Channel Surfing
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
May 13, 2003

       With May sweeps halfway completed, WPVI has a comfortable lead at 11 p.m. with an 11.1 rating/18.4 share over WCAU's 9.7 rating/16.3 share.  KYW, in its second sweeps book with Marc Howard and Kathy Orr was in third place with a 5.7 rating/9.6 share.  WCAU resorted to running a crawl "The Center City Groper Strikes Again" during Thursday night's "Friends" episode at 8:30 p.m. to try to lure viewers to its 11 p.m. show, which is without news anchor Larry Mendte, who was pulled off the newscast (and the 6 p.m. show) by station management. 

       WCAU is struggling at 4 p.m.  Once within a rating point of "Oprah," the 4 p.m. news trails "Oprah" by three ratings points.  Plus, Oprah Winfrey recently announced that she is continuing her show for a few more years.  KYW is becoming a player in that timeslot with "Millionaire" and "Pyramid" thanks to the lead-in of "Dr. Phil" at 3 p.m.
       At 10 p.m. Fox has come back down to earth from February's 8 rating.  Thus far, it has a 5.5 rating/7.6 share during the week.
       Each rating point equals 28,305 homes.
       WTXF needs to pay attention to the floundering "Good Day Philadelphia."  It sunk to below a 2 rating.  "KYW Newsradio" on UPN is becoming a spoiler in the morning (love that rotating weather.)
      
       Bensalem's Jerald Bennett is one of the five finalists for WCAU's "Greatest Summer Gig Ever."  Bennett, a graduate of Bensalem High (1998) and Temple University (2002), will do the traffic during 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. news on WCAU today.   The winner will be determined by viewer votes sent to nbc10.com from Friday through next Tuesday.  The announcement will take place May 21
      
       Students between the ages of 16-18 will have a chance to win $10,000 toward college tuition when the Game Show Network's "Get Schooled Tour" comes to the King of Prussia mall May 31 at 1 p.m.  Game show hosts Chuck Woolery and Todd Newton.  I wish the network would do an update of "Tattletales."
      
       Looking for something to do on a spring day?  The QVC studio tour is open to the public daily from 10-4 in West Chester, PA.  Celebrities scheduled for this week include race car driver Jeff Gordon and self-help guru Anthony Robbins.

       Like the music on VH1?  Then you'll enjoy the syndicated "Hollywood Confidential" on WMWX Sunday mornings from 8 - 10 a.m. hosted by Leeza Gibbons.