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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Feb. 19) -- Olympics still taking the golds while Fox/CBS compete for respectable silvers

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s prime-time Olympics coverage, now in the home stretch, won from start to finish Wednesday, with Fox and CBS nonetheless drawing decent crowds.

The 7 to 10:30 p.m. Winter Games package averaged 411,875 D-FW viewers. Fox’s latest two-hour chunk of American Idol hung in there with 269,849 viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. and CBS’ new episode of Criminal Minds notched that same total in the 8 p.m. hour (although still losing to Idol’s more-watched second half).

CBS’ first-run CSI: Crime Scene Investigation took the 9 p.m. silver with 248,546 viewers; Fox4’s local newscast was a decent draw with 191,735 viewers.

The Olympics also ran the table among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. All the silvers went to American Idol and Fox4 news.

ABC, offering only a new episode of the sure-to-be-canceled Super Fun Night amid a sea of repeats, ran a distant fourth all night long in both ratings measurements.

Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show continued to rout Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman in the late night battle. Fallon is slowly falling off, though, with 149,127 total viewers and 68,391 in the 18-to-49 demographic his lowest scores over the first three nights. It also marked the first time that less than half of Fallon’s audience was within the coveted 18-to-49 age range.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results:

Fox4 swept the downsized three-way 10 p.m. competitions in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. The station added a 6 a.m. doubleheader win and also ran first at 5 and 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net