CHANNEL SURFING Channel 6 still rules the roost At 5 p.m., the departure of Marc Howard and long absences of Lisa Thomas-Laury didn't seem to make much of a difference as WPVI had virtually the same ratings as last year. By LAURA NACHMAN Courier Times Despite an 11th-hour effort on the last night of sweeps by NBC-10, WPVI held on to win the 11 p.m. November book with an 11.6 rating/20 share to WCAU's 11.5 rating/19 share. WCAU pulled out all the stops on the sweeps period's final 11 p.m. news broadcast with its highly rated farewell to meteorologist John Bolaris (the only thing missing was Bette Midler singing goodbye to John). The day started with WPVI leading from 5-7 a.m. with a 5.8 rating/23 share with superteam Rick Williams and Monica Malpass, who also worked the 5 p.m. shift for most of November. From 7-9 a.m., WTXF's "Good Day Philadelphia," sans Mike Jerrick and Donya Archer, dropped into a tie with "The Early Show" seen on KYW, but "Good Morning America" on WPVI led with a 7.4 rating/21 share. At 9 a.m., "Regis and Kelly" led the timeslot, but dropped 13-percent from a year ago. At 10 a.m., WPVI missed Rosie O'Donnell, as "The Wayne Brady Show" had a 3.9 rating/12 share compared to O'Donnell's 6.1 rating/20 share of a year ago. Some of Rosie's old audience went to WCAU's "10," which inched up to a 2.8 rating/9 share and many "Guiding Light" fans found their "story" at 10 a.m. on KYW with a 2.2 rating/7 share. At 11 a.m., Bob Barker and "The Price is Right" on KYW took the lead from Barbara Walters and "The View" on WPVI. At noon, WPVI led with a 6.8 rating/20 share. At 3 p.m. "Dr. Phil" increased KYW's ratings 55 percent at 3 p.m. with a 4.8 rating/12 share, but he trailed the doctors of "General Hospital," which had a 5.2 rating/13 share. WCAU's news at 4 p.m. continues to edge closer to "Oprah" on WPVI. "Oprah," which once dominated the timeslot, has less than a rating point lead over the news. The new game show block of "Millionaire" and "Pyramid" didn't make much of a difference for KYW at 4 p.m. with the same ratings from last year. At 5 p.m., the departure of Marc Howard and long absences of Lisa Thomas-Laury didn't seem to make much of a difference as WPVI had virtually the same ratings as last year with an 11.1 rating/21 share compared to an 11.5 rating/22 share. At 6 p.m., it was all WPVI with a 14.7 rating/24 share, more than KYW and WCAU combined. KYW continues to struggle from 5-7 p.m. At 5 p.m. the news was beaten by WTXF's "Judge Judy," at 6 p.m., the news was tied by "Friends" on WPHL, and at 6:30 the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" was surpassed by "The Simpsons" on WTXF and "That '70s Show" on WPSG. From 7-8 p.m., WPVI dominated with "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune." At 7, the runner-up was "The Simpsons" on WTXF and at 7:30 it was WCAU's "Access Hollywood," but it's also worthy to note that "Everybody Loves Raymond" had a strong showing for WPSG. In the 10 p.m. news race, WTXF doubled the ratings of WPHL - 4.1 rating/6 share to 1.9 rating/3 share. Each rating point equals 28,305 households. Congratulations to WPHL news anchor Toni Yates who celebrated her 40th birthday by giving birth to a boy, Gabriel Wendell Harvey, on Friday. Yates has two daughters from a previous marriage to CN8 anchor Arthur Fennell. Yates married Philadelphia firefighter Chuck Harvey earlier this year. Catch Laura on a panel discussing the season of "The Sopranos" on "It's Your Call with Lynn Doyle" Monday at 9 p.m. on CN8. Leave a message for Laura at [email protected]. December 05, 2002