Channel Surfing
By Laura Nachman
[email protected]
Bucks County Courier Times
March 8, 2001
Despite NBC-10’s exhilaration over breaking 6ABC’s 25-year winning streak by taking the 11PM slot, overall, 6ABC had a fantastic February sweeps. It won every time slot from 6 AM to 8 PM except from 12:30-2 PM when the top rated soaps “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” were on KYW-3. The strong lead-ins of the news shows helped “Good Morning America,” “Port Charles,” and “ABC World News Tonight” do much better in Philadelphia than their national averages. Also, the syndicated shows that air on 6ABC – “Live with Regis and Kelly,” “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” “Oprah,” “Jeopardy,” and “Wheel Of Fortune,” handily won their time slots.
Meanwhile, the spring may be out of Jerry Springer. The ratings for his syndicated show, seen on NBC-10 at 2 PM are dropping like a rock, down from a 4.4 rating last February to a 3.2 rating this year. Evidently neither men nor women are interested in “Men are from Mars, Women from Venus,” as it got blown away at 11 AM by “The View” on 6ABC and “The Price is Right” on KYW-3 which were tied for first place. “Oprah” still rules 4 PM for 6ABC with an 8.7 rating, but her ratings are going down, while the ratings went up for NBC-10 with the “News at 4” to a 6.8 rating.
Also notable: “Judge Judy” and “Divorce Court” on Fox-Philadelphia get as many viewers as KYW-3’s “Eyewitness News at 5. Then “Judge Judy” soundly beat “Eyewitness News” at 6 PM. At 6:30, more Philadelphians would rather watch “The Simpsons” on Fox then the “CBS Evening News” with Dan Rather. From 5-8, 6ABC leads with “Action News,” “The ABC World News Tonight,” with Peter Jennings, “Jeopardy,” and “Wheel of Fortune,” peaking with a 16.4 rating for “Jeopardy.”
Fox-Philadelphia’s “Ten O’Clock News” continues to lead the early nighttime news race, but “The News at 10” on WB-17 is beginning to close the gap. Fox leads with a 4.9 rating, which is down 8% from last year. Meanwhile, WB-17 went up to a 2.8 rating, an increase of 17%. CN8, with Arthur Fennell and guest-anchor Connie Colla had a miniscule 0.2 rating at 10 PM.
And in the late night battle, “The Tonight Show,” with Jay Leno leads with a 6.3 rating, followed by “Politically Incorrect” with a 5.0 rating on 6ABC, and “The Late Show,” with David Letterman on KYW-3 with a 3.9 rating. Each rating point averages around 26,000 homes.
Laura Nachman can be reached at [email protected]