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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues.-Wed., Sept. 9-10) -- Big Brother rolls on before presidential address skews prime-time numbers

b>By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
President Obama’s 8 p.m. address on ISIS knocked the Big Four broadcast networks off schedule Wednesday night after CBS’ Big Brother won the 7 p.m. hour without its inhabitants knowing what was going on in the real world.

BB drew 184,634 D-FW viewers while also ranking No. 1 among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds (97,701). The audience for the president, who spoke for just under 15 minutes, then dropped to 120,722 total viewers on CBS.

NBC’s coverage of the Obama speech easily had the most viewers -- 255,647 -- among the Big Four broadcast networks. Among the three cable news networks, Fox News Channel led with 113,621 viewers.

The Peacock’s coverage of Obama bridged an America’s Got Talent repeat and a live AGT results show in which the final acts were trimmed from 12 to 6. The second AGT had the largest audience of the night in total viewers (291,153) but finished a bit shy of Big Brother among 18-to-49-year-olds with 94,444.

In daytime numbers, NBC’s 2 p.m. telecast of Steve Harvey’s syndicated talk show won its time slot in both key ratings measurements. Harvey then reappeared on Gannett8 as host of back-to-back editions of Family Feud. This time he finished an overall fourth from 3 to 4 p.m. in both Nielsen barometers, with NBC5’s Ellen the runaway winner.

Gannett8’s 4 p.m. local newscast, still hampered by a relatively weak lead-in, beat CBS11’s local news in total viewers while trailing NBC5’s news hour. It was the same result with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

NBC5’s syndicated success with the Harvey and DeGeneres talk hours was not matched by its 1 p.m. airing of Meredith Vieira’s new show. It took a bad beating among both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds from ABC’s General Hospital and CBS’ The Talk. The Vieira show performed especially dismally in the 18-to-49 demographic, with a teensy 977 viewers compared to No. 1 General Hospital’s 35,824.

In Tuesday’s prime-time ratings, the 7 p.m. battle of made-for-TV minimum security prisoners was won by Big Brother over Fox’s new Utopia. BB drew 149,127 total viewers, with 68,391 in the 18-to-49 range. Utopia’s respective numbers were 113,621 and 32,567.

CBS then came up empty with an 8 to 10 p.m. Fashion Rocks special that tumbled into fourth place in both ratings measurements among the Big Four broadcast networks. NBC’s competing America’s Got Talent won each of those hours, averaging 262,748 total viewers and 84,674 in the 18-to-49 range.

Here are the local news derby results.

Tuesday -- NBC5 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while Fox4 won among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 again swept the 6 a.m. competitions and added 5 and 6 p.m. wins in the 25-to-54 demographic. CBS11 ran first in total viewers at 6 p.m. and NBC5 took that prize at 5 p.m.

Wednesday -- The 10 p.m. newscasts on NBC5, Gannett8 and CBS11 were pushed back by network over-runs. So we’ll throw them out of this mix.

NBC5 drew the most total viewers at 6 a.m. and Fox4 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds.

CBS11 took the total viewers gold at 6 p.m. and tied for first with Gannett8 in the 25-to-54 measurement. NBC5 was just a smidgen behind in the latter race.

The 5 p.m. wins went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net