Two Denver stations have read the results of the late local news contest in the February sweeps and are ready to proclaim victories:
KUSA remains the leader by a huge margin!
KCNC is only 6,000 households away from becoming No. 1!
Let’s unspin.
NBC is doing so poorly in prime time, it’s remarkable that NBC affiliate Channel 9 increases its audience by more than a third from the 9 p.m. hour into the 10 p.m. news. That is, people who flee “Harry’s Law,” “Parenthood,” “Outsourced” and “Dateline” still make a point of tuning in 9News at 10. That’s a win.
Conversely, CBS is doing so well in prime time, it’s remarkable that CBS-owned Channel 4 loses almost a third of its audience from the 9 p.m. hour at 10 p.m. Fans of “Criminal Minds,” “The Mentalist,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Blue Bloods” don’t necessarily stick around for CBS4’s 10 o’clock newscast. But enough do that the station is 6,000 households away from No. 1? That’s a win too.
February 2011’s late news numbers:
KUSA was No. 1 with an average 5.0 rating; KCNC was No. 2 with a 3.2 rating; KMGH trailed with a 2.2 rating at 10 p.m. weekdays, among 25- to 54-year-olds (generally considered the news audience by advertisers). KDVR managed a 2.0 rating for its 9 p.m. newscast but turned in a 0.9 rating for its new 10 p.m. newscast.
This is how the rankings have stood for some time, but the gap is indeed narrowing.
With CBS the winner nationally in prime time (although Fox wins among younger viewers), CBS affiliates are riding a wave of ratings increases. The same is true in Denver, although the carry-over to the late news numbers is not as large as that posted by some affiliates. “CBS4 News at 10” should be doing even better at holding on to its lead-in.
CBS4 proudly proclaims that for the first time since May 1995 (when KCNC was an NBC affiliate and there wasn’t the same number of Internet, cable and digital subchannel options), CBS4 is within some 6,000 households of being the No. 1 news station at 10 p.m. That’s 6,000 out of the 1.5 million TV households in the market.
Over at 9News, they disparage that claim, noting the industry doesn’t weigh household numbers; the battle is all about desirable demographics, for which advertisers pay a premium.
As the race tightens, the sniping heats up:
KCNC not holding lead-in
KUSA’s Mark Cornetta asserts: “KCNC is losing almost 29 percent of their adult 25-54 (audience) from their lead-in. On the flip side NBC, it’s no secret, is in a rebuilding mode, and as a result its prime-time lineup is not delivering the same sort of lead-in opportunity for its affiliates. In many cases the affiliates are losing some ground in their late local news. That is not happening here in Denver as 9News builds on its NBC lead-in by over 39 percent in adults 25-54.”
KCNC’s Walt DeHaven says simply: “We have been working hard every day to put on strong newscasts, and it’s great to see the gap between No. 1 and No. 2 in the marketplace closing, especially during our late news.”
At other hours, KUSA’s newscasts remain dominant — notably at 6 a.m., when 9News draws four times as many 25- to 54-year-olds as any competitor. Similarly, at 5:30 p.m., Brian Williams on NBC has more than twice the Denver audience of Katie Couric on CBS and Diane Sawyer on ABC, combined.
KCNC stresses year-to-year growth, noting KUSA is down (naturally) from when it’s numbers were inflated by the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The 4 p.m. hour will be up for grabs this fall as the long ratings rule of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” ends. For now, Channel 4 wins the late afternoon hour with “Oprah” in place, with a 2.0 rating, 11 share (percent of the viewing audience), versus the newscasts on KUSA which has a 1.6 rating, 9 share, and on KMGH, which has a 0.5 rating, 3 share.
When “Oprah” wraps in September, a cataclysmic event to be well documented by the Oprah Winfrey Network, Channel 4 is expected to join the local news war at 4 p.m.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
