KNBC Races to Top of the Sweeps Heap

NBC’s hugely popular coverage of the Winter Olympics predictably boosted the network’s owned-and-operated local station, KNBC-TV, to the gold-medal platform for the just-concluded February sweeps, according to local Nielsen ratings data released Thursday.

The Games averaged a 19.5 prime-time rating locally, virtually mirroring the NBC’s national average. That was despite the decision to delay coverage so it could play in prime time on the West Coast, even though some events were seen live in other time zones. (Each rating point equals a little more than 53,000 households, or 1% of the more than 5.3 million homes with television in the Los Angeles viewing area, the nation’s second-largest market behind New York City.)

KNBC’s 11 p.m. news, which traditionally beats rival newscasts on KABC-TV and KCBS-TV, handily came out on top again with prime-time Olympic coverage as a lead-in. Also, the station’s special early-evening newscast “Channel 4 News: Olympic Edition” triumphed over KABC’s syndicated “Jeopardy” and all other series at 7 p.m.

KABC’s “Eyewitness News,” meanwhile, continued its domination of the afternoon news race coming out of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” followed by KNBC and KCBS. KABC General Manager Arnie Kleiner said the station succeeded overall despite the Olympics.

“We didn’t give up the ghost,” Kleiner said. “Not everyone watches the Olympics. And we didn’t hold back. We introduced our Live Doppler 7000 [a real-time weather radar system], we went to Afghanistan, we went to Cuba, we didn’t spare expense to go where news was happening. We treated this sweeps like any other month.”

KCBS continued to struggle in the afternoon, with ratings for its 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts down 21% and 18%, respectively, from last February. In addition, KCBS’ “Judge Judy,” which was brought in last year at 4 p.m. to help boost the station’s afternoon news block, was down 26%.

Other local highlights included a new twist in the usually tight 10 p.m. news race between KTLA-TV (owned by Tribune Co., the owner of the Los Angeles Times) and Fox’s KTTV, as well as a shift in the morning competition.

KTTV’s “Fox News at 10,” which squeaked by KTLA’s “News at 10” last February, won somewhat more decisively this time around with a 3.7 rating to KTLA’s 3.4.

Still, the true success story at 10 p.m. belonged to KCOP-TV and its “UPN News at 10.” While KTTV and KTLA experienced ratings drops of 16% and 19%, respectively, KCOP’s newscast grew by 15% in the ratings, benefiting from UPN’s 22% increase in prime-time viewing versus last February, thanks to series such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “WWF Smackdown!” and “Enterprise.”

In the morning race, NBC’s “Today” show came out on top locally over ABC’s “Good Morning America” and CBS’ “The Early Show.” All three shows grew in viewership, with “The Early Show,” which has struggled to attract viewers, displaying a surprising 25% ratings burst from last year.

“The KTLA Morning News” had good and bad news in February. The newscast edged KTTV’s locally produced rival “Good Day L.A.” with a 2.8 rating to a 2.7; however, the KTLA program dropped 26% from last year, when Barbara Beck was an anchor along with Carlos Amezcua. Beck left the station in May and was replaced by Giselle Fernandez in October.

Meanwhile, “Good Day Live,” the syndicated version of “Good Day L.A.,” showed promise in its first major sweep, increasing the station’s time-period average at 10 a.m. by 50% from last February.

“The media focus has always been on us versus KTLA, but we don’t think about that,” said Jose Rios, KTTV’s news director. “We launched a new morning show, we’re expanding our franchise, and it’s doing really well, particularly in [key demographics].”

The new show is adding six markets to its lineup March 18, bringing the total number of cities in which it will be available to 14.

The Olympics seemed to have little effect on Spanish-language television, as prime-time viewing of both KMEX-TV (usually carried on Channel 34) and KVEA-TV (Channel 52) both rose, compared with the last major sweeps in November.

KMEX’s ratings grew from 4.5 to 4.8, while KVEA--the local home of the Telemundo network, which was recently purchased by NBC but did not get to enjoy any Olympic broadcast perks from its corporate parent--went from a 1.8 rating to 2.1. Both stations lost ground, however, from February 2001, with each down 10%.