No doubt Joe Moore and company are riding high. KHON's 6 p.m. news show, with a 19 rating/36 share, clobbered KITV which drew a 10 rating/18 share. KGMB rang in with a 7 rating/13 share, while KHNL came in at 5/9. At 10 p.m. KHON, the Fox affiliate since January, dominated again with a 15/30 to KITV's 10/20, about the same for the same period last year but a leap from its 7/14 May numbers. KHON dropped two ratings points and eight shares from its November 1995 numbers in the late night news slot.
"We're thrilled to be No. 1 in prime time Monday through Sunday and either No. 1 or 2 in news," said Bill Gaeth, KITV's general sales manager. "Our shows 'Home Improvement' (6:30 p.m.) and 'Seinfeld' (10:30 p.m.) did their best ratings ever, smashing (KHON's 10:30 p.m. news program)."
Ratings are done three times a year in February, May and November. There are 381,010 television households in Hawaii. One ratings point in Hawaii equals 3,810 households. A share is the percentage of television sets in use at any one time turned to a particular broadcast.
But no one was crying at KHNL 8, which last January became the NBC affiliate.
"We're ecstatic that all of our news shows, Monday through Friday, not only from last November (when KHNL was the Fox affiliate) but from May as NBC, are up 200 percent to 300 percent," said John Fink, KHNL president-general manager.
KHNL increased its ratings/shares at 10 p.m. almost threefold from 2/5 as the Fox affiliate in November 1995 to 7/15. It's seven-day rating-share was 7/14 compared to 2/5 of a year ago. At 5 p.m. it jumped from last May's 1/4 to 4/9, which still placed it last behind third place KGMB's 5/11. KITV won the 5 p.m. news race with 10/24.KHON doesn't have a 5 p.m. newscast, but its "Jeopardy" program still beat all newscasts with 11/26.
KHON news also was No. 1 in weekend newscasts but KITV increased its hold on second place with 7/16 compared to a year ago's 6/15. KHNL, though gaining more than double the ratings-share points of a year ago - from 2/4 to 5/13 - remained in last place for the weekend news.
KHON's 6 to 7 a.m. news show soared at No. 1 with more than twice as many viewers with a 7/36 ratings share. But it dropped a 3 ratings and 12 share points from the same time a year ago. KITV had 3/16, KHNL 3/15 and KGMB 1/7.
Most surprising in the just released ratings was KHON's "Joe Moore's World Report" at 5:30 p.m., which beat out all the network newscasts, placing a single share point ahead of ABC's Peter Jennings, 10/23 to 10/22.
Monday through Friday prime time (7 to 10 p.m.) was won by KITV with a 12/20, with KHNL at 11/19, KHON 9/16, and KGMB 8/13. KITV also won the seven-day prime time period with an 11/20. KHNL and KHON tied at 10/17.
KHON is "extremely happy still being a very strong No. 1 in all competitive news time slots, and especially in edging Peter Jennings," said Robert Pennybacker, KHON's director of marketing.
KGMB was not immediately available for comment.