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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., Aug. 27-28) -- dominant, deficient Cowboys

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Still a broken toy on the field, the Dallas Cowboys wrapped up their winless pre-season with another easy win on the D-FW ratings charts.

The 27-3 Game 4 home loss to Denver, which ran from 7:07 to 9:53 p.m. on CBS11, averaged 468,686 viewers in edging Game 1’s 454,483 viewers. The Game 3 “dress rehearsal” topped the local charts this month with 603,611 viewers while Game 2 took the runner-up spot with 536,858.

Thursday’s Cowboys-Broncos game, which left Dallas with zero wins in the pre-season for the first time since 2000, drew 136,781 viewers in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic. All four games scored well under 50 percent in this key audience measurement. That’s a trend worth watching when the Cowboys’ regular season kicks off on Sept. 7th with a home game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Thursday’s biggest draw opposite the Cowboys, an 8 p.m. edition of Big Brother, had 113,621 total viewers and 71,647 in the 18-to-49 range. CBS’ most dependable summertime draw was re-routed to CBS11’s sister station, TXA21, along with Two and a Half Men, The Millers and Elementary.

On Fox Sports Southwest, the Texas Rangers remained all but dead and buried opposite the Cowboys game. The last-place team’s 4-2 road loss to the Astros had 63,912 total viewers with just 9,770 in the 18-to-49 motherlode. It’s been a very disappointing year for the injury-riddled Rangers, both on the field and at the local ratings box office.

Texas A&M’s dominant upset win over South Carolina on the brand new SEC network likely drew more viewers than the Rangers. But the network isn’t being rated in its inaugural football season, so it’s pretty much anyone’s guess right now.

Wednesday’s prime-time Nielsens were paced by NBC’s 8 p.m. episode of America’s Got Talent, which pulled in 241,444 total viewers. But the demographic darling again was Big Brother, whose 7 p.m. hour ranked a dominant No. 1 with 18-to-49-year-olds (100,958) while AGT dipped to 58,621.

Here are the local news derby results.

Wednesday -- Fox4 won at 10 p.m. 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. sweep and also had the most total viewers at 5 p.m.

CBS11 won in total viewers at 6 p.m. while Gannett8 ranked No. 1 with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 had the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m.

Thursday -- Gannett8 ran the table at 10 p.m. and Fox4 again did likewise at 6 a.m.

NBC5 scored a doubleheader win at 6 p.m. while also drawing the most total viewers at 5 p.m. The Peacock and Gannett8 tied for the 25-to-54 gold at 5 p.m.

It was a three-way competition at 6 p.m., with CBS11 airing its one-hour Countdown to Kickoff Cowboys special. It won from 6:30 to 7 p.m. in both ratings measurements, but the first half-hour ran third in total viewers and second among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net