While Fox affiliate KHON continues to hog the top slot for local news programming at 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., CBS affiliate KGMB has established a hold on the 10 p.m. news slot.

KGMB has now been able to hold on to its upset lead over KHON for four consecutive ratings periods.

And KGMB is gearing up to launch a challenge in the morning news arena later this year.

"We're deep in the planning stages, and hope to launch in early fall," said Rick Blangiardi, KGMB president and general manager. KGMB currently airs CBS national news, and it's the only network affiliate without a locally produced wake-up show.

Expect the news wars to rev up a notch or two over the next few months.

The top-rated show in the May sweeps was "American Idol," the Fox staple, which pulled a 26 rating and 43 share for its Tuesday-Wednesday weekly showdowns.

The top prime-time stations, based on local ratings for network programming, were KITV and KGMB, tied with an 8 rating and 15 share.

The top local program during the rating period was KGMB's six-hour live coverage of the Don Ho memorial services on May 12, which attracted 85,000 viewers, good for a 13 rating.

"A lot of people watched that for all six hours, and we did it out of respect," Blangiardi said. "It was the right thing to do, a great tribute to Don. I hope he's smiling somewhere."

KHON grabbed about double the share, or percentage of people watching TV, that nearest competitor KGMB drew at 6 p.m. during the latest ratings period.

In the early morning, KHON drew more than three times the share of nearest competitor KITV, the ABC affiliate.

The difference between the shares split by winner KGMB and nearest competitor KHON is closer at 10 p.m., with KGMB drawing about 24 percent of viewers, and KHON drawing 21 percent.

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.