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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., July 19-21) -- slipping numbers for sinking Rangers

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
The post-All Star game Texas Rangers proved to be patsies for the visiting Baltimore Orioles, with viewers also showing signs of taking a hike.

Baltimore’s three-game sweep knocked the Rangers out of the post-season picture for the moment. They now trail the Orioles by one-and-a-half games for the last wild card spot and are three games behind first-place Oakland in the AL West.

Friday night’s series opener on TXA21 pulled in 165,221 D-FW viewers. Saturday night’s game on Fox Sports Southwest slumped to an average of 130,800 viewers. Sunday night’s game, also on FSS, drew 172,105 viewers. That’s a significantly smaller audience than CBS had for its Sunday 7 p.m. edition of Big Brother, which sucked in 206,526 viewers to lead all of that day’s programming.

Earlier in the season, the Rangers were drawing more than 200,000 viewers for most of their nighttime games. The numbers should perk up somewhat Monday night, when Yu Darvish starts at home against the injury-ravaged New York Yankees.

ESPN’s marathon early Sunday morning to noon coverage of The Open, won in dramatic fashion by Phil Mickelson, averaged 96,379 viewers with a peak crowd of 144,568 between 11 and 11:15 a.m.

Here are Friday’s local news derby numbers:

WFAA8 scored everywhere except 6 a.m. The station swept the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. Nielsens in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 notched another two wins at 6 a.m., where it remains dominant.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net