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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon.- Tues., March 17-18) -- CBS/NBC dominate with heavyweights

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
CBS flexed with its powerhouse prime-time lineup Tuesday while NBC did likewise on Monday. The only competitor disturbing their peace was Fox4’s Tuesday 9 p.m. newscast.

NCIS as usual led CBS’ total viewers sweep Tuesday, logging 426,078 in the 7 p.m. The network’s NCIS: Los Angeles and Person of Interest also won their 8 to10 p.m. slots in the D-FW Nielsens with 333,761 and 241,444 viewers respectively.

Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, NBC’s The Voice called the tune at 7 p.m. before NCIS: Los Angeles topped this key demographic from 8 to 9 p.m. Fox4’s 9 p.m. news then jumped in to win comfortably over runner-up Person of Interest.

On Monday, NBC’s twin punch of The Voice and The Blacklist ran the prime-time table in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.

The Voice squared off against the latest new launch of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which stumbled. Voice had 411,875 total viewers to Dancing’s 305,356. The Voice made it a runaway among 18-to-49-year-olds, winning by a score of 205,172 to 97,701. Dancing slipped to third from 7 to 7:30 p.m., with CBS’ How I Met Your Mother taking the silver. Fox’s 7 to 9 p.m. attractions, Bones and The Following, came up fourth across the board.

In late night, NBC’s Jimmy Fallon resumed his winning ways by whipping ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel on Monday and Tuesday in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds. Kimmel had beaten Fallon for the first times on Thursday and Friday, which also were his last of five shows originating from Austin.

Also of note: after three nights of abstinence last week, WFAA8 on Monday resumed its practice of inviting viewer tune-out by inserting a three-minute bloc of commercials between the end of its 10 p.m. newscast and the start of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. As noted previously, NBC5 and CBS11 both go directly from their late news to Fallon and David Letterman. The Peacock does the best job of handing off, even if Fallon on Tuesday night didn’t call anchors Brian Curtis and Meredith Land by their first names (which he did during earlier customized teases). NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs grandly took note of this, saying Fallon had already “forgotten” his colleagues’ names. It made for an uncomfortable close, and Scruggs very likely heard about it.

Here are the Monday and Tuesday local news derby results:

Monday -- WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m., but ran second to NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 romped to another pair of 6 a.m. firsts and added a 6 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 swept the 5 p.m. competitions and tied with WFAA8 for the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

Tuesday -- WFAA8 impressively bucked a virtually non-existent lead-in from ABC’s Mind Games to win at 10 p.m. in both ratings measurements over runner-up Fox4.

Score two more 6 a.m. wins for Fox4, which also had the most 25-to-54-year-olds at both 5 and 6 p.m. NBC5 drew the most total viewers at those hours. Left with nothing to brag about on either day was CBS11.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net