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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Feb. 4) -- Empire remains in power

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Fox’s Empire, still the phenomenon of the season, drove its network and Fox4 to another Wednesday prime-time sweep.

American Idol started the night strong with a time slot-winning 306,856 D-FW viewers before Empire upped that total to 348,700. Fox4’s local 9 p.m. newscast then held off CBS’ competing Stalker to win that hour with 237,116 viewers.

Idol, Empire and Fox4’s news likewise won among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. Idol got the ball rolling with 126,152 before Empire (170,305) and Fox4’s news (81,999) took charge.

Wednesday also housed the double premiere of ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat. The 7:30 p.m. episode ran third in its time slot with 139,480 total viewers, edging the second half of NBC’s The Mysteries of Laura. At 8:30 p.m., a second new episode of Boat sunk to 111,584 viewers to finish fourth among the Big Four broadcast networks.

The 7:30 p.m. episode of Boat also ran third with 18-to-49-year-olds before the 8:30 p.m. half-hour fell to fifth place behind Empire, Criminal Minds, NBC’s Law & Order: SVU and The CW’s The 100.

The 9 p.m. return of ABC’s Nashville edged NBC’s competing Chicago PD for third place in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results on the fifth weekday of the February “sweeps.”

CBS11 nipped Gannett8 for first place at 10 p.m. in total viewers but drooped to fourth among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). Gannett8 won that race by a fairly comfy margin over NBC5.

Fox4 again ran the table at 6 a.m. and NBC5 remained strong at 5 p.m. with its third straight pair of twin wins.

The 6 p.m. golds went to CBS11 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net