In Heated News-at-10 Rivalry, KTTV Sweeps Past KTLA

The rivalry between KTLA Channel 5 and KTTV Channel 11 escalated during the just-completed May sweeps, with competitive news face-offs that resulted in an exchange of barbs between executives at the two stations.

KTTV’s “Fox News at 10,” which tied in ratings with KTLA’s “News at 10,” during the November sweeps, was a decisive winner in May, according to local Nielsen figures released Thursday. Meanwhile, the seesaw battle between “The KTLA Morning News” and KTTV’s “Good Day L.A.” ended in a tie for third place in the morning race.

Executives at KTLA (owned by Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times) charged that the ratings don’t tell the whole story, pointing out that KTTV only put on a full hour of news at 10 p.m. 3 1/2 nights a week, filling the rest of the time with specials and other programming. They also noted that KTTV inexplicably cut to a live car chase from Phoenix, charging that the decision to broadcast the out-of-state pursuit was solely to increase ratings.

KTLA News Director Jeff Wald said, “They have to do what they have to do. But we’re proud of what we do. We put on a full hour of news [the whole week].”

“They should spend their time worrying about what they’re doing, but we’ll put our news broadcast up against anyone in the market as far as quality,” countered KTTV News Director Jose Rios.

Status quo reigned in most other traditional sweeps battles, though some of those figure to shift in the months ahead, as the local television market undergoes changes due to a revised ownership landscape--including plans to move KCOP Channel 13’s low-rated 10 p.m. newscast to 11 p.m., where it won’t have to compete with sister station KTTV.

Among the network-owned stations, KNBC, benefiting from its network’s strong prime-time lineup, won the 11 p.m. news race for the 24th consecutive sweeps, coming in ahead of KABC and third-place KTLA, which airs reruns of “Friends.” KCBS Channel 2 continued to struggle in the time period, dropping 27% compared with last May and finishing fifth in the time period.

KABC, meanwhile, which has its own lead-in advantage in the afternoons coming out of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” stayed on top at 4, 5 and 6 p.m., followed by KNBC. KABC General Manager Arnie Kleiner said the news was helped by sending local reporters to Israel and Rome. “We’re a local station that is willing to go anywhere in the world to bring local viewers news,” he said.

ABC’s “Good Morning America,” which took over the top spot from traditional front-runner “Today” on NBC in the November sweep, continued its winning streak, increasing its ratings by 26% from last May. In the meantime, CBS’ “The Early Show,” which has always lagged behind in the morning, dropped 11% in ratings, coming in fourth place. Host Bryant Gumbel left the show last week.

KCAL’s three-hour prime-time news block from 8 to 11 p.m. showed growth, increasing 11% from May 2001. However, the station’s main anchor, Jerry Dunphy, died this week after being hospitalized and off the air for several days.

KCOP Channel 13’s ratings for its 10 p.m. newscast dropped 17% from last May, but the station still had cause to celebrate thanks to its acquisition of Los Angeles Dodger broadcasts from KTLA. The ratings for May games were 42% higher on KCOP than they had been on KTLA last year.

The just-completed sweeps represents the end of an era--the last survey before a series of changes brought about by various station sales and mergers takes effect. Insiders will be watching closely in November to determine how the local news market and ratings will be effected by several duopolies--consolidations in which a single company owns two television stations in the same city. The relaxing of rules by the Federal Communications Commission governing TV ownership in 1999 has led to several duopolies and new marketing strategies by the management of the newly linked stations.

Viacom, which owns KCBS, acquired KCAL earlier this month, and this week KCAL ran promotional spots for KCBS’ news during its broadcast of Monday’s Lakers-Kings game.

News Corp., meanwhile, purchased KCOP last year, giving Fox control over that station and KTTV. The stations announced Thursday that beginning June 3, KCOP will shorten its evening news to a half-hour and move it to 11 p.m., where it will compete against veteran newscasts on KCBS, KNBC and KABC instead of KTTV. The station will fill the 10 p.m. hour with reruns of “Seinfeld” and “Frasier.”

“We feel these comedies will give KCOP both great counter-programming to the other local stations and will give the station a solid lead-in for UPN 13 News at 11 p.m.,” said John Frenzel, programming director for KTTV and KCOP.

Prime-time ratings remained high but unchanged from the same ratings period last year for KMEX-TV (Channel 34), the flagship station for Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network.

KMEX easily beat its main competition, KVEA-TV (Channel 52), the local affiliate of Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language television network in the country, whose local prime-time ratings dipped 13% from last May. NBC recently completed its purchase of Telemundo, which hopes to benefit both locally and nationally from a cooperative relationship between those networks.

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Times staff writer Dana Calvo contributed to this story.