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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Oct. 3-5) -- more than 1.2 million reasons to watch winning Cowboys

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The Dallas Cowboys’ 20-17 overtime home win over Houston Sunday built steadily toward its big finish in the D-FW Nielsen ratings.

More than twice as many fans were on hand for the end than the beginning, with the noon-starting Game 5 of the regular season averaging 1,241,372 viewers on CBS. That number ballooned to 1,590,072 when Dan Bailey kicked the game-winning field goal between 3 and 3:15 p.m. Between noon and 12:15 p.m., 746,218 viewers were on hand.

Among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, the game averaged 558,223 viewers with a peak audience of 731,682 in the closing minutes.

Cowboys-Texans ranked third on the season-to-date charts, ahead of the Titans and Rams wins but a bit behind the opening game loss to the 49ers and well behind the Sunday Night Football Cowboys’ blowout of the New Orleans Saints.

NBC’s latest Sunday Night Football matchup, in which the New England Patriots pasted the visiting Cincinnati Bengals, averaged a modest-sized 404,492 total viewers. That beat all competing programming, although CBS put up a decent fight with a strong No. 2 finish in prime-time.

CBS’ Cowboys’ Sunday afternoon followup act, the 49ers win over the Kansas City Chiefs, drew a significantly larger audience than SNF with 523,050 total viewers.

In Saturday’s college football parade, TCU’s thrilling, high-scoring win over visiting Oklahoma ranked as the top draw. Airing on Fox, the game averaged 209,220 total viewers opposite ABC’s Baylor-Texas game (202,246 viewers). Texas A&M’s earlier loss to Mississippi State ran close behind with 174,350 viewers on ESPN.

CBS won from start to stop in total viewers Friday night with a lineup of The Amazing Race, Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods, which again had the biggest audience haul with 258,038 viewers. CBS also ran the table among 18-to-49-year-olds, which is a rare occurrence on this night.

Meanwhile, the reaper may be nearing the doorstep for Fox’s Utopia, which ran last from 7 to 8 p.m. in total viewers among the Big Four broadcast networks. It did, however, salvage a third-place finish with 18-to-49-year-olds, beating ABC’s competing one-hour season premiere of Last Man Standing.

Here are Friday’s local news derby results.

NBC5 logged twin wins at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

The 6 a.m. golds were split between the Peacock in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 measurement.

CBS11 muscled up in the early evening with a sweep at 6 p.m. and a first-place tie at 5 p.m. with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 was alone in first at 5 p.m. in the total viewer Nielsens.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net