KNBC-TV Maintains Its Lead on Most Local News Fronts

Despite a high-profile investigative series on supermarket sanitation infractions on KCBS-TV and heavily promoted Monica Lewinsky-related features on KABC-TV, KNBC-TV continued its dominance in most of the local news races during the just-concluded February sweeps, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen Media Research.

KNBC scored victories over its rivals in most of the late-afternoon newscasts, including the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. broadcasts. The station maintained its top position at 11 p.m. despite a last-minute blitz by KABC’s Wednesday “Eyewitness News,” which benefited from the “20/20” interview with Lewinsky.

The February sweeps are one of four annual ratings periods used by most stations to set advertising rates, as well as providing promotional bragging rights about who is No. 1 in the market.

A downward trend seemed to cloud most of the local newscasts as well as viewership overall, with reports of an audience drop-off from last year. With many viewers opting for cable news channels, some news directors are beginning to express concern.

“What seems to be happening is that audiences are relying much less on local news,” said one news director.

Meanwhile, much of the fight seems to have gone out of “The Jerry Springer Show,” the controversial talk show-brawl that airs on KCAL-TV daily. The show, which tied KNBC for the top spot at 11 p.m. last February, plunged 48% in ratings from last February, when it was attracting national attention because of its routine slugfests. Studios USA, which produces “Springer,” ordered the fights edited or filmed in a way that no punches are shown, a technique that apparently has turned off viewers.

The decline in “Springer” is not unexpected, said KCAL General Manager Don Corsini, who maintained that “Springer” was at its hottest last February. The station is still dominant in late-night programming after “Springer,” particularly with the dating program “Change of Heart,” he said.

KCAL is also crowing about its 3 to 4 p.m. combo of “Judge Judy” and its 3:30 p.m. newscast, which is beating the Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O’Donnell talk shows.

In another traditionally close and hot race, Fox 11 News at 10 again beat out KTLA’s “News at 10,” continuing the winning streak it has held since February 1996.

KTLA had more bad news on the morning front. Although “The KTLA Morning News” at 7 a.m. still beat rival “Good Day L.A.” on Fox’s KTTV-TV, the KTLA newscast dropped 11% in rating and 15% in share, while the Fox newscast grew 43% in rating and 25% in share.

Meanwhile, Spanish-language station KMEX-TV got a boost from two popular prime-time telenovelas to become the third-most-watched station in the market in weeknight prime time with a 8.1 rating. That marked an 8% jump from last February, when the Univision affiliate ranked fifth overall.

The station’s best-performing program was the Mexican soap opera “La Mentira,” which averaged a 9.2 household rating for the 9 p.m. hour, up 14% over the same period last year.

But KMEX’s February numbers were actually down from a month ago. In January, KMEX was Southern California’s top-ranked station in all key weeknight prime-time demographics.