‘Children’ Boosts KTTV, ‘Family’ Sinks KCAL : Television: October ratings show ‘Married . . . With Children’ reruns tripling Channel 11’s audience. Channel 9 slips to last with ‘Hogan Family’ repeats.
The first month of the new TV season brought little change in the pecking order among Los Angeles’ seven VHF stations. KNBC Channel 4 still leads in most news time periods, Oprah Winfrey continues as talk champ and reruns of “Hunter†again killed all comers at the dinner hour, according to figures for the October ratings period released Thursday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.
Among new locally produced and syndicated shows, the big winners were reruns of “Married . . . With Children†on KTTV Channel 11 and “Full House†on KTLA Channel 5. The big losers were “The Maury Povich Show†on KCBS Channel 2 and KCAL Channel 9’s entire early evening lineup, especially reruns of “The Hogan Family.â€
The October ratings book is not as important as the three key sweeps periods in November, February and May, which help determine advertising rates as well as promotional bragging rights at the local stations. But it does provide an indication as to how Los Angeles’ nearly 4.9 million television households feel about the heavily promoted new programming lineups that premiered last month.
“Married . . . With Children†reruns tripled KTTV’s audience weeknights at 7 p.m. from a year ago, catapulting the station from worst to first in the lucrative time slot with a 9 rating and 15% share of the available audience (each rating point represents 48,751 homes). The often controversial sitcom beat such syndicated stalwarts as “Wheel of Fortune,†“Entertainment Tonight,†“Inside Edition,†“Star Trek†and “Love Connection.â€
Geraldo Rivera’s new tabloid show, “Now It Can Be Told,†finished last in the 7 p.m. period on KTLA with less than half the audience of “Married . . . With Children.â€
“Full House†was the second-highest-rated new show locally, vaulting KTLA into third at 7:30 p.m. behind the syndicated powerhouses “Jeopardy†on KCBS Channel 2 and “Hard Copy†on KNBC. KABC-TV Channel 7’s new “Candid Camera,†featuring Dom DeLuise, finished a distant fifth in this time period.
Povich’s new talk show at 3 p.m. on KCBS bombed, trailing cartoons, “Knight Rider,†“People’s Court†and chief talk rivals “Oprah Winfrey†and “Donahue.†KABC’s “Oprah†grabbed nearly four times as many viewers as Povich, while “Donahue†on KNBC more than doubled it. Meanwhile, Povich’s old show, “A Current Affair,†which airs at 7:30 p.m. on KTTV, increased its numbers 20% over last fall, when Povich was the host.
KCAL’s 5-8 p.m. lineup sunk to last as fresh reruns of “The Hogan Family†at 5:30 p.m., some featuring original series star Valerie Harper, and “Perfect Strangers†at 7:30 p.m. left the station with very little to laugh about. Still, ratings for the station’s three-hour, prime-time newscast scooted ahead more than 16% over a year ago, despite the weak lead-in.
The good news for KTLA is that neither time nor competition cut into the dominance of anchorman Hal Fishman and Fred Dryer as “Hunter.†“Hunter†repeats again won the 6 p.m. hour, slaying local news, all three network newscasts, “Cosby†“The Golden Girls†and “Studs.†Meanwhile, KTLA again finished as the top-rated independent news at 10 p.m., easily outdistancing KTTV, KCAL and KCOP Channel 13.
The bad news for KTLA is that the station’s new morning newscast managed only a 1.8 rating between 7 and 9 a.m., nearly 30% less than the numbers the station earned last May with such reruns as “The Brady Bunch†and “Laverne & Shirley.†On the other hand, it drew a larger audience than “This Morning†on KCBS, while trailing both “Today†on KNBC and “Good Morning America†on KABC.
KNBC looked strong in local news, winning big in the early-morning hours and again at 11 p.m. Rival KABC won the 4 p.m. news battle, according to Nielsen, and the 5 p.m. race as measured by Arbitron, but Channel 4 swept the 6 p.m. newscast in both ratings services.
Channel 2 trailed its network-owned competitors in all news time periods, but thanks to a strong prime-time showing by CBS, the station inched very close to KABC at 11 p.m.
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