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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 29) -- Pitch hangs tough

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
No baseball series has gone beyond a single season on a Big Four broadcast network. Fox’s Pitch at least is still very much in the game.

Thursday night’s second episode narrowly won its 8 p.m. slot in competition with new programming on ABC and NBC -- and reruns on CBS. The drama built around major league baseball’s first woman pitcher drew 159,964 D-FW viewers and 64,142 in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic.

NBC’s Chicago Med was the runner-up in both audience measurements with 152,693 total viewers and 57,728 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

Those aren’t imposing numbers, but Pitch was Fox’s biggest prime-time draw on both counts, pulling in more viewers than the preceding Rosewood and Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast. ABC’s 8 p.m. entry, the new Notorious, lagged in third place at 8 p.m. in total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.

CBS deferred to Thursday Night Football on the NFL Net, which ran the CBS pre-game show and the game itself with CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. The lackluster Cincinnati Bengals-Miami Dolphins matchup averaged 174,506 total viewers and 86,592 in the 18-to-49-year-old realm. CBS punted with two repeats apiece of The Big Bang Theory and Kevin Can Wait, plus a 9 p.m. do-over of Bull.

NBC’s newcomer, The Good Place, remained in good shape at 7:30 p.m. with a solid second place finish in total viewers (159,964) and an impressively strong first-place showing in that time slot with 18-to-49-year-olds (99,420).

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.

TEGNA8 ran first at 10 p.m. in total viewers and tied NBC5 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m. and NBC5 swept the 5 p.m. competitions. At 6 p.m., the golds went to TEGNA8 in total viewers and NBC5 in the 25-to-54 age range.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 28) -- Fox again stirs the drink with Empire, Lethal Weapon

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Fox’s Empire again dominated Wednesday’s prime-time terrain while the network’s second episode of Lethal Weapon stayed strong as a warmup act.

Lethal Weapon comfortably won the 7 p.m. hour in both total D-FW viewers (283,573) and advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds (102,627). As with last season’s Rosewood, though, the Empire warmup effect plays a major role.

In this case, the first 15 minutes of Lethal Weapon drew 239,946 total viewers and the closing 15 minutes, 356,284. That significantly inflates the overall ratings average. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Lethal Weapon began with 89,799 viewers and ended with 118,663. How many of those viewers were simply tuning to Fox in advance anticipation of Empire? Most of them, you can be assured.

Empire then crunched all competing programming with 436,266 total viewers and 211,669 in the 18-to-49 age range.

At 9 p.m., the second episode of ABC’s Designated Survivor impressively more than doubled its audience lead-in from black-ish to win the hour with 225,404 total viewers. But it fell to third with 18-to-49-year-olds (57,728), trailing Fox4’s local newscast (102,627) and NBC’s Chicago Med (60,935).

ABC’s 7:30 p.m. second episode of Speechless ran last in total viewers among the Big Four broadcast networks and moved up to third -- ahead of the second half of NBC’s struggling Blindspot -- in the 18-to-49 demographic.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results.

TEGNA8 drew the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while NBC5 won among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 again had twin wins at 6 a.m. and NBC5 ran the table at 6 p.m.

The 5 p.m. firsts went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 27) -- CBS/NBC split prime-time spoils

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
CBS controlled the prime-time terrain in total viewers Tuesday but NBC lapped up the lion’s share of advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds while ABC and Fox were left barren.

NCIS led off with 414,453 D-FW viewers, making it the biggest overall draw of the night. The second episode of CBS’ Bull (356,284 viewers) and NCIS: New Orleans (298,115) likewise won their slots from 8 to 10 p.m.

NBC’s two-hour edition of The Voice led all programming in the 18-to-49-year-old realm with 137,905 viewers before the second episode of the Peacock’s This Is Us (already renewed for a full season) mopped up at 9 p.m. with 93,006 viewers.

Tuesday’s least-watched prime-timer among with Big Four broadcast networks, Fox’s 8 p.m. hour of Scream Queens, had just 43,627 total viewers. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, it shared the night’s worst showing with ABC’s 9 p.m. episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (19,243 viewers each).

ABC’s two-hour Dancing with the Stars said goodbye to former Texas governor and two-time failed Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, who again showed his proclivity for being quickly voted off national stages. In the broadcast network division, it ran a distant third from 7 to 9 p.m. in total viewers with 167,235.

On cable’s Fox Sports Southwest, the Texas Rangers’ home win over Milwaukee averaged 145,422 total viewers, with 51,314 in the 18-to-49 age range.

Here are Tuesday’s local news derby results.

CBS11 won comfortably at 10 p.m. in total viewers while NBC5 drew the most 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. and tied for the most total viewers at 6 p.m. with NBC5. The Peacock swept the 5 p.m. competitions and added a 6 p.m. win in the 25-to-54 demographic.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Sept. 26) -- special debate edition

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Drinking game: Republican Donald Trump hits his bottomless water glass for the first of many times during Monday night’s first of three presidential debates with Democrat Hillary Clinton. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The first one’s in the books and so are the D-FW Nielsen ratings for Monday night’s mega-hyped showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Their 90-minute show-and-tell, the first of three, aired on a wide array of TV networks from 8 to 9:30 p.m. -- give or take a few minutes. Let’s break down what we have in both total viewers, advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds and those elusive but important 18-to-34-year-olds who both Trump and Cinton still can’t seem to enthuse. That is, if they even bother to vote.

(Note: Nielsen’s newly revised annual population estimates say each D-FW rating point is worth 72,711 total viewers, 32,071 in the 18-to-49 demographic and 16,913 in the 18-to-34 age range. All represent increases over the previous year, and we’ll be using them for the first time here.)

Total Viewers

NBC -- 428,995
Fox News Channel -- 305,386
ABC -- 298,115
Fox -- 290,844
CBS -- 218,133
CNN -- 174,506
Univision -- 72,711
Telemundo/PBS -- 58,169 each
MSNBC -- 50,898

That’s a grand total of 1,955,926 viewers. Dallas Cowboys playoff games, which admittedly have been rare in recent seasons, generally draw in excess of 2 million viewers in the D-FW area. The last one, a controversial January 2015 loss to the Green Bay Packers, averaged 2,210,758 viewers.

18-to-49-Year-Olds

NBC -- 221,290
Fox -- 144,320
Fox News Channel -- 102,627
ABC -- 99,420
CBS -- 76,970
CNN -- 70,556
Univision -- 35,278
Telemundo -- 32,071
PBS -- 22,450
MSNBC -- 6,414

That’s a grand total of 811,396 viewers.

18-to-34-Year-Olds

NBC -- 76,109
Fox -- 67,652
Fox News Channel -- 43,974
CNN -- 37,209
ABC -- 30,443
Univision -- 27,061
CBS -- 18,604
PBS -- 11,839
Telemundo -- 10,148
MSNBC -- 5,074

That’s a grand total of 328,113 viewers, or slightly over one-sixth of the total audience for the debate.

ESPN’s high-scoring Monday Night Football game between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints averaged 196,320 total viewers, with 93,006 in the 18-to-49 age range and 35,625 in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic.

The first-place Texas Rangers’ home loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Fox Sports Southwest averaged 65,440 total viewers, with the audience declining sharply once the debate started at 8 p.m.

Here are Monday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 swept the 10 p.m. competitions in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 again ran the table at 6 a.m. and NBC5 did likewise at 5 p.m. The 6 p.m. golds went to TEGNA8 in total viewers and NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Sept. 23-25) -- bull market for Cowboys' win over Bears

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s big Sunday Night Football stage invariably is good for both the network and the Dallas Cowboys’ ratings.

A 31-17 win over the injury-riddled Chicago Bears, the Cowboys’ first home victory in more than a year, also helped to kick up the D-FW Nielsen numbers.

Game 3 hit season highs to date of 1,565,210 viewers and 698,654 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic. That surpassed the season opener’s totals of 1,444,810 and 600,207 viewers for the one-point home loss to the New York Giants.

Earlier Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles’ surprise rout of the Pittsburgh Steelers ranked as the day’s No. 2 ratings attraction with 587,839 total viewers on CBS. Fox’s noon-starting Washington Redskins comeback win over the Giants finished third with 517,015 total viewers.

Fox’s 7:30 p.m. second episode of Son of Zorn never had a chance opposite the start of the Cowboys game. It drew just 49,577 total viewers and 28,581 in the 18-to-49 age range.

On Saturday, Texas A&M’s prime-time win over Arkansas topped the college football ratings with an average of 254,966 total viewers on ESPN.

Friday brought the premieres of two new do-overs, with CBS’ MacGyver soaring while Fox’s The Exorcist frightened only the network’s execs with a DOA premiere.

Airing at 7 p.m., MacGyver easily won that slot with 290,378 total viewers and 85,744 in the 18-to-49 realm. CBS also ran first in total viewers from 8 to 10 p.m. with the season premieres of Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods. Hawaii Five-0 edged ABC’s competing Shark Tank among 18-to-49-year-olds before Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast nipped Blue Bloods in that key demographic.

The Exorcist ran a distant last at 8 p.m. among the Big Four broadcast networks with 49,577 total viewers and 25,406 within the 18-to-49 motherlode.

Here are Friday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 and CBS11 tied for the top spot at 10 p.m. in total viewers, but the Peacock won outright with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Otherwise it was a day of sweeps, with Fox4 running the table at 6 a.m. and NBC5 scoring twin wins at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 22) -- Thursday Night Football diffuses premieres of Pitch, Notorious

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The New England Patriots and their third string quarterback humiliated the inept Houston Texans 27-0 on Thursday Night Football. No matter. The ratings remained solid and punched out the premieres of new drama series on Fox and ABC.

TNF averaged 283,296 D-FW viewers on CBS and added 113,318 for the NFL Network simulcast.

Among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, the respective totals were 123,852 and 76,217 viewers.

Fox’s 8 p.m. launch of the baseball drama Pitch took the bronze at that hour in total viewers with 155,813 while ABC’s competing debut of Notorious ran last among the Big Four broadcast networks with 134,566. NBC’s season premiere of Chicago Med placed a healthy second with 184,142 total viewers and also took the silver among 18-to-49-year-olds (60,338). Pitch (44,460) and Notorious (34,933) trailed in that key audience demographic.

At 9 p.m. Fox4’s local newscast impressively ran second in both audience measurements, beating season premieres of NBC’s The Blacklist and ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder.

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 and TEGNA8 tied for the total viewers lead in a downsized three-way 10 p.m. race, but the Peacock was alone on top with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. while NBC5 swept the 6 p.m. competitions.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 21) -- it's Empire's turn while premieres of Designated Survivor, Lethal Weapon also fare well

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Fox’s Season 3 launch of Empire easily ranked as Wednesday’s top draw, fueling the network to a 7 to 9 p.m. sweep before ABC’s new Designated Survivor took the 9 p.m. hour in one of the two key ratings measurements.

Empire had 403,697 D-FW viewers, with nearly half of them (200,069) in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old age range.

Fox’s preceding premiere of The Lethal Weapon also won the 7 p.m. hour with 254,966 total viewers and 95,271 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

At 9 p.m., ABC’s premiere of Kiefer Sutherland’s heavily promoted Designated Survivor took the gold in total viewers with 276,214, trampolining off a meager lead-in of 127,483 viewers from the season premiere of black-ish. But Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast took the hour among 18-to-49-year-olds with 111,150 after Empire set the table. Designated Survivor nipped CBS’ Big Brother for second place.

Wednesday’s other new series debut, ABC’s Speechless, drew 134,566 total viewers at 7:30 p.m., with 50,811 in the 18-to-49 motherlode. In the Big Four broadcast network universe, that put it last in its time slot in total viewers but in a second place tie with NBC’s Blindspot among 18-to-49-year-olds.

On Fox Sports Southwest, the first-place Texas Rangers’ 5-4 home loss to the Angels averaged 155,813 total viewers and 50,811 in the 18-to-49 age range.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results.

TEGNA8 broke an eight-weekday losing streak without any wins anywhere by comfortably winning in total viewers at 10 p.m. The station also edged Fox4 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. competitions while TEGNA8 did likewise at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon.-Tues., Sept. 19-20) -- big returns for newcomers Bull, This Is Us

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
CBS and NBC couldn’t ask for much more. The respective premieres of their new fall series, Bull and This Is Us, rode big lead-in boosts to impressive performances Tuesday night.

Bull, starring former longtime NCIS regular Michael Weatherly, drew 375,367 D-FW viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. That retained almost all of the audience for CBS’ preceding season premiere of NCIS (382,450 viewers). The newcomer also outdrew the second hour of NBC’s competing The Voice (347,038 viewers) and trounced ABC’s Dancing with the Stars (141,648).

Bull ran second to The Voice among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, but drew a bigger crowd in this key demographic than either NCIS or the following NCIS: New Orleans.

At 9 p.m., the launch of This Is Us had 290,378 total viewers to win the hour in a hard-fought fight with NCIS: New Orleans (269,131 viewers). But This Is Us crushed all competing programing among 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing more than twice the crowd for NCIS: New Orleans (123,852 viewers to 53,987).

Viewers hit the mute button for Fox’s Season 2 premiere of Scream Queens, which ran a distant last among the Big Four broadcast networks at 7 p.m. in both audience measurements. ABC’s 9 p.m. re-launch of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also slumbered with a pair of fourth place finishes.

On Monday night, the premieres of CBS’ Kevin Can Wait and NBC’s The Good Place likewise won their time slots with both total viewers and `8-to-49-year-olds. But the falloffs were considerably sharper from their high-powered lead-in programs.

CBS opened prime-time with the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory, which had 368,285 total viewers and 155,609 in the 18-to-49 sweet spot. Kevin Can Wait then dipped to 226,637 total viewers and 88,920 in the 18-to-49 age range.

On NBC, The Voice won big from 7 to 9 p.m. with 318,708 total viewers and 142,907 in the 18-to-49 realm. The Good Place fell to respective totals of 198,807 and 85,744 viewers.

Here are the Monday and Tuesday local news derby results:

Monday -- NBC5 topped the 10 p.m. field in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions, CBS11 did likewise at 6 p.m. and NBC5 had twin wins at 5 p.m.

Tuesday -- Notch another pair of 10 p.m. wins for NBC5, which added sweeps at both 5 and 6 p.m. Fox4 again ruled in both ratings measurements at 6 a.m.

TEGNA8 remained ratings-starved and has gone winless for eight straight weekdays in the four major newscast battlegrounds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Sept. 16-18) -- Cowboys rebound but numbers aren't as resounding

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The Cowboys’ dramatic 27-23 road win at Washington, deemed a must by many, was something of a bust in the D-FW Nielsen ratings compared to last season’s Game 2.

There are some mitigating circumstances. Last year’s 20-10 victory at Philadelphia got a mid-afternoon start on Fox, which almost always helps to inflate ratings. It also was the Game in which Tony Romo went down for the rest of the season with a broken clavicle. So there may have been more gawkers as the word spread.

Anyway, Cowboys-Eagles drew 1,527,306 total viewers and 678,067 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Sunday’s noon-starting Cowboys-Redskins game on Fox, which ended at 3:11 p.m., dipped to an average of 1,190,192 total viewers and 473,179 in the 18-to-49 age range. Not that the competing Houston Texans-Kansas City Chiefs clash had a chance on CBS. It drew a puny 92,071 total viewers, with 44,460 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

In prime-time, the 68th annual Emmy awards on ABC took a twin hit. The three-hour ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel had an overall average of 262,049 total viewers and 95,271 in the 18-to-49 realm.

NBC’s competing Sunday Night Football matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings expectedly drew the night’s biggest crowd with respective hauls of 524,098 and 301,692 viewers. But the Emmys also were outdrawn by the first two hours of CBS’ multi-part re-investigation into the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. It pulled in 290,378 total viewers and 114,325 in the 18-to-49 age range. Even worse for the Television Academy, audience interest in the Emmys dwindled in the final hour, when the winners in marquee categories were announced.

Saturday’s college football parade was paced by CBS’ mid-afternoon/early evening Alabama-Mississippi game, which averaged 212,472 total viewers. Fox’s nighttime Ohio State-Oklahoma game, which was delayed for over two hours by bad weather, drew 198,307 viewers. The Buckeyes routed the Sooners, greatly diminishing interest as the night wore on.

Here are Friday’s local news derby numbers.

CBS11 nipped NBC5 for the most total viewers at 10 p.m., but the Peacock won among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions and likewise ran the table at 5 p.m. NBC5 took both 6 p.m. golds.

TEGNA8 remained in a seemingly deepening ratings rut, particularly in the key 25-to-54 demographic. The ABC affiliate ran last at 6 a.m. and 6 and 10 p.m. while managing a third place finish at 5 p.m. ahead of CBS11.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 15) -- season premiere of Thursday Night Football routs roster of reruns

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The new season launch of CBS’ Thursday Night Football didn’t exactly run up the score with the New York Jets’ high-scoring win over the Buffalo Bills.

But it didn’t take much with rival broadcast networks benching their starting lineups until the fall season officially starts next week.

TNF averaged 318,708 D-FW viewers and 168,312 in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic. That’s better than half the audience in the “desired” age range, which should make the NFL pretty happy. The NFL Network’s simulcast kicked in an extra 106,236 total viewers, with 73,041 in the 18-to-49 realm. That’s a significantly larger percentage than CBS had.

The loyal opposition was led by Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast, the only first-run attraction airing opposite TNF on the Big Four broadcast networks. The news drew 148,730 total viewers and 60,338 in the 18-to-49 age range.

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. in a downsized three-way race while Fox4 won among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

The tables were turned at 6 a.m., with Fox4 drawing the most total viewers but NBC5 pulling in the most 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 swept both the 5 and 6 p.m. competitions.

NOTE TO READERS: Saturday, Sept. 17th, will be the landmark 10th anniversary of unclebarky.com. Thanks to all for your continued patronage. OK, let’s move on.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 14) -- smallish restart for NBC's Blindspot

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC expectedly tattooed the competition with the latest season finale of America’s Got Talent before the Season 2 premiere of Blindspot and its featured tattooed lady fell sharply in the D-FW Nielsen ratings.

The two-hour AGT, which crowned pint-sized 12-year-old singer/musician Grace VanderWaal as the hit summer series’ latest champ, comfortably won the 7 to 9 p.m. slot with 339,955 viewers. AGT also held off Fox’s second hour of Masterchef to run first in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic with 95,271 viewers.

At 9 p.m., Fox4’s local newscast took over with respective totals of 155,813 and 47,636 viewers. Blindspot dropped to second place with 148,730 total viewers and 34,933 in the 18-to-49-year-old age range. From 9:30 to 10 p.m., TXA21’s rerun of 2 Broke Girls also had more 18-to-49-year-olds than Blindspot.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. races and NBC5 ran the table at 6 p.m. The 5 p.m. winners were NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

The 6 a.m. results in the key 25-to-54-year-old news demographic show the gaping disparity between the haves (Fox4/NBC5) and the have-nots (TEGNA8/CBS11). Here’s how it looked Wednesday morning:

Fox4 -- 71,432 viewers
NBC5 -- 65,479
CBS11 -- 11,905
TEGNA8 -- 8,931

LOCAL TV NEWS NOTE: -- Denver’s CBS-owned KCNC-TV has announced the hiring of former TEGNA8 meteorologist Ashton Altieri as part of a revamp of its weathercasting team. He’ll join the station in October as KCNC’s weekday morning and noon newscast meteorologist.

Altieri left TEGNA8 in August to join his wife as a part of a “life move,” news director Carolyn Mungo told staffers in a memo. She had accepted a “wonderful promotion” in Denver, Mungo said. Altieri had worked weekends at TEGNA8 and also filled in on weekday newscasts.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 13) -- NBC again prospers in prime-time

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
America’s Got Talent dominated Tuesday night with this season’s next-to-last episode before NBC’s following finale (thankfully) of Better Late Than Never easily won the 9 p.m. hour.

AGT drew 339,955 D-FW viewers in the 7 to 9 p.m. slot and also won among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds with 117,501.

The moronic misadventures of William Shatner, Henry Winkler, George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw then drew to a close in poor Asia with a time-slot winning 233,719 total viewers and 60,338 in the 18-to-49-year-old age range. Better Late Than Never showed enough ratings juice to likely spring a sequel in another far-off land. Perhaps cannibals will be involved?

ABC came up especially empty Tuesday with wall-to-wall repeats capped by 9 p.m.’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which had just 3,175 viewers in the key 18-to-49 demographic. On Fox Sports Southwest, the first-place Texas Rangers’ road win at Houston averaged 134,566 total viewers and 44,460 within the 18-to-49 sweet spot.

Here are Tuesday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 swept the 10 p.m. competitions in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming) and added twin wins at 6 p.m.

The Peacock and Fox4 tied for the most total viewers at 6 a.m., with NBC5 alone on top with 25-to-54-year-olds.

The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 age range.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Sept. 12) -- see Rick Perry "dance"

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Dressed in a rhinestone cowboy get-up, former Texas governor and two-time failed presidential candidate Rick Perry trotted out his version of the cha cha cha late in Monday night’s 23rd edition launch of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.

The judges weren’t impressed, ranking Perry and pro partner Emma Slater at the bottom of 13 pairs. But the D-FW Nielsen ratings kicked their heels, at least in total viewers. DWTS drew a crowd of 311,626 to win the 7 to 9 p.m. slot among the Big Four broadcast networks. That two-hour portion of ESPN’s Monday Night Football (Steelers vs. Redskins) fared better with 347,038 viewers.

Among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, DWTS ran second in the broadcast network arena behind NBC’s competing two-hour American Ninja Warrior. The score was 98,446 viewers to 76,217. But Monday Night Football trounced both “reality competition” shows in this key demographic with 209,596 viewers.

Earlier Monday, the 2 p.m. premiere of Fox4’s syndicated Harry (starring Harry Connick, Jr.) drew 42,494 total viewers to rank third in its time slot behind NBC5’s Steve Harvey (70,824) and CBS11’s double dose of Hot Bench (49,577). But in the 18-to-49 age range, Harry narrowly beat Harvey for the gold.

TEGNA8’s 3 p.m. debut of T.D. Jakes managed just 21,247 total viewers in trailing well behind time slot competition from CBS’ Dr. Phil (77,906), NBC5’s Ellen (70,824) and Fox4’s TMZ Live! (49,577). T.D. Jakes barely registered with 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 1,905 compared to time slot leader TMZ’s 25,406.

TEGNA8’s 4 p.m. local newscast again paid the price of a lousy lead-in, running fourth in both ratings measurements.

Here are the local news derby results in the four major four-way competitions.

NBC5 and CBS11 tied for the most total viewers at 10 p.m., but the Peacock won outright with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. battles and NBC5 did likewise at 6 p.m. The 5 p.m. firsts went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 age range,.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Sept. 9-11) -- Cowboys kick off with three downers

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Last year’s miracle 27-26 opening day win against the New York Giants now seems like a misty, water-colored memory after a 20-19 loss Sunday marred by receiver Terrence Williams’ game-ending skid marks.

Williams’ decision to stay in bounds and deprive the Dallas Cowboys of a last-ditch chance to win the game with a Dan Bailey mega-length field goal ended matters with a thud at 6:25 p.m. on Fox. And despite the much-heralded debuts of rookies Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott, the game also fell below last September’s Game 1 crowd in the D-FW Nielsen ratings.

Cowboys-Giants averaged 1,444,810 viewers compared to 1,485,462 for the Cowboys-Giants opener in 2015. That’s a relatively minor drop. Of more concern is the fall-off among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, with the Cowboys drawing 600,207 viewers to fall more than 90,000 viewers shy of last year’s 690,682.

Those are still giant-sized numbers compared to the Texas Rangers-Los Angeles Angels Sunday afternoon crowd of 63,742 total viewers and 19,054 in the 18-to-49-year-old age range. Fox Sports Southwest had the game, with the first-place Rangers still firmly in command of the American League West after losing 3-2 in a game that marked starter Colby Lewis’ return after a long stay on the disabled list.

In prime-time, NBC’s Sunday Night Football opener between the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals averaged 502,850 total viewers and 273,110 within the 18-to-49 motherlode. ABC’s competing Miss America pageant, in which judge Mark Cuban’s facial expressions have become a social media “thing,” went down for the count with 134,566 total viewers and 47,636 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

Earlier at 7 p.m., Fox slipped in a sneak preview of its new hybrid comedy series, Son of Zorn, in the half-hour following the network’s NFL coverage and before NBC’s kicked in. It got strong sampling with 311,626 total viewers and 187,366 in the 18-to-49 sweet spot. But the second 15 minutes of Zorn in both cases fell off significantly from the first.

Saturday’s college football parade was paced by TCU’s crazy overtime loss to Arkansas, which aired at night on ESPN. It pulled in an average of 191,225 total viewers. ABC’s prime-time matchup of Tennessee and Virginia Tech ran well behind with 70,824 viewers.

On Friday, the 7 to 8 p.m. Stand Up For Cancer simulcast on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC had a combined audience of 141,648 total viewers. NBC’s two-hour Dateline then drew a larger crowd all by itself with 148,730 viewers.

Here are Friday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 fell just short of an exceedingly rare double grand slam. The Peacock won at 6 a.m. and at 6 and 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). NBC5 also had the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m., but was edged in total viewers by Fox4.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

CBS11 goes with incumbent Scott Padgett as chief meteorologist

Scott Padgett

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Five months after Larry Mowry’s departure to Chicago’s WLS-TV, CBS11 has decided to remain in-house by naming incumbent Scott Padgett as the station’s new chief meteorologist.

Padget, who took an extended leave of absence earlier this year for undisclosed personal reasons, immediately will join anchors Doug Dunbar and Kaley O’Kelley on the weekday 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, CBS11 announced Friday.

“We’re pleased to give Scott this well-deserved promotion,” CBS11/TXA21 president and general manager Gary Schneider said in a statement. “He has two decades of experience forecasting a wide range of severe weather, from tornados to ice storms to hurricanes. Scott knows Texas weather, and CBS11 viewers can depend on him to keep them ahead of the storms that come our way.”

Padgett joined CBS11 in September 2013 from Miami’s WPLG-TV. He initially was hired as the station’s weekday morning weathercaster. Mowry had been CBS11’s featured meteorologist for eight years.

Padgett’s elevation comes shortly after CBS11 fired Mike Garber as news director, with assistant news director Laurie Passman for now serving as interim ND.

The position of chief meteorologist carries increased weight in times when local news stations are tempted to treat a drizzle threat in Palo Pinto County as breaking news. Padgett is a solid known quantity in this respect. Bringing in another outsider and building that person’s credentials from scratch would have presented another steep marketing challenge, particularly when Fox4’s Dan Henry, TEGNA8’s Pete Delkus and NBC5’s duo of Rick Mitchell and D-FW’s dean of meteorologists, David Finfrock, have all become solidly entrenched.

Here’s how CBS11’s other meteorologists will be deployed.

Jeff Jamison has the weekday early morning shift and also will be the featured forecaster on the station’s 11 a.m. weekday newscasts.

Lisa Villegas is assigned to the weekday 4 p.m. newscasts three days a week and also is CBS11’s weekend evening and late night newscast meteorologist. (Padgett fills in for Villegas at 4 p.m. on the days she’s off.)

Jeff Ray is the weekend morning meteorologist.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., Sept. 7-8) -- NFL takes flight and again soars

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC kicked off the NFL season with sky high ratings Thursday night for a Super Bowl 50 rematch between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.

Denver again won, this time 21-20, in a game that bled through NBC5’s 10 p.m. newscast and averaged 637,416 D-FW viewers. Just over half of them -- 320,746 viewers -- were within the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old age range.

The next closest attraction airing directly opposite football, CBS’ 8 p.m. hour of Big Brother, had 148,730 total viewers and 69,865 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

NBC also led Wednesday’s prime-time parade with a polar opposite attraction -- the one-hour Commander in Chief Forum featuring back-to-back appearances by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump before an audience of veterans. Matt Lauer quizzed each of them for just a half-hour from 7 to 8 p.m., with a handful of vets also getting to ask questions.

Clinton, who went first, drew 212,472 total viewers and added 22,664 for the MSNBC simulcast. Trump then pulled in 226,637 viewers on NBC and 21,955 on MSNBC.

The percentage of 18-to-49-year-old viewers wasn’t exactly huge. Clinton’s half-hour drew 38,108 and Trump had 53,987. Each candidate tacked on an additional 2,858 viewers for MSNBC’s simulcast.

The candidates’ 18-to-49-year-old haul fell short of Fox’s competing 7 p.m. episode of Masterchef, which averaged 66,690 viewers for the full hour in this key demographic.

NBC then won from 8 to 10 p.m. in total viewers with America’s Got Talent (233,719) and Running Wild with Bear Grylls (141,648). Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Fox’s Masterchef and Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast were the top performers (by narrow margins) from 8 to 10 p.m.

Here are the Wednesday and Thursday local news derby results.

Wednesday -- CBS11 continued its sudden 10 p.m. surge under interim news director Laurie Passman, who late last month replaced the fired Mike Garber. The station won in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions and NBC5 did likewise at 6 p.m. Fox4 and the Peacock tied for the most total viewers at 5 p.m., but NBC5 won outright with 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11’s bullish numbers at 10 p.m. were tempered by “hashmarks” (no measurable audience) at 5 p.m. in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic. It’s always something.

Thursday -- TEGNA8 and CBS11 tied for first in total viewers at 10 p.m. in a downsized three-way race opposite the closing half-hour of the Broncos-Panthers game. TEGNA8 had the top spot to itself among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 again logged twin wins at 6 a.m. while NBC5 ran the table at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Dallas Press Club's "Cowboys Kickoff" event plays to packed house

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Starting Foursome: “Cowboys Kickoff” panelists Brad Sham, Kristi Scales and Babe Laufenberg, with moderator Mike Doocy over center. Photos: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
No one directly quoted one of Tom Petty’s enduring hits during Wednesday night’s spirited and packed “Cowboys Kickoff” event.

“Into the Great Wide Open” pretty much says it all, though, about the team’s 2016 prospects. Absent the injured Tony Romo, heavily dependent on two rookie offensive starters and saddled with a highly maligned defense, the Dallas Cowboys begin their regular season Sunday against the New York Giants as a blank slate of best and worse case scenarios.

“By this point, none of us should be predicting anything,” said Brad Sham, the guy who knows the Dallas Cowboys better than anyone. He then jabbed, “The only people who know anything with absolute certainty are the people on Twitter.”

Sham, the Cowboys’ signature radio play-by-play voice since 1984, was joined by the two other members of a team that’s been together since 1998 (when Sham returned after three seasons with the Texas Rangers). Former CBS11 sports anchor and ex-Cowboys quarterback Babe Laufenberg is the analyst and Kristi Scales has spent a quarter century as the go-to sideline reporter. Panel moderator Mike Doocy, Fox4’s lead sports anchor since 1993, joined the radio team for one season (in 1997) as co-analyst with Laufenberg. The official Cowboys radio network reaches every Texas market and four adjoining states, with Dallas-based KRLD-FM (105.3 “The Fan”) the flagship station since 2009.

Held at the 3015 at Trinity Groves event center and sponsored by the Press Club of Dallas, “Cowboys Kickoff” drew a crowd of about 175 and featured a companion charity raffle that ended up netting okaytosay.org a $1,600 check at the end of the evening. Some of the more coveted donated items were a signed Dirk Nowitzki jersey; an autographed Ezekiel Elliott football; not one but two footballs signed by Roger Staubach; baseballs autographed by Pudge Rodriguez and Cole Hamels; a Dallas Stars cap signed by Jamie Benn; and two tickets (plus a parking pass and field passes to watch team warmups) before the Cowboys’ Dec. 18th home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

As an unexpected bonus -- or however it may have been perceived -- attendees also heard Laufenberg and Doocy (who has the smoother crooner’s voice) serenade one another with “I Got You, Babe.” (Laufenberg estimates he’s been to at least 60 Bruce Springsteen concerts while Doocy prefers a Frank Sinatra groove.)

We now return you to the injury-pocked Cowboys, with Sham, Laufenberg and Scales all singing the praises of QB Dak Prescott as a mature-beyond-his-years rookie who just may be able to step in and immediately excel while Romo’s broken back heals for however long it takes.

“He is full of the experience. But he’s not in any way full of himself,” Sham said.

Scales likewise praised Prescott’s maturity -- “He doesn’t act like a rookie” -- before Laufenberg later doubled down.

“The greatest hope,” he said, “is that Tony Romo never plays another down for the Dallas Cowboys ever.” By that he meant that if Prescott somehow goes unbeaten (or close to it) during Romo’s absence, then the Cowboys may decide to keep the rookie in the starter’s role. Not that many think this will happen.

Romo’s stunning injury, early in the third pre-season game against the Seattle Seahawks, sent Scales into full red alert. “It was like crushing a soda can,” she said of Romo’s awkward position when he was hit from behind and immediately grasped his lower back.

Sham as usual was doing the radio broadcast of the game while Laufenberg moonlighted with a TV team. Suddenly, “the only thing we care about is what Kristi tells us about Romo,” he said, terming her “absolutely the best sideline reporter in any sport on radio or television.” That assessment drew sustained applause.

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Music to their ears: The climactic, show-stopping Babe/Doocy duet.

Unlike Prescott, fellow rookie Ezekiel Elliott was fully expected to immediately step in and play a major role in the Cowboys’ offense. But his visit to a legal marijuana shop while in Seattle put him in the crosshairs of a TMZ-fed “social media” frenzy. Elliott subsequently apologized for bad judgment.

“He’s a young kid with an incredible amount of God-given ability . . . And he’s going to have to grow into all of that,” Sham said.

He also challenged attendees to recall the “goofiest thing you ever did as a kid” in pre-cell phone, Twitter, Facebook times. Would anyone want that living forevermore on the Internet?

Prescott, 23, spent five years in college after being red-shirted as a freshman. Elliott, who turned 21 on July 22nd, had three years at Ohio State before turning pro. The disparities in maturity between a 23- and 21-year-old can be striking, Laufenberg said. “Zeke seems like a 21-year-old kid. Dak seems like a man.”

Less time was spent talking about the Cowboys’ drug suspension-wracked defense, of which next to nothing is expected going into the new season. But Sham noted that this has been the case before, as recently as the 2014 season, when Dallas went 12-4 while keeping the defense off the field as much as possible. Even so, Sham is a realist. “I believe it can be average,” he said of the Cowboys’ D. That deadpan assessment got more than a few laughs.

During the Q & A portion, panelists were asked to elaborate on moments with the Cowboys that have left lasting impressions.

Scales remembered Romo sobbing in the Cowboys’ locker room after his fumble of a field goal snap took the team from a possible victory to a gut-grinding 2007 post-season loss at Seattle.

Laufenberg recalled trying to boost receiver Dez Bryant’s spirits after the team’s last-minute, Jan. 2015 post-season loss at Green Bay. The key call in the game was a Bryant catch of a long Romo pass that was ruled a non-catch upon further review.

But the wistful Robert Frost poetic award went to Sham, who remembered the 3-13 1988 Cowboys team as by far the worst he’d ever seen -- even surpassing the subsequent season’s 1-15 team in Jimmy Johnson’s first year as head coach. Many of those same players were a part of the “rising from the ashes” team that won the 1993 Super Bowl in the Rose Bowl. Sham said he’d never been to the Rose Bowl before, and reveled in the dew still on the grass for an afternoon game while mountains towered in the distance. It tempered all the “heartbreak” of previous seasons, he said, with a young team growing together and at last triumphing under Johnson.

Then there’s Skip Bayless, the former Dallas newspaper columnist (for both the Morning News and Times-Herald) whose book, Hell-Bent, speculated on whether Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman might be gay.

Aikman has never forgotten -- or forgiven. As Fox’s lead NFL analyst since 2002, he’s not at all happy with his network’s recent luring of Bayless from ESPN.

“To say I’m disappointed in the hiring of Skip Bayless would be an enormous understatement,” Aikman tells Sports Illustrated. “I believe success is achieved by acquiring and developing talented, respected and credible individuals, none of which applies to Skip Bayless.”

Sham said it goes against his faith to disparage individuals. But in the Bayless situation, he’s clearly on Team Aikman.

During his time in Dallas, Bayless “demonstrated that he was more interested in writing something that would gather a reaction than writing something that was true,” Sham told a questioner from the audience. Or to put it more succinctly, Bayless was trolling for “click bait” before the term was invented.

Doocy added, “The reason I don’t like Skip is my company’s paying him five million dollars and I can’t go to training camp.” (After attending 23 straight Cowboys camps since joining Fox4, the station declined to send him to Oxnard, CA this summer while rival sports anchors at NBC5, TEGNA8 and CBS11 all made the trip as usual. Four years earlier, Fox4 had required Doocy and a cameraman to drive all the way to Oxnard rather than fly from Dallas.)

The panel ended with the quartet being asked to make one Hall of Fame choice among Drew Pearson, Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones. If they had only a single vote, who would be inducted first from that trio? Sham and Scales went with Pearson while Laufenberg and Doocy chose Jones. Your friendly content provider, who as a Press Club board member served as the Cowboys Kickoff event’s principal organizer and emcee, broke the tie by going with -- Pearson.

And that’s it, save for the picture below of Press Club president Scott Goldstein (left) presenting a $1,600 check to okaytosay.org representative Ken Luce. Many thanks to all who attended, with gold stars for those who also took their chances with raffle tickets. Cowboys Kickoff ended up being Press Club’s best-attended of three events held so far at Trinity Groves, whose staff (headed by Heather Pickett) also should take a bow for their continued excellent food and service.

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Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 6) -- NBC rolls through prime-time

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC as usual rode two hours of America’s Got Talent to the ratings promised land Tuesday night before adding a victory lap with the slap-happy Better Late Than Never.

AGT drew 290,378 D-FW viewers for its semi-final round and also won among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds with 85,744. Better Late Than Never, with William Shatner, Henry Winkler, George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw continuing to cavort through Asia, then took the 9 p.m. hour with respective totals of 212,472 and 57,163 viewers.

Over on Fox Sports Southwest, the first-place Texas Rangers’ late night win at Seattle limped in with 120,401 total viewers.

Here are Tuesday’s local news derby results.

CBS11 continued to suddenly flex at 10 p.m. by tying NBC5 for first in total viewers and winning outright among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

The golds were split at 6 a.m. between Fox4 in total viewers and the Peacock with 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 swept the 6 p.m. competitions and added a 25-to-54 win at 5 p.m. The station tied TEGNA8 for the most total viewers at 5 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Mon., Sept. 2-5) -- Longhorns steer a mega college football weekend

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Unranked Texas’ crazy double overtime win over No. 9 Notre Dame led college football’s parade of high wattage games over the holiday weekend.

Airing Sunday night on ABC and stretching until almost 10:45 p.m., Texas’ 50-47 victory averaged 524,098 D-FW viewers with a peak of 672,828 for the closing minutes.

NBC’s competing NASCAR race spun out with just 70,824 total viewers.

On Saturday, ABC scored highest with a late morning/afternoon game in which Houston upset No. 3 Oklahoma. It drew 276,214 viewers before Uncle Barky’s Wisconsin Badgers shocked No. 5 Louisiana State on ABC and attracted 184,142 viewers. That game was outdrawn by CBS’ competing Texas A&M-UCLA game, which went into overtime and averaged 198,307 viewers. A&M prevailed.

On Saturday night, defending national champ Alabama’s dismantling of USC at Jerry’s Palace was the day’s overall second biggest draw with 219,554 viewers on ABC. Over on Fox Sports Southwest, the competing TCU-South Dakota State game had 84,989 viewers. TCU played little defense against a second-tier opponent while winning 59-41.

Finally, Labor Day night’s big college game, with Florida State storming back in the second half to beat Mississippi, averaged 247,884 viewers on ESPN to outdraw all other programming. NBC’s 7 to 9 p.m. edition of American Ninja Warrior took the silver with 198,307 viewers.

Here are Friday’s local news derby results, with Monday thrown out because all four major combatants took holiday exemptions.

CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

The other battlegrounds likewise were sweeps. Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m. and NBC5 ran first across the board at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Ashleigh Barry is latest newcomer to NBC5 news room

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By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Fort Worth-based NBC5 remains in a hiring mode, with reporter Ashleigh Barry the latest addition.

News director Mark Ginther said Friday that Barry is scheduled to arrive in October and mostly will be covering the city of Dallas and the Dallas police department.

She’s been at KPHO/KTVK-TV in Phoenix for the past two years after earlier stops at WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, WDJT-TV in Milwaukee and KAMC-TV in Lubbock. Barry also has worked at the network level at both Fox News Channel and MSNBC. Her journalism degree is from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Ginther also confirmed that NBC5 veteran Kristi Nelson now is an official part of the station’s 5, 6 and 10 p.m. anchor teams. She’ll be an in-studio presence during all three newscasts. Nelson continues to co-anchor the 4 p.m. weekday editions.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 1) -- Cowboys run up the score with scrub-soaked final pre-season game

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Who were those guys anyway?

No matter. The Dallas Cowboys’ final pre-season game, an ultra-meaningless 28-17 loss to the Houston Texans, conquered prime-time with the greatest of ease.

Cowboys-Texans, with starters riding the pines, averaged 531,180 D-FW viewers on CBS11 before grinding to a halt just before 10 p.m. The next closest competing attraction, Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast, drew 106,236 viewers.

CBS11’s 10 p.m. newscast, which started just a few minutes past the appointed hour, capitalized on the Cowboys’ lead-in audience and scored rare victories in both key ratings measurements -- total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

In the other local news derby results, Fox4 had the most total viewers at 6 a.m., but NBC5 won with 25-to-54-year-olds.

The Peacock swept the 5 and 6 p.m. competitions amid a downsized three-way field in which CBS11’s newscasts were preempted by Cowboys specials.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net