Local News Audiences Doubled and Even Tripled During L.A. Fire Coverage
variety.comMichael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As tragedy struck Los Angeles, residents turned to local journalists — on TV, radio and online — to stay informed.
Los Angeles’ local TV stations saw a tremendous spike in news viewership last Tuesday, Jan. 7, as the city first came under siege from fierce Santa Ana winds, leading to the devastating fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and elsewhere.
As stations went with wall-to-wall coverage, they saw their normal viewership double and even triple in some cases, especially has the fires began to quickly spread into neighborhoods in the early evening.
According to Nielsen data, market leader KABC (Channel 7) averaged 318,166 viewers for its 6 p.m. newscast on Jan. 7; in the days leading up to Tuesday, the ABC-owned station normally posted an average of 170,769 in the timeslot.
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