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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., April 8) -- hoops vs. The Voice

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
Free-wheeling and fast-paced, the NCAA men’s hoops final vied with NBC’s upscale The Voice for top ratings honors Monday night.

It was pretty close overall.

Running from 8:26 to 10:46 p.m. on CBS, Louisville’s 82-76 win over Michigan averaged 371,747 D-FW viewers while The Voice amassed 426,820 from 7 to 9 p.m. But during their full half-hour opposite one another (8:30 to 9 p.m.), The Voice drubbed basketball to the tune of 454,357 viewers to 309,789. ABC’s Dancing with the Stars came in third during that half-hour with 268,484 viewers.

The Voice also dominated among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, luring 251,963 from 8:30 to 9 p.m. while Louisville-Michigan took the silver with 133,955.

Hoops dominated the Nielsens in both measurements from 9 p.m. until closing time, with NBC’s Revolution plunging to 144,568 total viewers. That put it in fifth place behind basketball, the 9 to 10 p.m. portion of the Rangers-Rays game on Fox Sports Southwest, Fox4’s local newscast and ABC’s Castle repeat.

The Rangers averaged a respectable 185,873 viewers for the entire game, which ended with a horrid called third strike that gave the North Texas Nine a one-run win. While the Rays and their manager argued at length, Rangers analyst Tom Grieve called it a “borderline call.” He said this after the FSS “Pitch Track” showed the pitch from closer Joe Nathan to be far outside.

A few words about Grieve. He’s a decent man who obviously knows the game very well. But his “Homer” tendencies, particularly with ball and strike calls, are an embarrassment on too many nights. Had a Ranger been at the plate, Grieve would have griped at length about the bogus strike call. And as the post-game comments showed, no one except Grieve thought the pitch was “borderline.” That included both plate umpire Joe Foster, who admitted he blew the call, and Nathan himself.

What Grieve should have said was something on the order of, “Well, the Rangers got away with one there. That pitch wasn’t really even close to being a strike. But Nathan will take it, and these things have a way of evening out.” Maybe he can make amends at the start of Tuesday’s game.

OK, back to Monday’s ratings, which showed that the inaugural two-hour edition of D magazine’s D: The Broadcast registered “hashmarks” (no measurable audience from 9 to 11 a.m. on KTXD-TV (Ch. 47). The previous companion show, D Living, was dropped to make room for the expanded D: The Broadcast.

In Monday’s local news derby results, WFAA8 won a downsized three-way 10 p.m. competition in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 as usual swept the 6 a.m. competitions. The station also ran the table at 5 p.m. and added a 6 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

LOCAL TV NOTES

Fox Sports Southwest has shifted its scheduled April 14th and 17th Dallas Mavericks games against New Orleans to TXA21. The respective start times are 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., with at least a slight chance that both games could be meaningful to the Mavs’ playoff hopes.

Also, NBC5 meteorologist/traffic reporter Samantha Davies is newly engaged. Here’s a link to her on-air announcement.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net