May Sweeps Consistent With Last Year
You’ve been waiting anxiously for those May sweeps ratings, haven’t you?
Haven’t you?
Maybe you haven’t, because the Nielsen ratings for local news have become fairly monotonous lately. The 1997 May sweeps rankings are almost unchanged from the May sweeps for both 1996 and 1995. Once again, KREM-2 is No. 1 at 5 p.m., KHQ-6 is No. 1 at 6 p.m. and the 6 a.m. morning news is a dead-heat between KXLY and KHQ.
Still, there are a few interesting trends to be spotted:
The 11 p.m. race is tightening up, with the usual leader KHQ coming back to the pack and both KXLY and KREM gaining ground.
KHQ’s lead at 6 p.m. is back, even though it lost it (barely) in the February sweeps.
KREM’s noon news (unopposed in its time slot) continues to be a winner. It gets a 5.6 rating and a 25.9 share, which means fully one-quarter of the TV sets on at noon are tuned to that broadcast.
Here are the May Nielsen sweeps. Each rating point equals one percent of the households in the market. My thanks to Jan Brandvold of KAYU-28 for helping me crunch these numbers:
6 a.m.
KHQ: 3.9
KXLY: 3.9.
KREM: 2.3.
5 p.m.
KREM: 10.6.
KHQ: 9.2.
KXLY: 6.7.
6 p.m.
KHQ: 8.8.
KREM: 8.5.
KXLY: 5.5.
11 p.m.
KREM: 6.3.
KHQ: 6.3.
KXLY: 5.7.
New KHQ sports faces
Beginning Monday, KHQ-6 will have three new faces on its sportscasts.
Greg Heister, formerly sports director for KIMO-TV in Anchorage, will now be the main sports anchor Mondays through Fridays. He was also the announcer for Anchorage’s pro hockey team and has produced and anchored “Alaska Wide World of Sports” for ESPN.
Sean Owsley, a KHQ news producer, will now anchor the Sunday sportscast and do sports reporting during the week.
Todd Doolittle, well-know as the public relations director for both the Spokane Indians and the Spokane Chiefs, has been hired on as the new Saturday sports anchor and weekday sports reporter.
Ty Ray will be moving on to another market after this summer, and Dan Kleckner has been named the main news anchor for mornings and at 4:30 p.m.
‘Riverdance’ is official
We mentioned a few weeks agothat the Celtic stomp-fest “Riverdance” was on the way, and now it’s official.
“Riverdance” will play the Spokane Opera House for eight performances from April 7-12.
Tickets will run from $55 to $20.
They will go on sale to the general public on July 28 through G&B Select-a-Seat.
Rick Miller re-ups
Rick Miller, KXLY-AM’s afternoon talk show host, has signed a three-year contract with the station.
His show has been a ratings success ever since he arrived from Seattle two years ago. In radio, three years is practically an eternity.
“It’s unbelievable,” said a pleased Miller. “To tell the truth, they have been fabulous to me. It’s absolutely great to be in a place where they like you and like what you do.”
The 10 p.m. newscast disappears
Fans of the 10 p.m. newscast from KIRO-TV in Seattle (available in Spokane on TCI channel 25) have been wondering where it went.
It went away for good last week. That’s because KIRO has switched back to being Seattle’s CBS affiliate after a two-year stint as an independent station. Because the station is obligated to run CBS programming at 10 p.m., it had to return to an 11 p.m. newscast.
Seattle’s only 10 p.m. newscast is now back on KSTW-TV, which is not carried on cable here.
KIRO’s 10 p.m. newscast apparently had quite a following in Spokane. Lots of people are interested in Seattle news, and even more are interested in getting to bed before 11 p.m.
Theater campers
The Spokane Civic Theatre is reviving the idea of a Performing Arts Day Camp this summer.
It will run Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., beginning this Monday through July 20. Students in grades 7 through 12 will learn about acting, auditioning, voice, vocal characterization, dance, movement, stage combat and interpreting Shakespeare.
The session will end with a full-length performance, “It Started With Shakespeare,” on July 18-20.
This is just one of several theater school sessions. Call 325-2507 for information.
Cutter Theatre windfall
The small but marvelous Cutter Theatre in Metaline Falls has won a $5,000 grant for internships in stage direction, arts administration, technical support and volunteer supervision from the 5th Avenue Theater Endowment Fund.
This fund was established by the Seattle theater to support the arts across the state.
, DataTimes