Newsy Month Can’t Boost Sagging Ratings

With a nudge from a month of “Seinfeld” hype, KNBC-TV Channel 4 put a stranglehold on the local television news race during the May ratings sweeps, winning all major head-to-head battles with chief rival KABC-TV Channel 7, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen Media Research.

But the news for local news, especially in the afternoon, is far from rosy, even for champ Channel 4. Despite a newsy month that included a heated battle for governor, new nuclear threats around the world, the death of Frank Sinatra and an unusually rainy spring, both Channels 4 and 7 saw their audiences dwindle substantially from a year ago for their 2 1/2-hour news blocks that begin at 4 p.m.

Part of their problem appears to be KCAL-TV Channel 9’s robed ratings ruler, “Judge Judy,” which, as the centerpiece of the station’s surging afternoon lineup, actually knocked off Channel 4’s formerly hot “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” at 3 p.m.

“Judge Judy” did trail perennial talk queen, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” on Channel 7. Still, Channel 9’s daytime lineup--which includes companion legal show “The People’s Court” and several hours of news--beat every station in the market from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. except Channel 7. KCAL’s 3:30 p.m. news, for example, scored a respectable 4.1 rating (each point represents about 50,000 homes), higher than any program that airs on KCBS-TV Channel 2 the entire day before the start of prime time at 8 p.m.

Channel 2 again finished third in all news races behind Channels 4 and 7, as the boost the station received from the Winter Olympics last February failed to push it out of the cellar in the first major test since those snowy days in Japan.

The May sweeps are one of four annual ratings periods used by some local stations to set advertising rates--and, of course, to establish bragging rights about who is No. 1.

Channel 4 crowed Thursday about victories in news in the early morning, 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. slots. But Channel 4’s “Rosie O’Donnell” was nonetheless down 25% from a year ago, while the station’s winning 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts declined 8% and 17%, respectively.

Similarly, Channel 7 watched as “Oprah” slipped 14% compared to last May, while its 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts each dropped a similar amount.

The best news for Channel 4 came at 11 p.m., the most-watched and most-lucrative news-time period of the day, as the station rode NBC’s lopsided prime-time victory to its 25th consecutive sweeps win at 11 p.m. Channel 4’s audience grew in the time period about 6% from a year ago, while rivals Channel 7 and Channel 2 each dropped about 12%. Channel 2, however, closed to within 20,000 homes of distantly second-place Channel 7 when weekend newscasts are included in the final rankings.

The “Jerry Springer Show” saw no dampening in its popularity, helping Channel 9 to win the 11 p.m.-midnight hour outright over every station in the market. Neither “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” “Nightline” nor “Late Night With David Letterman” put up much of a fight against “Springer.”

KTTV-TV Channel 11 won the 10 p.m. news race for the seventh consecutive major sweeps, propelled by a Fox prime-time lineup that finished behind only NBC here. KTLA-TV Channel 5 was second, trailing by about 40,000 homes, even though Channel 11 enjoys a lead-in advantage for programs immediately preceding the news of more than 250,000 homes.

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Channel 9 finished a respectable third in the 10 p.m. news competition while KCOP-TV Channel 13 again brought up the rear.

Channel 5’s morning news program struggled again, surpassing Channel 11’s rival program from 7 to 9 a.m. by just 20,000 households and lagging behind two network programs out of New York, “Good Morning America” on Channel 7 and “Today” on Channel 4. Last year, Channel 5’s “KTLA Morning News” easily won its time period.

Tom Brokaw on NBC and Peter Jennings on ABC finished in a virtual dead heat with their respective national news programs at 6:30 p.m. Last year, Jennings on Channel 7 held a commanding 50,000-home lead. Dan Rather’s “CBS Evening News” managed just half the audience of his two rivals at 5:30 p.m. on Channel 2.

Channel 2’s third-place local news team was able to beat KMEX-TV Channel 34’s hour of news in Spanish at 6 p.m., however, as the Spanish-language station suffered a 33% falloff from last May, when it had easily beaten its English-speaking competitor.

And finally, “Seinfeld” might be the king of prime time, but even with all the hoopla, reruns of the departed-sitcom on Channel 5 at 7:30 p.m. could not overcome that old standby, “Wheel of Fortune,” on KABC.