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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Aug. 28) -- what condition's the convention in?

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
This is rather remarkable.

First off, it's not surprising that Fox News Channel would be the No. 1-rated network for Republican Convention coverage during the one-hour in which it went head-to-head with the three major broadcast networks as well as CNN and MSNBC. That's happened before, both nationally and in D-FW.

But on Tuesday's opening night, FNC not only won this war from 9 to 10 p.m. locally. It equaled the combined audience of the five rival networks. Here's the D-FW breakdown during the hour in which Ann Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were the featured attractions:

Fox News Channel -- 189,675 viewers
ABC -- 54,193 viewers
CBS -- 47,419 viewers
NBC -- 40,645 viewers
CNN -- 27,096 viewers
MSNBC -- 20,322 viewers

But wait, there's more. The 9 to 10 p.m. portion of the Texas Rangers' 1-0 home win over Tampa Bay drew 264,190 viewers on Fox Sports Southwest. That was more than enough to beat the combined convention audience on the three cable networks (237,093 viewers) as well as the combined audience on ABC, CBS and NBC (142,257 viewers).

Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast, with 128,708 viewers, handily whipped all of the individual networks' convention coverage except for FNC's.

It'll be a tougher task for Wednesday's 9 to 10 p.m. convention window, which in D-FW is opposite the final Dallas Cowboys exhibition throwaway on TXA21 and at least part of the early starting Rangers game if it runs past 9 p.m. after an early 6:05 p.m. start to accommodate Jerry's Team. If VP nominee Paul D. Ryan addresses the Republican faithful and no one hears him in D-FW, is it a sound?

CBS and NBC both suffered sharp audience drop-offs from the entertainment programming preceding their convention coverage. NBC had 176,127 viewers for its 7 to 9 p.m. edition of America's Got Talent before the Peacock's GOP festivities drew less than one-quarter that crowd. CBS had 115,160 for an 8 p.m. NCIS: Los Angeles repeat before the convention pulled in less than half the viewers.

Only ABC showed an increase, drawing a sub-measly 20,322 viewers for its 8;30 p.m. rerun of Don't Trust the B . . . in Apartment 23. The convention then came close to tripling that audience.

In Tuesday's local news derby results, WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. But it again fell to second behind a suddenly flexing Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-old viewers, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

WFAA8 swept both the 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. competitions while NBC5 did likewise at 5 p.m. CBS11 remained lost but not found in the key 25-to-54 demographic, placing fourth in all four time periods.