Tuesday’s coverage Christopher Dorner standoff and shootout gave stations in Los Angeles a big ratings boost for February sweeps. Local stations at least doubled their usual viewership, according to the Los Angeles Times:

KABC-TV led the way, with 708,000 viewers, followed by KCBS (680,000 with a KCAL simulcast), KTLA (259,000), KNBC (221,000) and KTTV (169,000). KCBS said it was the station’s highest-rated 5 p.m. newscast since at least 2004 and was nearly five times the previous average so far this month.

The Times reports that ratings fell considerably when the local stations cut away from the Dorner standoff for President Obama’s State of the Union address.

WMAQ general manager Larry Wert is leaving the NBC O&O for a top job at Tribune Co. Wert will be the president of local broadcasting,  overseeing strategy and opreations for 23 television stations and Chicago-based WGN Radio, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Wert will report to Peter Liguori, who stepped into the CEO role after the company emerged from bankruptcy last month.

“Our TV assets are an incredibly important part of the Tribune Co. We wanted to bring someone on board who had the breadth of experience, the depth of relationships and the energy to take innovations and get them across the goal line,” Ligouri said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “I just felt that we could take these local broadcast stations and really supercharge them behind Larry’s expertise and stewardship.”

Wert, a Chicago native, has been president and general manager of WMAQ since 1998. In 2008, he was named president of NBC Local Media’s central and western region, overseeing KNTV in San Francisco, KNBC in Los Angeles, KNSD in San Diego and KXAS in Dallas in addition to WMAQ. In 2011, NBC named Wert executive vice president of station initiatives for the NBC-owned stations.

“I grew up here, I spent most of my career here so I respect the great legacy of the Tribune co. I’m familiar with their great assets,” Wert told Broadcasting & Cable. “Their station footprint is significant in 36% of the country. I think there’s an opportunity right now to be part of its future in a very positive way.”

Rumors of Wert’s departure from WMAQ began last week. In his new job, he will remain based in Chicago.

>Update: NBC Owned Television Stations President Valari Staab has released a statement:

This is a rare and exciting opportunity for Larry to run a broadcast group and stay in his hometown of Chicago. I greatly appreciate his dedication and have truly enjoyed working with him over the last 18 months. I wish him the very best in his new role.

Despite breaking news in their backyard, local stations in Los Angeles pivoted away from coverage of the Christopher Dorner manhunt to broadcast President Barack Obama‘s State of the Union address Tuesday evening.

CBS O&O KCBS, NBC O&O KNBC, ABC O&O KABC and Fox O&O KTTV all switched from wall-to-wall Dorner coverage to State of the Union coverage provided by their respective affiliated networks around 6pmPT. Dorner and police engaged in a shootout in Big Bear shortly after 4pmPT Tuesday afternoon. The cabin he the ex-L.A. cop was believed to be hiding in went up in flames later in the evening.

• Related, TVNewser: Dorner Cornered, California Manhunt Pushes Up Against State of the Union Coverage

CW affiliate KTLA and independent station KCAL were the only stations to stay in coverage of the Dorner search. Dorner is believed to be dead inside the cabin.

KNBC in Los Angeles is expanding its weekend evening newscasts.

The NBC-owned station is launching a 30-minute newscast at 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, as well as expanding the Sunday 11 p.m. newscast to a full hour.

“The expansion of our newscasts give us a chance to tell more stories and cover events that happen on weekends,” KNBC vice president of news Todd Mokhtari said in a statement.  “The added time slots give our viewers more options for getting breaking news, local information and weather all weekend long.”

Robert Kovacik and Kathy Vara, who currently anchor the station’s 6 and 11 p.m. weekend newscasts, will also anchor the 5 p.m. broadcast.

Hetty Chang is joining KNBC, the NBC-owned station in Los Angeles, as a multimedia reporter covering the Los Angeles South Bay.

Until December 2011, Chang was a reporter at KSNV, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas. She has also worked as a reporter and fill-in anchor at KRNV in Reno. It is a return to Los Angeles for Chang, who began her career as a producer and reporter for “L.A. Cityview.”

Chang was the first digital media fellow recipient under a pilot program between KNBC and the Asian American Journalists Association in 2011. She will report for the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts starting next month.

A Philadelphia judge has dismissed former KYW anchor Alycia Lane‘s defamation lawsuit against the CBS O&O.

Lane, who was a KYW anchor from 2003-08, accused her former station of defaming her after she was terminated from the station after she was involved in a physical altercation with a New York City police officer. She also brought a lawsuit against her former co-anchor, Larry Mendte, after he hacked into her email and leaked private information.

The judge threw out some, but not all, of the claims against Mendte. He pleaded guilty to hacking into her email in 2008.

Lane currently anchors the morning newscast on KNBC, the NBC O&O in Los Angeles.

In the course of her investigation about illegal animal trafficking in the Los Angeles fashion district, KNBC reporter Ana Garcia obtained internal LAPD emails suggesting the department make more arrests to avoid bad media coverage (video above).

Los Angeles passed a law last year that makes it illegal to buy animals from sellers on the street. Robbi Peele, an investigative consumer reporter from the station, emailed the department and asked how many arrests had been made since the law had passed; an LAPD officer returned her email and said only one arrest had been made. In a second email — one that was clearly not supposed to be sent to KNBC — another LAPD staffer, Andrew Smith, warned that the story could be “a black eye” for the department: Read more

Yesterday we told you about KIDK anchor Tudd Kunz keeping his cool as a spider crawled up his arm at the anchor desk. Today, another reporter gets props for maintaining composure on the air.

During a live shot on KNBC‘s 11 p.m. newscast, a cockroach crawled up Robert Kovacik‘s shoulder and down his other sleeve (video above). Kovacik tweeted about his “new pet” on Friday morning: Read more

Stacy Owen, news director at WLWT in Cincinnati is heading west.  NBC has confirmed Owen will join KNBC, the NBC owned station in Los Angeles, as assistant news director.

Owen, who led the news effort for the Cincinnati NBC affiliate, came to the station three years ago from KXTV in Sacramento.  Cincinnati.com said that Owen’s main goal was to stop the high turnover rate at the station,

“She’s done a great job for us. She’s been a great  manager. She’s really smart and a great competitor,” says General Manager Richard Dyer.

Owen plans to stay at WLWT until one day after the election.  Her last day will be November 7.

[cincinnati.com]

>Update: Stacy told TVSpy, “I am proud of my team at WLWT and what we are accomplishing here, and at the same time excited about building a winning team at KNBC.  I have long respected [news director] Todd Mokhtari for both his news sense and management style, and the opportunity to work with him and [general manager] Steve Carlston was one I could not pass up.  At the same time, it’s a new challenge for me, and a homecoming to L.A., where I grew up.  The best of both worlds.”

As the space shuttle Endeavour made its final flight around Los Angeles Friday afternoon, every major station in the region was carrying live coverage of its arrival.

KNBC anchors Michael Brownlee and Kathy Vara began anchoring coverage just before 9:30amPT. They were joined by Colleen Williams at Griffith Observatory, John Cadiz Klemack in Palmdale, Sean Murphy at the Santa Monica Pier, Ted Chen at Edwards Air Force Base, Toni Guinyard and Chuck Henry at LAX, Patrick Healy at the Nasa Propulsion Center and Antonio Castelan in El Segundo.

KTTV had several anchors participating: Phil Shuman, Carlos Amezcua, Araksya Karapetyan, Lisa Breckenridge and Jeff Michael. Meteorologist Maria Quiban and Pablo Pereira handled the weather reports, and reporters were live across Los Angeles, including Bob DeCastro and Gigi Graciette at LAX, Mar Yvette at a restaurant near LAX and Gina Silva at Griffith Observatory. Hal Eisner and Tshaka Armstrong also contributed. Read more