Action News' Lead Is Bleeding

Glenn Schwartz delivers a "Hurricanoogie" to an unamused Jim Gardner.

By Sara Kelly
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Feb. 28, 2001

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A TV station's fortunes turn on the strength of its 11 o'clock news broadcast. (11 o'clock viewership, goes the theory, carries over into late-night programming, then into the morning news.) And until the just-ended February sweeps, Channel 6's fabled Action News led the region's 11 o'clock ratings for a quarter century with its famous down-home coverage (ever notice how few women and minorities do the news?--and no, Cecily Tynan doesn't count!). While the station's still tops with the Geritol crowd, its overall reach seems to be slipping. Though the results won't be official till after press time, during the recent sweeps, more area households tuned in NBC-10's News at 11 than WPVI's Action News. This isn't the first time 10 bested 6 in the marketable 18- to-49-year-old demo, but it is the first time since 1971 that 10 has won--as the station's first-string anchor Larry Mendte said last Friday--"the whole enchilada." ("Don't quote me saying 'whole enchilada,'" he quickly added, fearing readers might think him cornball. Note to readers: He's not. Honest.) The "whole enchilada," of course, means viewing households--not just viewers in the primo youthful demo. While the recent sweeps-month coup provides yet more evidence of Channel 6's urgent need to update its aging formula (WPVI has long been ABC's highest-rated affiliate), some speculate NBC-10's merely winning through attrition--those old 'PVI viewers have been steadily dying off, but it's possible their bodies have only recently been found and their TVs turned off. Channel 10's main man, meanwhile, claims to be "humbled" by his station's rising star. "I'm really blown away by it, to tell you the truth," says Mendte. "I don't think people at our station thought it would happen." Channel 6 has been No. 1 for so many years now, they've had little reason to tinker with their trademark news formula. "I have great admiration for 'PVI," says Mendte. "I grew up watching them. They invented the Action News format--lots of video, great pacing, friendly people, all local stories ..." Channel 10 owes some credit for its rising ratings to the network's 10 o'clock lineup. The 11 o'clock broadcast now has higher-rated lead-ins every night but Tuesday. As for differences between the two news broadcasts, Mendte's quick to mention weather. Channel 10 does, after all, employ five meteorologists (KYW claims two, and 'PVI just one). "The money they've put into weather has really paid off," says Mendte, citing the station's Doppler radar and nerdily qualified EarthWatch team. "Like a scientist," brags Mendte, Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz even flew on reconnaissance missions into the eyes of those eponymous weather systems. But it's a good bet you'll never see him plant a noogie on Channel 6 anchor Jim Gardner's head. At least until the May sweeps.

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CONTRIBUTORS:
Karen Abbott, Brian Hickey, Soloman E. Jones,
Sara Kelly, Doug Roberts, Liz Spikol, Bonnie
Squires, Jim Straub, Joel Tannenbaum

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