Komo-TV Leads In Late News Ratings

After an aberrant February ratings period during which the winter Olympics skewed viewership, things returned somewhat to normal in the May television-news competition.

CBS-affiliate KIRO-TV (Channel 7), whose network broadcast the most successful televised winter games in history, in February showed huge gains and even won the 11 p.m. time period. In May, KIRO returned to third place.

But the 11 p.m. race is close, with less than two rating points separating the three major-network affiliates. Given the margin of error in the ratings, that could be considered too close to call.

KOMO-TV (Channel 4) now leads in the late news, followed by KING-TV (Channel 5) and KIRO. A year ago, KING was No. 1 at 11.

KSTW-TV (Channel 11), which has revamped its 10 p.m. news over the past six months and introduced a new co-anchor, Inga Hammond, during the May ratings, is up from February and a year ago.

At 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., the rankings are unchanged. KING leads at 5, following ratings-machine "Oprah" at 4. KOMO leads at 6:30, following ABC's top-rated "World News Tonight" at 6.

At 5 and 6:30, KIRO lost ground since the February and November ratings periods.

KIRO has had trouble finding a successful 4 p.m. program to lead viewers to the early-evening news block. In April, locally produced "Hour Northwest," a variety talk show, was moved from 4 p.m. to 3 p.m., replaced at 4 by "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol."

That change apparently hurt both "Hour Northwest" and KIRO's 5 p.m. news.

"Hour" dropped from a 2.7 rating at 4 p.m. in February to a 1.8 rating at 3 p.m. in May, a time slot dominated by KOMO's local talk show, "Northwest Afternoon," which led in May with a 5.2 rating.

A rating point represents 1 percent of households with televisions, or 14,277 households in Western Washington. The measurements, conducted by Nielsen Media Research, come from TV-set meters in approximately 400 homes.

--------------------- LOCAL TV NEWS RATINGS ---------------------

Preliminary Monday-through-Friday "sweeps" for metropolitan Seattle-Tacoma, May 1994. A 1.0 rating equals 1 percent of households with television, or 14,277 households. A 1.0 share equals 1 percent of households using television at that hour.

May 1994 Feb. 1994

Stations Rating/share Rating/share

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5 p.m. local news .

KING (5) 10.5 25% 12.5 25% .

KOMO (4) 8.7 21% 12.0 24% .

KIRO (7) 4.7 11% 6.8 14% .

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6 p.m. network news .

KOMO (ABC) 10.4 22% 13.7 24% .

KING (NBC) 9.4 20% 10.8 19% .

KIRO (CBS) 5.0 11% 8.3 15% .

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6:30 p.m. local news .

KOMO (4) 11.3 23% 14.3 24% .

KING (5) 8.5 17% 9.8 16% .

KIRO (7) 4.5 9% 7.7 13% .

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Late local news .

KOMO (4) 8.8 23% 10.7 26% (11 p.m.).

KING (5) 7.7 20% 9.2 21% (11 p.m.).

KIRO (7) 7.1 18% 8.4 20% (11 p.m.).

KSTW (11) 5.5 10% 4.7 8% (10 p.m.).

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Note: Bars bsed on ratings, not shares. SOURCE: Nielsen Media Research.