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The State (Columbia, S.C.)

By Pat Berman, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Apr. 10--A pair of telenovelas washed overboard, Anna Nicole Smith boosted "Entertainment Tonight" and local newscasts tipped and swayed as the Nielsen ratings swept through February.

Among the highlights:

--As usual, NBC affiliate WIS-10 easily won the local-news battle at 6, 7 and 11 p.m., while CBS affiliate WLTX-19 -- helped by a strong lead-in from "The Price is Right" -- was tops at noon. WLTX also edged out WIS in key demographic groups for the 11 p.m. news.

--Fox affiliate WACH-57's 10 p.m. newscast was seen in 26,075 households on average -- up from 17,005 in November. The return of Fox's "American Idol" was a big help.

But a big local news shakeup came too late to register in the February sweeps. WACH ended a contract with WIS and took total ownership of its 10 p.m. newscast last month, beefing up from a half-hour broadcast to a full hour.

WACH also will be entering the morning market in a few weeks with a news-and-features program to compete with NBC, ABC and CBS.

--The fourth newscaster in the Columbia market, ABC affiliate WOLO-25, touted itself as the fastest-growing newscast in the Midlands after the November 2006 Nielsen ratings. But both its 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts showed big drops in viewership -- from an average 12,092 to 9,825 at 6 p.m. and from 4,913 to 3,779 at 11 p.m. -- in February.

--WKTC-63 mirrored MyNetworkTV affiliates in other markets that got no traction with prime-time telenovelas "Wicked, Wicked Games" and "Watch Over Me." The format that proved so popular on Spanish-language television did not play well in Columbia.

A slate of new prime-time shows for WKTC is in the offing, with one, "International Fight League Battleground," already on the air. The program features mixed-martial arts tag teams fighting each other, which may not be all that different from the crazy melodrama of night-time soaps. The movie vaults of 20th Century Fox, owned by MyNetworkTV and Fox chief Rupert Murdoch, will supply movies for Friday-night programming.

WKTC general manager Stefanie Rein expects the 8-to-11 p.m. prime-time slot to be a tough nut for the infant network to crack, but said the station fared well in daytime programming with "According to Jim," "Martha" and "Judge Maria Lopez" among its top performers.

WKTC emerged when the WB and UPN networks joined to form the CW network. WZRB-49 became the local CW affiliate.

Station manager Dodie Yarborough said WZRB's lineup, including "The Gilmore Girls," "America's Next Top Model" and "Girlfriends," has been effective in reaching the network's target audience of female viewers.

--Thanks to the Smith saga, viewership of weeknight celebrity gossip/news show "Entertainment Tonight" jumped about 15 percent, WIS general manager Mel Stebbins said.

Nielsen Market Research surveys the Columbia TV market, which includes 11 counties and 377,940 households, during four yearly "sweeps" periods in February, May, July and November.

Reach Berman at (803) 771-8417.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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