Seattle, WA – KING 5 led the way in the May ratings period, launching an innovative newscast and experiencing year-to-year growth across newscasts, while amplifying KING 5’s legendary storytelling on multiple platforms.
“I’m really proud of the entire team for pushing for excellence through innovation. It’s no surprise we are growing audience across platforms in multiple areas while staying true to our storytelling roots,” said Jim Rose, KING 5 president and general manager.
KING 5 News
More people are starting their day with KING 5 Mornings at 6am than any other show. While winning all key demos, adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and women 25-54, the show is also the #1 newscast in the market during the entire day. Also, KING 5 Mornings on sister station KONG from 7-9 a.m. saw significant gains among all key demos. KING 5 Mornings on KING and KONG also have the largest share of audience in the market among the key younger demo of adults 18-49.
In the early evening, KING 5 launched Take 5, an innovative newscast bringing a conversational and interactive approach at 4 p.m. The show saw immediate success, growing the audience from its inception in April into May. Take 5 gives viewers the news of the day with an emphasis on positivity, community and real-time audience engagement via text messaging. Below is a snapshot of what viewers are saying:
- “It’s nice to talk about current events with a positive local touch. It makes me want to do even more for my community.”
- “Thank you, KING 5, for Take 5. I had stopped watching the news. I'm back for Take 5.”
In the late news race, KING 5 News on KING and KONG delivered the largest share of late news audience among all the key demos. KING 5 News on KONG at 9:00pm finished as the #1 rated show in all key demos vs. local news competition in the time period.
KING 5 embarked on a new series at 11 p.m. called “Race & Parenting,” holding dinner parties with parents from different backgrounds to talk about the conversations they have with their kids about race, racism and identity. Reporter Jenna Hanchard created the series saying, “We know there is no universal guide to parenting and there is no one right way to raise a child. We hope people will be able to relate to these families and their experiences and take something away from their stories and their honesty.”
Watch KING 5’s Race & Parenting series here: https://bit.ly/2Lr12SA
The KING 5 Investigators continued to expose important public policy problems in Washington state, starting with Chief Investigative Reporter Susannah Frame’s series on special education, “Back of the Class.” Frame and co-reporter Taylor Mirfendereski showed how Washington lags behind the rest of the country in funding special education, resulting in more kids with disabilities being segregated from their peers inside school walls.
Investigative reporter Chris Ingalls exposed how the Washington office that inspects gas pumps and scales in retail stores across the state is facing a significant staff reduction in the coming months – with consumers potentially facing overcharges. Ingalls also continued his reporting on former Seattle Seahawks players, showing how the team vigorously fights any claims filed with Washington’s workers comp program.
KING 5’s local lifestyle programming is also tops in Western Washington. The annual Best Northwest Escapes series highlighting Northwest travel destinations and Royal Wedding reports on location in London helped Evening at 7:30 p.m. continue to grow its audience. Evening and daytime talk show New Day Northwest attract larger audiences than all other locally produced lifestyle and entertainment programs in Seattle.
NBC prime
NBC prime on KING 5 finished #1 in prime time for the entire 2017-18 season with strong performances by This Is Us, Will & Grace, Saturday Night Live, Sunday Night Football as well as The Voice. Also, The Today Show beat its network competition and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt also finished #1 in key demos relative to the network news competition. Additionally, Saturday Night Live had a 2nd consecutive successful season with both its prime time and late-night airings – and remains the top show in late night.
KING5.com
As dominant as KING 5 is over the air, its social and digital audiences continue to expand dramatically. More than 2.6 million visitors accessed king5.com or used the KING 5 mobile app during the May sweeps period.
One highlight story was Anchor/Reporter Amanda Grace’s ongoing series "Priced Out," which features families who are struggling to make ends meet in Seattle: www.king5.com/pricedout. The series continues to elicit emails from viewers sharing their own similar situations. We will continue to tell many of their stories in our Priced Out podcast: https://kng5.tv/PricedOutPodcast.
KING 5's social media community is the largest in the Seattle market among news media companies. KING 5 has 925,000 Facebook fans and 653,000 followers on Twitter. In addition, KING 5 also has the most Instagram followers of any Seattle broadcast company.
KING 5 Media Group, The Home Team, is a multi-platform media company based in Seattle, WA. It includes NBC affiliate KING 5, independent station KONG-TV and numerous digital platforms, including king5.com. KING 5 was the first television station in the Pacific Northwest, founded in 1948 by Dorothy Bullitt, now owned by TEGNA Inc. Today KING 5 is the dominant media company in the region, delivering the largest local news audience and the most local programming across all screens. For more information, go to www.king5.com.
