‘Channel 4 News’ Triumphs Despite KABC’s ‘Millionaire’

Despite the phenomenal success of ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” KNBC-TV continued its dominance over KABC-TV, the local home of “Millionaire,” in the highly competitive 11 p.m. news wars during the just-concluded February sweeps, according to local Nielsen figures released Thursday.

The “Channel 4 News” at 11 p.m. scored its 39th consecutive victory over its rival, KABC’s “Eyewitness News,” by 13% in rating and 13% in share. The triumph came even though several installments of “Millionaire” propelled ABC to a February sweeps win over the other networks.

KNBC news director Nancy Bauer Gonzalez credited the win to the reporting and anchor teams, saying the newscast had become the one viewers turn to at 11 p.m. no matter what channel they have watched in prime time: “They’ve come to know us, and they come to us regardless of what is happening.”

KABC, on the other hand, had little reason to fret. In addition to finishing in second place at 11 p.m., the “Eyewitness News” broadcasts during the critical periods of 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. extended their consecutive sweeps win streaks over traditional front-runner KNBC. It was the second time in three years that KABC had beaten all its afternoon news rivals.

Said general manager and vice president Arnie Kleiner: “This is not a fast turnaround. We’ve been moving in this direction since last May, and we expect the trend to continue. We’re a lot more focused than we were, a lot more stable. We don’t have this frantic turnover we had three or four years ago.” He added that the mixed cultural diversity of the station’s anchor teams also contributed to its success.

The February sweeps are one of three major ratings periods that networks and stations use to determine advertising rates. The other major sweeps are in May and November.

In the hotly contested 10 p.m. local news race, KTLA-TV once again defeated rival KTTV-TV. KTLA won in November, which marked the first time since 1996 that the station had beaten KTTV.

Jeff Wald, news director of KTLA, said he was including more reports from the field in the newscast, and has added an entertainment reporter. “There’s a new life and energy to the show,” he said.

KTTV news director Jose Rios said that his 10 p.m. broadcast had younger, more preferable demographics than KTLA. “We’re doing good journalism here,” he said. “We just need to figure out how to get our ratings a little higher.”

New anchors Rick Chambers and Lauren Sanchez, who arrived in December, proved to be a boost for KCOP-TV in the 10 p.m. time slot. The newscast anchored by Chambers, formerly at KNBC, and Sanchez received a 40% hike in ratings and 50% increase in viewer share over last February.

In syndicated fare, there were various hits and misses.

“Jerry Springer,” which used to be among the top winners weeknights in the 11 p.m. time period because of its raucous language and slugfests, has fallen to a fifth-place tie with “The Simpsons,” which airs on KTTV. “Springer,” which airs locally on KCAL-TV, has cut down on its violence, and its audience has diminished.

Among talk-show hosts, Oprah Winfrey remained on top. Rosie O’Donnell, whose performance as host at the Grammys last week came in for criticism, saw her afternoon talk show dip 15% in ratings from last February.

Robin Givens, who replaced Mother Love in January as host of the talk-relationship show “Forgive or Forget,” failed to pull in new viewers. The show dropped 35% in rating and 40% in viewer share from November, when Love was host.