Los Angeles’ local TV stations saw a tremendous spike in news viewership last Tuesday, Jan. 7, as the city first came under siege from fierce Santa Ana winds, leading to the devastating fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and elsewhere. As stations went with wall-to-wall coverage, they saw their normal viewership double and even triple in some cases, especially has the fires began to quickly spread into neighborhoods in the early evening.
According to Variety citing Nielsen data, market leader KABC (Channel 7) averaged 318,166 viewers for its 6 p.m. newscast on Jan. 7; in the days leading up to Tuesday, the ABC-owned station normally posted an average of 170,769 in the timeslot. The station also saw huge spikes at 4 p.m. (209,421, up from a normal average of 119,190) and 5 p.m. (268,915, up from 140,820).
Nexstar’s CW outlet KTLA (Channel 5) experienced a tremendous viewership increase that evening as well, averaging 212,396 (up from normally 73,036) at 5 p.m. and 282,710 (more than tripling its normal 70,027 viewership) at 6 p.m. NBC-owned KNBC (Channel 4) attracted 130,787 viewers at 5 p.m. (up from its usual average of 70,511) and 123,795 (up from 69,638) at 6 p.m.
CBS-owned KCBS (Channel 2) averaged 93,231 at 5 p.m. (up from 58,165) and 113,180 at 6 p.m. (up from 78,033). And Fox-owned KTTV (Channel 11) averaged 44,891 (up from 30,184) at 5 p.m. and 67,821 (up from 31,016) at 6 p.m.
NBC’s Spanish-language Telemundo outlet KVEA (Channel 52) also saw big lifts, with 218,498 (up fron 168,305) at 5 p.m. and 231,777 (up fron 201,458) at 6 p.m.
In primetime, most of the local stations kept with wall-to-wall news coverage: KABC averaged 261,440 viewers from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.; KVEA had 251,194 viewers; KTLA had 215,972 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.; KNBC averaged 156,864 in prime; and KCBS posted 76,839.
KCBS duopoly sibling KCAL, which always runs news in primetime, saw its telecasts jump up too: 166,320 at 8 p.m. (from its normal average of 111,473) and 193,606 at 9 p.m. (from its usual 104,708).
Late news also saw a huge lift as the fire danger became much more pronounced that night: KABC’s 11 p.m. hour averaged 191,995 (up from 134,753 for the normal half hour); KTLA saw 200,260 (up from 79,863) at 10 p.m. and 170,008 (up from 61,707) at 11 p.m.; and KCAL averaged 131,474 (up from 85,681) at 10 p.m.
Also, KCBS attracted 89,668 (up from 60,148) at 11 p.m. and KNBC brought in 81,916 (up from 66,408) at 11 p.m. At 10 p.m., KTTV averaged 87,233 (up from 35,198). And at 11 p.m., Spanish lingo KVEA brought in 177,400 (up from 132,752).
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