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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Oct. 24)

By ED BARK
Wednesday's elongated, lopsided Game 1 of the World Series came and went without free tacos for America -- or much of a ratings impact in D-FW.

Then again this isn't a big baseball town. But we do like our tacos.

The prime-time portion of the game, which ended at 11:07 p.m. with a 13-1 Red Sox win over the Rockies, drew a medium-average 192,412 homes locally. That put it in third place from 8 to 9 p.m., well behind CBS' Criminal Minds and just a smidgen lower than ABC's Private Practice. Specifically, the World Series had 186,323 homes at that hour, with Criminal Minds pulling in 236,253 homes and Private Practice 189,977.

CBS' CSI: NY ruled the 9 to 10 p.m. slot with 263,045 homes. The World Series slid into second place (202,155 homes) with its peak numbers of the night.

Baseball fared worse among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, beating NBC's Bionic Woman and Life from 8 to 10 p.m., but beaten in turn by the two CBS crime series, Private Practice and ABC's Dirty Sexy Money.

The taco offer, from Taco Bell, allows every red-blooded humanoid to claim a free one after the first World Series base is stolen. You could get squeezed out, though. A stolen base during Games 1 or 2 would make Oct. 30th Taco Day from 2 to 5 p.m. local times at all Taco Bell outlets. If a base is stolen during Games 3 to 7, you'll have to wait until Nov. 6th.

Game 1 had nary a steal attempt, but did feature a 5th inning balk that allowed a Red Sox runner to advance from first base to second. Commentator Tim McCarver wondered if that merited a taco.

"No," said play-by-play mate Joe Buck.

"Chips, guacamole, anything?" McCarver pressed.

"No," Buck answered firmly.

Meanwhile, on the local newscast front, the 10 p.m. Big Enchilada again went to Belo8. Its 297,143 total homes crunched runnerup CBS11 (163,185 homes) and third place NBC5 (146,136 homes).

Belo8 also dominated at 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. But it again was a different story at 6 a.m., with Fox4 finishing first in both ratings measurements.

Belo8 countered with twin wins at 6 p.m., and also edged Fox4 at 5 p.m. in total homes. Fox4 nipped Belo8 and CBS11 at that hour in the 25-to-54 demo. The latter two stations tied for second, with NBC5 far back.