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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., March 15) -- Missing scores/clanks

By ED BARK
ABC's premiere of Ashley Judd's Missing had the advantage of airing against NCAA basketball action Thursday and the disadvantage of going directly against Fox's American Idol.

The action hour ended up scoring in total viewers while fizzling with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

Missing led off ABC's night with a nice-sized 311,609 D-FW viewers, falling just short of Idol's 325,157. But its 18-to-49 performance paled, with just 48,035 viewers in this key demographic while Idol rolled up 124,890 to command the 7 p.m. hour.

The return of NBC's Community and a new episode of the Peacock's 30 Rock also outdrew Missing, with 92,867 and 76,855 viewers respectively in the 18-to-49 demographic. Opening night of CBS' NCAA tournament coverage bombed, though, with just 74,515 total viewers from 7 to 8 p.m., and 35,225 within the 18-to-49 motherlode.

ABC's new episode of Grey's Anatomy won the 8 p.m. hour in both ratings measurements. The network's Private Practice then ran second to Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast in total viewers, but topped the hour with 18-to-49-year-olds.

NBC's new Awake continued to struggle, nipping basketball in total viewers while falling to fourth from 9 to 10 p.m. among 18-to-49-year-olds.

In Thursday's local news derby results, WFAA8 romped to easy wins at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. It was a down-sized three-way race, though, with CBS11 still carrying its network's NCAA hoops coverage.

Fox4 took the 6 a.m. competition in total viewers, but WFAA8 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds.

WFAA8 won by a wide margin at 6 p.m. in total viewers and tied Fox4 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds while CBS11 gave way to basketball. The golds were split at 5 p.m., with WFAA8 finishing first in total viewers while Fox4 prevailed among 25-to-54-year-olds.