Fox’s KTTV Scores Big Sweeps Victory Over KTLA

Thursday was a good day for KTTV’s Fox 11 “Good Day L.A.” team, as they celebrated their first-ever major sweeps victory over the rival “KTLA Morning News,” based on local Nielsen Media Research figures for the just-completed November ratings period.

KTTV also beat KTLA (owned by Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times) in the competitive 10 p.m. news race. KTLA had won the last two major sweeps in that time period in the May and February survey periods.

Both stations were down in ratings from last year at 10 p.m., but KTLA’s rating fell 30% while KTTV dropped only 5%. The last time KTTV beat KTLA at 10 p.m. was May 1999.

KCOP Channel 13, which has not been much of a player in terms of its news operation, posted an increase of 30% in its ratings over a year ago for its 10 p.m. newscast, the only newscast to show an increase in that time period.

Turning to the major network-owned stations, KNBC-TV continued its dominance over second-ranked KABC-TV Channel 7 and third-ranked KCBS-TV Channel 2 during the 11 p.m. news wars, while KABC remained on top of the afternoon daytime race. KCBS also continued to struggle in the afternoon news race, despite some much-needed juice from “Judge Judy” as a lead-in to its news block, still coming in behind KABC and KNBC.

Fueled by the post-election story, NBC’s “The Today Show” earned its best ratings for network-owned-and-operated KNBC since July 1996 to grab the morning crown from ABC’s “Good Morning America.” The recently added third hour of “Today” at 9 a.m. also attracted the highest numbers for the station for that time period since May 1998. KTTV’s “Good Day L.A.” came in third in the morning, with the “KTLA Morning News,” which has regularly beat “Good Day L.A.,” landing in fourth place.

KTTV News Director Jose Rios expressed excitement over his station’s victories, particularly in the morning. He gave credit to the show’s producers and the on-air team of anchor Steve Edwards, entertainment reporter Dorothy Lucey and weather reporter Jillian Barberie, who continually poke fun at each other during the two-hour newscast.

“There’s been an ebb and flow, and for whatever reason, we’re moving up,” said Rios. “This is a very fun show to watch. Whenever people I meet find out what I do, the first thing they ask me about is ‘Good Day L.A.,’ if the people on there are like that all the time. They can be relaxed and having fun, but if something newsworthy happens, they can turn on a dime.”

He also said he was pleased with the win at 10 p.m over KTLA: “We worked very hard to do investigative reports, like looking at slave labor in L.A. and the Mexican Mafia in the Inland Empire.”

KTLA station manager Steve Ramsey downplayed the significance of KTTV’s victory.

“Everyone had a different ratings book in November than we would have if there was not this presidential election,” Ramsey said. “Everything has been affected by the presidential race and will be different when that story concludes. Viewers turn to a national news source like Fox when there’s a story like this, but we’ve shown ratings book after ratings book that people turn to us when there’s local news breaking. For instance, we had tremendous numbers on the day of the Target store hostage situation.”

In other local highlights, a heavily promoted series by KCAL Channel 9 anchor Pat Harvey, in which she traveled to AIDS-ravaged Africa and explored the tradition of female genital mutilation, failed to attract an increased audience for the station’s three-hour evening news block.

And “Jerry Springer,” the syndicated talk show that had been the dominant 11 p.m. show--beating all the newscasts at that hour--continues to lose steam despite a revamp of its format and a new set. “Springer,” which airs on KCAL, is now trailing all the local newscasts in its time slot as well as “Blind Date” on KCOP.

Meanwhile, Spanish-language television continues to make its mark on the local TV scene.

KMEX-TV Channel 34, the flagship station of the country’s largest Spanish-language television network, is now a presence among the predawn news programs with its 5 a.m. show “Primera Edicion,” which was launched last year. The show doubled its ratings from last November, tying KNBC’s “Today in L.A.”

Univision’s serial melodrama “Laberintos de Pasion” (“Labyrinths of Passion”), which airs from 9 to 10 p.m. on KMEX, also rated higher than CBS’ prime-time lineup on KCBS locally.

While KVEA-TV Channel 52--the local affiliate of Telemundo, the country’s other Spanish-language broadcast network--still trails far behind all the other stations, it scored notable gains. Overall, the station went up 50% in audience share and 71% in ratings compared to last November’s sweeps period. KVEA continues to benefit from the talk show “Laura en America,” which is shown at 4 p.m. Locally, the show’s ratings equaled those for “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” which airs on KNBC at 3 p.m.

The sweeps results issued Thursday are based on the number of households tuned in and not the number of people within those homes watching, which puts Spanish-language TV stations at a disadvantage since Latino families tend to be larger than non-Latino families. Nielsen will release viewing trends based on demographic data, breaking down various audience demographics, at the end of this month.