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Friday, June 2, 2006
Local TV ratings in, 2 execs out
Two local TV executives were quietly ousted last week, during the final days of the May sweeps rating period.
Mike Reed, named general manager of CBS-owned KEYE in August 2004, was fired. Amy Villarreal has stepped in as interim manager while CBS searches for a permanent replacement.
And Carlos Fernandez, president and general manager of NBC affiliate KXAN and WB affiliate KNVA, was ushered out by parent company LIN Television of Rhode Island. Fernandez had been running both Austin the stations since February 2003.
As expected, neither CBS nor LIN would comment, citing “a policy against discussing personnel matters.”
In the just-released Nielsen overnight ratings for the May sweeps, Belo-owned KVUE (ABC) held its news dominance in early morning, 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
KEYE continues to tout itself as “the fastest-growing late newscast in Austin,” which is true. But considering how popular CBS’s prime-time programming is, finishing third and sometimes fourth in other local news time periods isn’t good.
It’s worth noting, however, that Fox was No. 1 in prime time here thanks to mammoth hits “American Idol” and “24.”
KEYE was third at 5 p.m., behind KVUE’s news and KXAN’s game show “Jeopardy,” and it was fourth at 6 p.m., beaten by two newscasts and Fox-owned KTBC’s reruns of “The Simpsons.”
In previous rating periods, KXAN has been a strong contender for top local news ratings, and it maintained its second place finish in local news in May. But at least partly because of NBC’s poor performance in prime time, the station’s numbers have sagged a bit.
Replacing Fernandez quickly will be important for KXAN and KNVA — especially since KNVA is taking on two new network affiliations in September. When the WB goes out of business, KNVA will have both the CW and My Network TV programming.
MAY NIELSEN RATINGS
Early morning news (6-7 a.m.)
KVUE 4.2 rating
KTBC 2.3
KXAN 1.7
KEYE 1.2
5 p.m. local news
KVUE 6.1
KXAN 3.6 (“Jeopardy”)
KEYE 3.0
KTBC 2.6
6 p.m. local news
KVUE 6.3
KXAN 5.4
KTBC 3.7 (“The Simpsons”)
KEYE 3.3
10 p.m. local news
KVUE 8.0
KXAN 7.7
KEYE 7.2
KTBC 5.0 (“The Simpsons”)
Source: Nielsen Media Research. In the Austin market, a rating point is 5,895 TV households, or 1 percent of the total TV households.
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