Battle in morning escalates as local shows claim wins. (Media & Technology).

Two local morning shows are claiming victory in the most recent television sweeps period as their decade-long competition heats up.

Officially, Channel 5's "KTLA Morning News" won the 7 to 9 a.m. time slot with a 3.4 rating and an 11 share during the sweeps period that ended Nov. 28, according to Nielsen Media Research. KTTV's (Channel 11) more freewheeling "Good Day L.A." had a 3.3 rating and a 10 share.

But KTTV says it continues to draw more viewers in the advertiser-friendly 18-to-49 age group, despite attracting slightly fewer viewers overall. The final demographic breakdown for the most recent period won't be released until later this month but in the July period "Good Day L.A." was the top choice for viewers in that age group while "KTLA Morning News" was second.

(Ratings are a percentage of all television households in the Los Angeles market and share is the percentage of viewers tuned in to a particular program).

"The household numbers give them bragging rights that make for a quick sound bite, but you win with demographics," said David Boylan, vice president and general manager of KTTV and KCOP-TV (Channel 13), which are both owned by Fox Broadcasting. "I will take a demographic victory over a household victory any day."

"Good Day L.A.," which debuted in 1993, features heavy Hollywood coverage and the fluffy antics of hosts Steve Edwards, Dorothy Lucey and Jillian Barberie. It was an also-ran to KTLA's newsier morning program until scoring sweeps upsets in 2000 and 2001.

A year ago, Fox began syndicating an hour version of the show to its stations around the country. That version is run each weekday morning at 10 a.m on KTTV.

For the past year, however, "KTLA Morning News," anchored by Giselle Fernandez and Carlos Amezcua, has regained and kept the local morning ratings crown in Los Angeles.

Morning viewers tend to skew older and KTLA has made an effort to appeal to those viewers, said Jeff Wald, the station's news director.

Although the morning program is lighter and less rigid than its evening news counterparts, "the news comes first here," Wald said. "(KTTV) has done a good job as far as going after the target demographic. I don't know how to do that without pandering to that group. And that's not our style."

Despite ranking third and fourth in the morning news period, both KTLA and KTTV have been making headway against their national network rivals, "Good Morning America" and the "Today" show, which air locally on KABC-TV (Channel 7) and KNBC-TV (Channel 4).

In the most recent period, ABC's "Good Morning America" won the 7 to 9 a.m. time period with a 4.1 share and NBC's "Today" show was second with a 3.9 share.

But both those programs had lower ratings than in the November 2001 sweeps period, while "Good Day L.A." was up 11 percent from a year ago and the "KTLA Morning News" was up 5 percent. "The Early Show" on KCBS-TV (Channel 2) trailed all the competition in Los Angeles, garnering a meager 0.7 share.

"There's a very brisk competition in this market," Wald said. "That's a good thing because it keeps us on our toes."

The competition between Tribune Co.-owned KTLA and KTTV was even tighter in the earlier 6 to 7 a.m. time period when both stations run more traditional news shows.

KTLA ended the sweeps period with a 3.0 rating and a 12 share for that time period, while KTTV drew a 2.9 rating and a 12 share.