KNBC’s News Ratings Stand Up Competition

Even though the station battled the formidable challenge of the Winter Olympics for much of last month, KNBC-TV Channel 4 nonetheless once again outpaced its rivals in the local news race during the just-concluded February ratings sweeps. But the show that grabbed the gold medal in the local ratings war was none other than the rock-’em, sock-’em, bleep-’em “The Jerry Springer Show.”

The lowbrow talk program, which more than doubled its audience of a year ago, finished in a dead heat with Channel 4’s news for first place in the ultra-competitive 11 p.m. time period, easily besting all other challengers.

Springer’s strong local showing mirrors the continuing popularity growth he is enjoying nationally. Figures released this week showed him beating “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for the first time ever during a week in February to rank as the top-rated talk show in syndication.

The February sweeps, which ended Wednesday night and coincided this year with the Winter Olympics, are one of four annual ratings periods used by some local stations to set advertising rates--and, of course, to establish bragging rights to who is No. 1.

KCBS-TV Channel 2, the station that aired the Olympics from Japan, did benefit significantly from the much larger than usual audience tuned in for the games. Its 11 p.m. newscast, which followed CBS’ prime-time Olympics coverage, finished second to Channel 4 and ahead of KABC-TV Channel 7 for the four-week sweeps period--the first time it has surpassed either rival in nearly four years. But once the Olympics ended and the big lead-in advantage disappeared, Channel 2’s ratings plummeted, pushing the station back to a distant third.

During the Olympics, for example, Channel 2’s 11 p.m. weeknight news averaged about 485,000 households each night. But for the nine non-Olympics weeknights of the sweeps, the station managed just 250,000 households. Meanwhile, both Channel 4 and Channel 7 saw their numbers rise once the prime-time competition returned to normal. The same holds true when weekend numbers are included.

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But John Culliton, Channel 2’s general manager, said Thursday he was heartened by the fact that KCBS’ ratings increased over a year ago at 11 p.m., even when the Olympics are excluded. He also pointed out that while the station’s 6 p.m. news still trails both channels 7 and 4, that show’s audience jumped 58% compared to last February.

“We won’t be instantly competitive all at once just because of the Olympics,” Culliton said of his news department, which has languished in last place for most of the past two decades. “But the impact of the Olympics and the added exposure it brought us will be told as we go forward over the next few months.”

Channel 4, which won every news battle in last November’s sweeps period, again proved its dominance in February by winning in the early morning, at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. The station also posted the highest-rated midday newscast at 11 a.m., although the relative strengths of these broadcasts are difficult to assess because they air in different time periods on the various stations rather than head to head.

Channel 7, with new anchor Michelle Tuzee teamed with veteran Marc Brown, managed to win the 6 p.m. newscast competition by a slim margin. But that same anchor team lost at 4 p.m. to Channel 4, despite a 15% jump in ratings over last year and the fact that Channel 7 enjoyed a fat lead-in advantage provided by “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

As for “Jerry Springer,” the often-critized show, which airs weeknights on KCAL-TV Channel 9 from 11 p.m. to midnight, was the most-watched program in that hour, matched only by Channel 4’s top-rated newscast. “Springer” beat all other news programs, including ABC’s “Nightline,” and all other talk shows, including “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and “Late Show With David Letterman.”

Repeats of the program that air weekdays at 10 a.m. on KCAL also won that time period, besting longtime champ “The Price Is Right,” on Channel 2.

Competitors here said, however, that local news shows garner much higher advertising rates than “Springer,” despite that program’s larger number of viewers.

The 10 p.m. news race saw KTTV-TV Channel 11, riding the advantage provided by parent network Fox in prime time, again knock off KTLA-TV Channel 5 by approximately 40,000 homes each weeknight. Channel 9’s ratings jumped 30% over a year ago as it finished third in the 10 p.m. news competition. KCOP-TV Channel 13 again brought up the rear.

Meanwhile, Spanish-language station KMEX-TV Channel 34 saw its ratings for the 7-8 p.m. hour soar nearly 80% over February of last year, launching the soap “Esmerelda” into third place among all local programs in that advertiser-rich time period, lagging behind only Channel 7 with “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” and Channel 11’s reruns of “The Simpsons.”