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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Feb. 25) -- The Bachelor smelling like roses

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
The prime-time competitions were close more often than not Monday. But ABC's latest two-hour dollop of The Bachelor made the overall best showing.

Starring North Texan Sean Lowe, it averaged 268,484 D-FW viewers in winning its 7 to 9 p.m. time slot. But CBS' 2 Broke Girls shared the 8 to 8:30 p.m. gold by tying for the top spot in that slot.

ABC's Castle then had an easy time of it at 9 p.m., in part because CBS punted on the final Monday of the February "sweeps" with a competing Hawaii Five-0 repeat. Castle rolled up 289,136 viewers while Five-0 lei-d an egg (117,031 viewers). It still outdrew NBC's Deception, though (103,262 viewers).

Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, Castle likewise won easily while The Bachelor carried the 7:30 to 8 p.m. and 8:30 to 9 p.m. segments. CBS' 2 Broke Girls and How I Met Your Mother otherwise were the top draws in this key demographic.

Fox's The Following held steady at 8 p.m. with 261,600 total viewers. That was good enough to beat NBC's The Biggest Loser and CBS' Mike & Molly. But it fell to fourth across the board -- among the Big Four broadcast networks -- in the key 18-to-49 demographic.

TNT's 8 p.m. episode of Dallas had 103,263 total viewers, with 38,273 in the 18-to-49 age range. Those kinds of numbers on the show's home turf are surprisingly low. The national numbers are also iffy so far, making it questionable whether Dallas will make it to a third season.

Here are Monday's local news derby results, with just two weekdays remaining in the February sweeps.

Taking the big Castle lead-in audience to the bank, WFAA8 rolled to dominant wins at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. It may have been a crucial night in determining who wins the neck-and-neck total viewers race at this hour between WFAA8 and CBS11. Monday night's score was 330,442 viewers to 158,337 in favor of WFAA8.

Fox4 again swept the 6 a.m. Nielsens and WFAA8 did likewise with a stronger than usual 5 p.m. showing. The 6 p.m. firsts went to CBS11 in total viewers and WFAA8 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
unclebarky@verizon.net