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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., May 23) -- mixed results for summer newcomers

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
The 2012-13 TV season is officially over, as are the May “sweeps.” Still, only CBS went with wall-to-wall reruns Thursday night while its principal rivals loaded up on summertime newcomers and first-run episodes of warm weather returnees.

CBS still had some last laughs from 7 to 8 p.m., though, with repeats of The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men both winning their time slots in total viewers. Big Bang also ran first with advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, but Fox’s second half-hour of a new Hell’s Kitchen then took down Two and a Half.

NBC’s back-to-back premiere episodes of the new Anne Heche comedy Save Me took the gas in prime-time’s first hour. Each half-hour drew a pint-sized 55,074 viewers to run a distant fourth in that measurement while likewise getting buried in the 18-to-49 Nielsens.

ABC’s regular time slot launch of Motive, which was sneak-previewed Monday, won the 8 p.m. hour in total viewers with 178,989. But Fox’s competing premiere of the reality series Does Someone Have to Go? won comfortably among 18-to-49-year-olds.

Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast swept that time slot, with an overall haul of 206,526 viewers. ABC’s Season 4 premiere of Rookie Blue ran second at 9 p.m. in total viewers with 172,105. A new episode of NBC’s Hannibal edged RB for the silver among 18-to-49-year-olds.

With anchor vacations and days off beckoning on a post-sweeps Thursday, here’s how the local news derby played out.

WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while Fox4 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 chalked up another doubleheader win at 6 a.m. NBC5 won all the marbles at 5 p.m. and WFAA8 did likewise at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net