FIRST OFF . . .

A remark by KNBC’s John Beard during a Channel 4 newscast last week has prompted KCBS-TV to file a complaint with Nielsen Media Research. The complaint, according to Channel 2 spokeswoman Andi Sporkin, alleges that Beard violated A.C. Nielsen Co. guidelines that prohibit sweeps-related comments during sweeps months. The remark that so irked KCBS? Beard introduced a Grammy Awards segment on the 6 p.m. newscast March 2 by saying, “If you don’t want to know (the winners), you might want to close your ears or leave the room--but leave that Nielsen meter on.” KCBS research director Terry Pittman reported the incident to Nielsen on Friday after a reporter from the trade paper Daily Variety asked about the remark, Sporkin said. A Nielsen spokeswoman in New York said Monday that the ratings company was as yet unaware of the complaint, but added that it would be “highly unlikely” that KNBC would be seriously censured if the anchorman’s remark was ad-libbed. Last May, KABC-TV’s 11 p.m. broadcast aired a series of stories on the Nielsen ratings; as a result, eight days of late-night news numbers were deleted from the station’s ratings. KCBS’s Sporkin agreed with Nielsen: “If it were just an ad lib--yeah, they’re just going to laugh it off. But if it were scripted, that’s more serious. . . . There were more hands in on it.”