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

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A multitude of Los Angeles locals tuned into their local news channels in high numbers, as wildfires swept across the city just recently.

In the timeframe of January 6-12, ratings for both evening and late news programs on Los Angeles’s broadcasting stations increased universally, with a significant surge observed on January 7, following the outbreak and rapid spread of the Palisades and Eaton fires. The ratings for network evening news broadcasts also saw substantial growth during this period, along with an increase in viewership for cable news outlets as well.

Ratings for TV news at nighttime and late in Los Angeles went up from January 6 to January 12, especially on January 7 when the Palisades and Eaton fires started and quickly spread. The same trend was observed for network news broadcasts and cable news channels as well.

On January 7th, KABC-TV in Los Angeles attracted approximately 318,000 viewers during its 6 pm news broadcast and around 192,000 at 11 pm – an increase of 86% and 42% respectively compared to the ABC affiliate’s recent average viewership (about 171,000 at 6 pm and 135,000 at 11). Similarly, KTLA saw a significant surge in viewership with 282,000 viewers at 6 pm (four times its usual audience of 70,000) and 200,000 viewers for its regular 10 pm news broadcast, which is more than double the average viewership of around 80,000.

As a dedicated viewer, I noticed some remarkable increases in ratings among local broadcasting stations on that particular day. Telemundo affiliate KVEA (with 232,000 viewers at 6 p.m. and 177,000 at 11 p.m.), KNBC (124,000/82,000), KCBS (113,000/90,000), and Fox affiliate KTTV (68,000/87,000) all showed significant growth from their usual audiences. Most local stations, including KCAL – a sister station of KCBS that always airs prime newscasts – chose to continue with news coverage during primetime, averaging a combined viewership of 1.14 million. In the primetime window, KABC (261,000) and KVEA (251,000) took the lead.

Personally, I was captivated by how extensively the three major evening news programs delved into the wildfire coverage nationwide last week. Each show managed to boost their viewership by at least 18 percent compared to the previous week, with ABC’s World News Tonight (8.87 million viewers) taking the lead over NBC Nightly News (7.38 million) and CBS Evening News (5.25 million). In fact, David Muir from ABC News was dispatched to Los Angeles for the latter part of the week, resulting in an impressive 9.65 million viewers tuning in on January 9th – a record high for World News Tonight in nearly two years.

During the week of January 6th, cable news networks saw a surge in viewership. The events of wildfires, the certification of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, and the initial days of the new Congress all contributed to this increase in coverage. As expected, Fox News maintained its dominance with 1.44 million viewers for the entire day and 2.55 million during primetime hours, marking an improvement from 1.34 million and 1.73 million the previous week. MSNBC saw an average of 540,000 full-day viewers and 721,000 primetime viewers compared to 390,000 and 445,000 the week prior. CNN experienced growth in its total day audience (from 396,000), but saw a slight decrease in primetime viewership (519,000) compared to the previous week’s 519,000.

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2025-01-15 00:54