powered by FreeFind

Apple iTunes

Archives

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 29) -- Pitch hangs tough

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
No baseball series has gone beyond a single season on a Big Four broadcast network. Fox’s Pitch at least is still very much in the game.

Thursday night’s second episode narrowly won its 8 p.m. slot in competition with new programming on ABC and NBC -- and reruns on CBS. The drama built around major league baseball’s first woman pitcher drew 159,964 D-FW viewers and 64,142 in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic.

NBC’s Chicago Med was the runner-up in both audience measurements with 152,693 total viewers and 57,728 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

Those aren’t imposing numbers, but Pitch was Fox’s biggest prime-time draw on both counts, pulling in more viewers than the preceding Rosewood and Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast. ABC’s 8 p.m. entry, the new Notorious, lagged in third place at 8 p.m. in total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.

CBS deferred to Thursday Night Football on the NFL Net, which ran the CBS pre-game show and the game itself with CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. The lackluster Cincinnati Bengals-Miami Dolphins matchup averaged 174,506 total viewers and 86,592 in the 18-to-49-year-old realm. CBS punted with two repeats apiece of The Big Bang Theory and Kevin Can Wait, plus a 9 p.m. do-over of Bull.

NBC’s newcomer, The Good Place, remained in good shape at 7:30 p.m. with a solid second place finish in total viewers (159,964) and an impressively strong first-place showing in that time slot with 18-to-49-year-olds (99,420).

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.

TEGNA8 ran first at 10 p.m. in total viewers and tied NBC5 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m. and NBC5 swept the 5 p.m. competitions. At 6 p.m., the golds went to TEGNA8 in total viewers and NBC5 in the 25-to-54 age range.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net