Channel Surfing
by Laura Nachman
May 27, 2003

The May sweeps period is in the books and the big question is did WCAU management do the right thing by pulling anchor Larry Mendte off the 11 p.m. news?  According to the numbers, the answer is yes and no.  With Tim Lake filling the seat at 11 p.m., WCAU finished with a 10.5 rating/17.5 share, placing it a point and a half behind WPVI's 12 rating/20 share, WPVI's largest margin of victory in the last four ratings periods.  However NBC's primetime lineup was down 14% from last May, and the news was only down 7%.   

       Mendte, who is using up his five weeks of accrued vacation, probably gave his last newscast for WCAU on Friday.  His contract expires in August and it looks like he will move to KYW to anchor the 6 p.m. news and possibly the 4 p.m. news to follow "Dr. Phil."  
       KYW, with Marc Howard finished in third place at 11 p.m. with a 5.7 rating/9.6 share. WTXF, which had the incredible 8 rating in February, dropped to a 5.9 rating/8.2 share at 10 p.m.  WPHL 10 p.m. show lagged behind with a 2.3 rating/3 share, not much better than "The Hughleys" on WPSG, which had a 2 rating/3 share at 11 p.m.
       In other ratings stories, the most popular newscast of the day is the 6 p.m. show on WPVI anchored by Jim Gardner, which had a 13 rating/24.4 share. Philly loves "The Simpsons" on WTXF, as it beats "The CBS Evening News" at 6:30 p.m. and is in second place behind WPVI's "Jeopardy" at 7 p.m. In the morning, "KYW Newsradio on WPSG" is taking away viewers from WTXF's "Good Day Philadelphia," which is under a 2 rating.  Also noteworthy at 5 p.m., WPVI's news with Rick Williams and Monica Malpass had its lowest ratings in several ratings periods with a 10 rating/24 share, but it still was comfortably ahead of WCAU's news and third place "Judge Judy" on WTXF. Though Wayne Brady won the Daytime Emmy award for best talk show and best talk show host, he continues to underperform in the 10 a.m. slot for WPVI with a 3.4 rating/11.6 share, down 43 percent from last year.  Other timeslot winners were the WPVI news from 5-7 a.m., "Good Morning America" from 7-9 a.m. on WPVI, "Regis and Kelly" on WPVI at 9 a.m., "Wayne Brady" at 10 a.m. on WPVI, "The Price is Right" on KYW at 11 a.m., "Action News" at 12 p.m., "One Life to Live" on WPVI at 2 p.m., "General Hospital" on WPVI at 3 p.m. (barely ahead of KYW's "Dr. Phil."), "Oprah" with a commanding lead over WCAU's News at 4 p.m., "Action News at 5 p.m.," "Action News at 6 p.m.," ""ABC News with Peter Jennings" at 6:30," "Jeopardy" at 7 p.m., "Wheel of Fortune" at 7:30 p.m.  Every show except "The Price is Right" was on WPVI.
       The next major sweeps period is in November. 
       A big reason that Angel Ortiz did not get re-elected to Philadelphia City Council was the "Fox Undercover" report on WTXF that exposed that Ortiz drove for 25 years without a driver's license. 
WCAU reporter Lisa Kelly is expecting a baby in July.
       LaSalle University student John Ogden, the winner of "The Greatest Summer Gig Ever" on WCAU, aka the traffic contest begins this week.
       A reader reports that former KYW weather anchor Linda Gialanella, who was mentioned in the column last week, is a weathercaster in Tampa, Florida and the mother of twins.