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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., April 7) -- Idol finale fuels another Fox/Fox4 sweep

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Fox’s two-hour American Idol finale paid substantial ratings dividends Thursday night. Not like in the old days, but still more than good enough to dominate prime-time.

Airing from 7 to 9:06 p.m., Idol averaged 481,603 D-FW viewers and 190,542 in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Trent Harmon emerged as the champion of the show’s 15th and supposedly last season. But Ryan Seacrest, who went the distance as host, left the door open for a revival at some point by signing off with “Good night, America -- for now.”

Only CBS’ 7 p.m. episode of The Big Bang Theory came close -- but not that close -- to Idol, pulling in 375,367 total viewers and 114,325 in the 18-to-49 age range.

Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast then comfortably won its time slot in both ratings measurements. Precise numbers are blurred by the Idol over-run. But the final 45 minutes of the news (Nielsen measures in 15-minute increments) had 198,307 total viewers, with 79,393 in the 18-to-49 realm.

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 drew the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while Fox4 ran first among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 again swept the 6 a.m. competitions. At 6 p.m., TEGNA8 and CBS11 tied for the most total viewers but TEGNA8 won outright with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 and TEGNA8 shared the total viewers lead at 5 p.m. while Fox4 was alone on top with 25-to-54-year-olds.

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