Independents Begin to Eye Non-War Shows

Despite the Iraqi missile attack on Israel hours earlier, three of the four local independent TV stations switched from news to entertainment programs in prime time Thursday night. They were responding at least in part to what Jeff Wald, KCOP Channel 13’s news director, called a “deluge” of phone calls from viewers asking for some relief from the sobering, nonstop details of the war.

“We’ve got hundreds of calls from viewers saying they can get the news from the three networks and CNN,” Wald said Friday. “Being a news junkie, I don’t agree with that, but I understand that there is an audience that wants to escape from all the negative stuff that’s going on in the war.”

Nevertheless, early in the evening Thursday, more than 60% of all televisions in the Los Angeles area were tuned to news of the attack.

Wald said he regretted his decision to switch to entertainment programming at 7:30 p.m. Thursday because the Israeli ambassador to the United States issued his reaction to the attack shortly thereafter. The station aired the short speech on tape during its regular 10 p.m. newscast.

Down the block, KCAL Channel 9, which unlike the other independents had been on the air with constant news coverage since the war began Wednesday afternoon, decided “literally 90 seconds before tip-off” at 7:30 p.m. to switch from news to a previously scheduled Lakers basketball game, according to a station spokeswoman Suzanne Lowe. She said the station had received at least 30 calls asking for the basketball game.

“It was a very difficult decision and I don’t know if it was right,” she said. “But it was made because we were at a point where we were largely broadcasting repetitive information. But we made it clear that we would interrupt the game if anything new happened.”

KTTV Channel 11 also switched to Fox’s regular prime-time schedule at 8 p.m. Thursday. KTLA Channel 5, which had aired regular entertainment fare earlier in the day, switched to news when the attack on Israel became known and stayed with news until 11 p.m.

As for the Nielsen ratings, a repeat of “The Simpsons” on Channel 11 won the 8 p.m. time period with a 13 rating and 19% share of the available audience (each rating point represents 50,263 homes), beating news on KABC Channel 7, KNBC Channel 4, KCBS Channel 2, CNN and KTLA, the Lakers game and the movie “The Jerk” on Channel 13.

Although the total area television sets in use on the second night of the war was down from the huge number of the previous evening, 40% of the L.A. area’s 5 million total television households--more than 2 million homes--were tuned to news on the three networks, Channel 5 and CNN between 8 and 10 Thursday night. About 1 million homes were tuned to entertainment on the other three VHF stations.