L.A. Local News Ratings Go High With Wildfires Coverage

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Network evening newscasts and cable outlets also drew more viewers in the week of Jan. 6-12.

Flames from the Palisades Fire burn a residential building in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Los Angeles residents sought out local TV newscasts in large numbers as wildfires raged through the city last week.

Ratings for evening and late news on L.A. broadcast affiliates grew across the board in the week of Jan. 6-12, particularly on Jan. 7, when the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out and spread rapidly. Network evening newscasts also rose substantially last week, and cable news outlets grew as well.

On Jan. 7, KABC-TV in Los Angeles drew 318,000 viewers for its 6 p.m. newscast and just under 192,000 at 11 p.m. — gains of 86 percent and 42 percent over the ABC affiliate’s recent averages of about 171,000 at 6 p.m. and 135,000 at 11. KTLA brought in 282,000 viewers at 6 p.m., quadrupling its usual number (70,000), and 200,000 for its regular 10 p.m. newscast, more than double its average of about 80,000.

Telemundo affiliate KVEA (232,000 at 6 p.m., 177,000 at 11 p.m.), KNBC (124,000/82,000), KCBS (113,000/90,000) and Fox affiliate KTTV (68,000/87,000) also posted significant gains from their typical audiences. Most local stations (including KCBS sibling KCAL, which always carries prime newscasts) stayed with news coverage in primetime that day as well, averaging a combined 1.14 million viewers. KABC (261,000) and KVEA (251,000) led the primetime window.

Nationally, the three network evening newscasts devoted significant time and resources to covering the wildfires. All three shows grew their audiences by at least 18 percent from the previous week, with ABC’s World News Tonight (8.87 million viewers) leading the NBC Nightly News (7.38 million) and CBS Evening News (5.25 million). ABC sent anchor David Muir to Los Angeles for the latter part of the week; the Jan. 9 edition averaged 9.65 million viewers, World News Tonight’s best single day in almost two years.

Cable news also experienced growth the week of Jan. 6, with wildfires, the certification of Donald Trump’s presidential victory and the early days of the new Congress all driving coverage. Fox News, as usual, had a big lead over its rivals with 1.44 million viewers for the full day and 2.55 million primetime, up from 1.34 million and 1.73 million a week earlier. MSNBC averaged 540,000 full-day viewers and 721,000 in primetime vs. 390,000 and 445,000 the week before. CNN (455,000/501,000) was up in total day audience (from 396,000) but off slightly in primetime (519,000).