KTLA Wins a Round in 10 O’Clock News Fight

The 10 p.m. news war between KTLA-TV and KTTV-TV, which usually has ended in victory for KTTV, took a surprise turn during the just-concluded November sweeps, with KTLA coming out on top, according to local Nielsen figures released Thursday.

The rivalry between the two stations has been getting increasingly hotter during the last ratings sweeps period, and it was the first time since March 1996 that KTLA has triumphed over KTTV.

“It’s amazing how things have changed,” said KTLA “News at 10” anchor and managing editor Hal Fishman. He attributed the victory to a decrease in Fox’s prime-time lineup, and the fact that “people have stuck around to see what we do because they know we’re always there.”

Conceding initial victory, KTTV news director Jose Rios said, “Congratulations to them. [“News at 10” co-anchor] Terry Anzur is a terrific anchor, and Hal is very good, too. They’ve got a good news team, and they worked hard. But there might be a different story when the demographics come out at the end of December. If the past holds true, it will be much better for us.”

The November sweeps is one of three major ratings periods that stations and networks use to determine advertising rates.

KABC-TV’s “Eyewitness News” also had reason to celebrate. The newscast beat traditional winner KNBC-TV for its 4, 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts. Station executives said it was the first time in three years that the station’s newscast had beat all its competitors during those time periods.

Said station president and general manager Arnie Kleiner: “This is our finest 2 1/2 hours. Every one of our newscasts has gone up. We have almost all new producers, and we’re really focused. We have a much better feel now in the newsroom and for what viewers want to see.”

However, KABC’s daytime success and the phenomenon of ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” which airs on KABC, did not help the station’s 11 p.m. newscast. KNBC still came ahead of KABC at 11 p.m. In fact, the KNBC newscast beat KABC by 28% in rating and 27% in share. KNBC also was the winner in the fiercely competitive early morning derby, winning the 5, 5:30 and 6 a.m. time slots.

In the meantime, “The Price Is Right” and Bob Barker helped to salvage KCBS-TV’s daytime lineup. The game show replaced “The Match Game” and “Inside Edition” at 3 p.m., and the time period for KCBS shows a 155% increase in ratings over last year.

Talk-show queen “Oprah Winfrey” came out on top again among syndicated shows of that format, while “Rosie O’Donnell,” which airs locally at 3 p.m. against Winfrey on KNBC, experienced a 16% drop over last year. In addition, the fight continues to go out of “The Jerry Springer Show,” which has edited out its controversial brawls. Springer, which airs on KCAL-TV, has dropped more than 40% in ratings from last year.

Spanish-language television reported good ratings compared to last November, particularly in their morning programming. KMEX-TV, the flagship station of the monster Spanish-language network Univision, said its audience doubled from 0.9% to 1.8% for its early morning news program, which airs at 6 a.m. The much smaller national Spanish-language network Telemundo only looks at itself within the Spanish-language marketplace. It boasted gains in viewership during certain time segments at its local affiliate, KVEA-TV. According to the station, its market share increased for weekday morning programs from 9 to 16 in the past year, a 40% gain.

Times staff writer Dana Calvo contributed to this story.