rios attributed much of his station’s success to its aggressive coverage of major events--KTTV sent a reporter to New Hampshire to report on the presidential primary, while KTLA did not, for example. And, he said, viewers come to the newscast for its investigative sweeps series on topics such as cracks in the criminal justice system and mothers struggling to keep kids out of gangs. KTTV also presents stories on lifestyle issues such as diet ideas, the “date rape pill” and celebrity interviews that are designed to attract the younger-skewing viewers from Fox’s prime-time shows.

KTLA, meanwhile, unlike nearly every other station in the market, has never designed news series specifically for sweeps, preferring to retain its more traditional style of news year-round.

Still, it was only last summer, on the occasion of his 35th anniversary of broadcasting in this market, that Fishman was blaming some of KTTV’s ratings gains on the fact that his newscast was often preempted for baseball games during the spring and summer. “Let me be very blunt,” he said then. “When there’s a level playing field, no one comes near us.”

While that didn’t hold for the 10 p.m. news in February, however, it did for KTLA’s other news show, the morning news from 7 to 9 a.m., which convincingly beat the competition on KTTV as well as the three network morning shows based in New York.

Nationally, NBC easily won its fifth consecutive sweeps period in prime time. CBS, which has struggled this season, finished second in total households over ABC and Fox, but the network trailed both of them in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 and 18-to-34 demographics.

The February sweeps are one of four ratings annual ratings periods used by some local stations to set advertising rates. And for bragging rights.

As for bragging among the area’s network-owned stations, the battle in news remained about the same. KNBC-TV Channel 4 won big at 6 a.m. and, bolstered by NBC’s great success in prime time, scored its highest rating in a decade to capture the lucrative 11 p.m. news race.

KABC-TV Channel 7 was second in both time periods, but it triumphed again in all three afternoon newscasts. KNBC was second there, while KCBS Channel 2 was third both in the afternoon and at 11 p.m.

Meanwhile, Spanish-language KMEX-TV Channel 34 continued its rapid climb in news ratings both at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. While the station still trails its English-language competitors in those time periods, the station trumpeted its great appeal to the younger adult demographics.

For the month of January, for example, the station’s 6 p.m. news hour beat the English-language newscasts among viewers 18 to 34, 18 to 19 and 25 to 54. At 11 p.m., it beat news on KNBC, KABC and KCBS among the 18-to-34 crowd, despite far fewer total households. While demographic data for the February sweeps will not be available for a few weeks, KMEX spokespeople said they expect the results to be similar.

Without the competition from live coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial, “Oprah Winfrey’s” ratings at 3 p.m. on KABC jumped nearly 25% over last February, enabling her to easily retain her title as local talk-show queen.

And hometown fave Jay Leno and “The Tonight Show” triumphed both in the national ratings and by an even wider margin here on KNBC. “Nightline” on KABC finished second in the late-night arena, while “The Late Show With David Letterman” trailed in third.

ABC’s Peter Jennings was the preferred network news anchor both here and across the country. NBC’s Tom Brokaw was second and CBS’ Dan Rather came in third.

In the entertainment/tabloid news business, “Extra,” airing at 7 p.m. on KNBC, scored higher than both “Hard Copy” and “Entertainment Tonight” on KCBS. “Entertainment Tonight,” which airs at 7:30 p.m., did beat KNBC’s lame duck “A Current Affair” head-to-head. All of them lost, however, to the 7-8 p.m. champion of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” on KABC, as well as to KTTV’s boisterous hour of “Home Improvement” and “Simpsons” repeats.