Channel 7's Newscast Numbers Rise Across the Board in February Sweeps

It's free lattes and nibbles today for Channel 7 news staffers courtesy of their boss, as the station celebrates a remarkable February ratings period that wrapped up yesterday.

The Allbritton Communications-owned ABC affiliate was the only station in town to see audiences increase in every newscast from last year, including an astonishing 65 percent jump in early mornings and a nearly 50 percent leap at 5 p.m.

Channel 4 remains Washington's choice for news, winning every newscast across the board although some of its leads are shrinking.

Meanwhile, Channel 9 struggled in its second consecutive major sweeps period since realigning its anchor squad in the fall. The station was down or flat from last February in nearly every newscast.

Latte dispenser and Channel 7 president Fred Ryan was absolutely giddy yesterday with the February ratings results. "It's a combination of the people on- and off-camera and it's a judgment on WJLA's overall news product," Ryan said.

The station should also give credit to ABC's revived prime-time lineup, which includes the hit shows "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." The station is up 20 percent in prime-time performance from last year.

But, undoubtedly, Channel 7 newcomer Gordon Peterson was also a boon for the station. "A lot of people moved with Gordon," Ryan said, quoting his station's own ubiquitous television and bus ad campaign.

The silver-haired anchor, who not-so-quietly departed Channel 9 last year after 35 years at the Gannett-owned station, is now reteamed with his old colleague Maureen Bunyan at 6 p.m. Together, they had an audience of 150,000, which is 40,000 more than last year.

Still, they finished second to Channel 4's Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler, who are still the undisputed winners at 6 p.m. with 200,000 homes, up about 15 percent from last year.

Channel 9, which had its first February sweeps without Peterson, was fourth at 6 p.m. with its pairing of Tracey Neale and Todd McDermott trailing "Simpsons" repeats on Channel 5.

February's bad weather may be the cause for better ratings on all of the station's early-morning newscasts. Channel 7 once again showed the most improvement as anchors Doug McKelway and Alison Starling marked their first anniversary on the sunrise shift. Channel 7's audience of 78,000 is still dwarfed by Channel 4's 114,000, but it claimed second place slightly ahead of Channel 9 (70,000 homes and up 15 percent from 2004) and Channel 5 (64,000 and up just a hair).

Channel 5's local two-hour 7 a.m. newscast continues to be competitive. It had more than 120,000 households, easily beating both ABC's "Good Morning America" and CBS's "The Early Show" and finishing a little more than 10,000 homes behind NBC's "Today."

More people watched the region's 5 p.m. newscasts than last year, thanks to some snowy days that left viewers stranded at home. Although Channel 4 led the pack with nearly 175,000 homes, Channel 7 was not far behind with 143,000 homes. Its lead-in, a revived "Oprah Winfrey Show," certainly didn't hurt -- she's nearly doubled her Washington audience compared with last year.

Channel 5 was third at 5 p.m. with 114,000 homes, up 30 percent from last year. Only Channel 9 dropped in the time period, no thanks to a horrible 4 p.m. lead-in of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Inside Edition." It finished behind Channel 50's "Judge Mathis" as almost 100,000 D.C. homes tuned in to see the man in the robe.

Channel 9 can still claim dominance with its noon newscast, which got 110,000 homes. But Channel 5 is up nearly 25 percent, with about 80,000 homes.

Whom do Washingtonians watch on Sunday morning? Tim Russert on "Meet the Press." His show drew about 130,000 homes last month, although that is down 20 percent from last year. CBS's "Face the Nation" averages about 80,000 homes. In face-to-face competition at 9 a.m., "Fox News Sunday" outdraws "This Week" in the Washington area by a score of 45,000 to 40,000.