KTLA reigns on parade

Commercial-free live b'cast towers over competish

By MELISSA GREGO

More Angelenos stopped to watch the roses on KTLA than anywhere else New Year's Day, though viewership of the annual Tournament of Roses Parade on the station -- like attendance at the event -- was down compared with last year.

Tribune Broadcasting's KTLA scored an 18.0 rating/40 share during its commercial-free live broadcast of the parade 8-10 a.m. Wednesday.

The WB affiliate's perf was heads, shoulders, knees and toes above its nearest competitor, Spanish-language coverage on Univision's KMEX (4.1/10).

Still, the roses on KTLA drew more viewers last year (19.3/41) -- which was also down from the previous year, 2001 (19.7/44).

Similarly, attendance estimates for the parade were around 800,000, down from the 1 million or so who used to show up in person in the late 1990s.

KTLA's traditional, end-to-end parade coverage, hosted by Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards, aired commercial-free in its first live broadcast. It repeated four times -- with ads -- on the Los Angeles station New Year's Day and was syndicated on Tribune stations in Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Indianapolis, Boston, Washington and Houston.

In addition, KTLA's coverage aired in several international territories, on 36 domestic KTLA Superstation cable outlets, as well as on the Travel Channel and Discovery HD Theater Channel on the Dish Network.

KABC's parade coverage (3.5/8) was the next-highest-rated among local contenders during the 8-10 time period, after KMEX. Coverage on KNBC (2.6/6), KCBS (1.0/2) and cable's HGTV (0.9/2) followed.

KTTV's Cotton Bowl coverage averaged a 1.8/4, while regular programming on KCOP averaged below a 1 rating/2 share and KCAL, with some paid programming, averaged about a 0.2 and less than a 1 share.