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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., May 21) -- Idol vs. Survivor in final season finale showdown

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
TV’s so-called “regular season” and the May “sweeps” ratings race both ended Wednesday with a closing showdown between the finales of Fox’s American Idol and CBS’ Survivor.

Idol won in both key ratings measurements in their 7 to 9 p.m. face-off. With the Meat Loaf-ian Caleb Johnson crowned as its 13th champ, Idol drew 241,444 D-FW viewers, with 97,701 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 motherlode.

Survivor, which awarded Tony Vlachos its 28th $1 million grand prize, had 213,039 total viewers with 68,391 in the 18-to-49 age range. Both shows were beaten from 8 to 8:30 p.m. in the 18-to-49 demographic by the season finale of ABC’s Modern Family (136,781 viewers), which featured the same-sex wedding of Mitch and Cam. Modern Family also nipped Survivor from 8 to 8:30 p.m. in total viewers.

Wednesday’s 9 p.m. hour went to Fox4’s local newscast, which had 220,140 total viewers and also won among 18-to-49-year-olds (87,931). Survivor’s reunion special ran second in both measurements while the summer season return of ABC’s detective drama Motive ended up last across the board among the Big Four broadcast networks.

In the local news derby results, Fox4 had a big final day of the “sweeps” by sweeping the 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. competitions in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). The station also won at 5 and 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 took the other two golds, drawing the most total viewers at 5 and 6 p.m.

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