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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., Feb. 14-15) -- Winter Olympics twofer

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s Winter Olympics telecasts continue to dominate all prime-time programming, but with some ups and downs from 2014.

Wednesday’s coverage from Pyeongchang, which rain until 10:37 p.m., averaged 448,692 D-FW viewers and 187,236 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Four years ago on the equivalent Wednesday, the Winter Games from Sochi pulled in a smaller overall audience of 426,078 viewers. Your friendly content provider didn’t compute the entire 18-to-49 average on that night, but did note that the 7 to 8 p.m. hour of the Olympics lost to Fox’s American Idol in this key demographic by a score of 166,092 viewers to 153,065.

NBC otherwise took a big hit on Thursday night, when its Olympics block ran into only 10:04 p.m. and finally allowed NBC5 to “count” its local 10 p.m. newscast in direct competition against Fox4, TEGNA8 and CBS11.

The Olympics averaged 413,082 total viewers, way down from the 518,395 for 2014’s equivalent Thursday. The coverage also took a big dip among 18-to-49-year-olds, with an average of 134,186 viewers compared to 224,712 in 2014.

Wednesday night’s most-watched competing program against the Olympics, Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast, averaged a nice-sized 242,151 total viewers in bettering its average audience on most nights. Fox4’s news likewise was the runner-up among 18-to-49-year-olds with 62,412 viewers.

In Thursday’s prime-time ratings, Fox4’s 9 p.m. newscast also was second-best in total viewers with 166,657, edging CBS’ 7 p.m. rerun of The Big Bang Theory (163,096). Fox4’s news had the 18-to-49 runner-up to itself with 46,809 viewers.

Here are the four-way local news derby results.

Wednesday -- Fox4 had a big day and night, winning at 6 a.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Thursday -- It was the Peacock’s turn to crow with sweeps at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. Fox4 remained in full command at 6 a.m., where it hasn’t lost all winter.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net