powered by FreeFind

Apple iTunes

Archives

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., March 6)

By ED BARK
Belo8 recorded a rare double grand slam Tuesday, sweeping the two principal Nielsen ratings measurements in the daily newscast wars.

The ABC station won at 6 a.m., and 5, 6 and 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. It's the first D-FW grand slam in the four major news food groups since December 18, when NBC5 touched all the bases.

Tuesday otherwise belonged as usual to Fox's dynamic duo of American Idol and a new episode of House, which easily won from 7 to 9 p.m.

But then the closing hour of the Dallas Mavericks-New Jersey Nets game took over at 9 p.m. Airing on Fox Sports Southwest, the Mavs' 16th consecutive victory beat all competing programming in homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, 18-to-49-year-olds and 18-to-34-year-olds.

The Mavs' path was made easier by reruns on NBC and ABC, but that's still an impressive feat for a cable-only attraction. The entire game averaged 142,800 homes, peaking at 183,260 between 9:45 and 10 p.m.