KGMB takes lead from KHON in 5 p.m. weekday news slot

The KHON-TV local weekday newscast at 5 p.m., anchored by Ron Mizutani, was toppled from its No. 1 perch by KGMB-TV’s Hawaii News Now, anchored by Stephanie Lum and Shawn Ching, according to the February Nielsen ratings.

KGMB also maintained its lead in weekday morning news and 10 p.m. news, once a stronghold for KHON’s veteran news anchor Joe Moore.

KHON and Moore remained the dominant newscast at 6 p.m. weekdays with the only double-digit local news ratings in the time slot.

“Ratings are important to our industry. It’s nice to see this kind of result,” said Hawaii News Now President and General Manager Rick Blan­giardi in a news release Thursday.

Hawaii News Now, with its news programs stretched across KGMB-TV, KHNL-TV and KFVE-TV, boasted growth in morning news on KGMB and KHNL from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. weekdays, while KFVE’s 8 a.m. newscast, the only local news in the time slot, also claimed year-over-year increases.

The 5 p.m. Hawaii News Now show rose by a rating point and five share points to beat KHON, which lost two rating points and four share points year-over-year. A rating is the percentage of all TV households in Hawaii. Share is the percentage of people watching TV at that time who are tuned to a particular show.

Mizutani said Wednesday he will be leaving the station in May to be a senior vice president at public relations firm Communications Pacific Inc. His successor has not been named.

KHON’s morning news program gained viewers. In the 5:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. slot, KHON’s share of viewers climbed to 24 percent from 20 percent a year ago.

“I am very enthused by the increase in the morning news viewership; it confirms that our format changes are being embraced by Hawaii’s viewers,” said KHON President and General Manager Joe McNamara.

“In the coming months additional changes will be taking place inside our studios with state-of-the-art HD upgrades of cameras, lighting and newsroom systems that will enhance our on-air look tremendously.”

Data for the February ratings was collected from Feb. 2 through 29.

At KITV, positive growth across all newscasts year-over-year had President and General Manager Andrew Jackson observe that “we are getting traction across the board. … We have seen share growth and demographic growth in all of our important newscasts book-to-book,” a reference to the most recent November rating period.

KITV has the state’s only hourlong 10 p.m. newscast, and the second half-hour of that program beat the national David Letterman and Jay Leno talk shows.

It is “probably my hottest-selling newscast because it’s priced correctly and is sold out every night,” said Bill Gaeth, vice president of sales.

KITV also airs the only weekend morning newscasts, which have hit new highs.

Saturday mornings are up to 4 rating points from a 2 rating a year ago, while share at 6 remained the same from a year ago.

Some 1,000 Hawaii households on all islands participated in the Nielsen survey, according to a statement from Hawaii News Now.

The Super Bowl, which aired during the rating period, started off at 1 p.m. Feb. 5 with 77 percent of all TV households watching and soared to 87 percent by 3 p.m.