powered by FreeFind

Apple iTunes

Archives

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., Feb. 26-27) -- ABC back among the living with returns of Grey's, Scandal

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Dormant through most of this month, ABC finally showed some ratings vital signs with Thursday’s returns of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal.

Grey’s drew 269,849 D-FW viewers from 8 to 9 p.m., losing its first half-hour to CBS’ relocated Two and a Half Men (326,660 viewers) but outdrawing CBS’ The Crazy Ones (191,735). Scandal then easily controlled the 9 p.m. hour with 262,748 viewers. Both ABC dramas routed the competition among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds.

CBS still had Thursday’s biggest overall draw with its 7 p.m. episode of The Big Bang Theory (454,483 total viewers). Big Bang also whipped the opening half-hour of Fox’s American Idol in the 18-to-49 demographic before Idol ran first in both measurements from 7:30 to 8 p.m.

In late night, the ratings war continued to tighten between NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. The total viewers margin was the closest to date, with Fallon drawing 120,722 to Kimmel’s 106,520 while CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman had just 56,810. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Fallon led with 61,877 while Kimmel and Letterman had 45,594 apiece. (The Letterman total seems oddly inflated after he drew only 13,027 viewers in the 18-to-49 range on Wednesday.)

NBC’s followup Seth Meyers Late Night beat CBS’ competing Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in both measurements.

In Wednesday’s prime-time Nielsens, Idol had the most total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds from 7 to 9 p.m. The two-hour return of CBS’ Survivor ran second in total viewers during its 7 to 8 p.m. bloc but was nipped by NBC’s Law & Order: SVU from 8 to 9 p.m. The first half of Survivor likewise took the runner-up silver with 18-to-49-year-olds before being beaten by both Law & Order:SVU and ABC’s 8 p.m. episode of Modern Family.

The 8:30 p.m. premiere of ABC’s Mixology didn’t go down well, placing last across the board in competition among the Big Four broadcast networks. It had 78,114 total viewers, the smallest prime-draw of the night.

CBS’ special 9 p.m. episode of Criminal Minds easily swept the competition at 9 p.m., with its 305,356 total viewers second only to Idol’s 347,964. Fallon and Meyers both won their late night slots.

Here are the Wednesday and Thursday local news derby results:

Wednesday -- WFAA8 swept the 10 p.m. competitions in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 notched another doubleheader win at 6 a.m. and also ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at both 5 and 6 p.m.; WFAA8 took the 25-to-54 gold at 6 p.m.

Thursday -- WFAA8 stayed strong at 10 p.m. with another sweep and Fox4 as usual ran the table at 6 a.m.

NBC5 ran first at 5 p.m. in both ratings measurements and Fox4 did likewise at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Fox4/NBC5 skate to local newscast golds in Olympics-skewed February "sweeps"

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
As they do every four years, NBC’s prime-time Winter Olympics packages threw a Triple Lutz into the 10 p.m. competitions during the latest four-week February “sweeps.”

All 20 weekdays are in the books, with NBC5’s late night local newscasts pushed back a half-hour on half of those nights while Fox4, WFAA8 and CBS11 had to go directly against the closing half-hour of the Peacock’s Olympic packages.

So here’s the deal. Nielsen allows a newscast to be counted in the final tally if it “touches” a quarter-hour of the regularly scheduled edition. And NBC5 did just that on 10 weeknights with 10:30 p.m. start-ups following substantial lead-in audiences from the ratings-rich Olympics.

On each of those nights, late-starting NBC5 had more total viewers at 10:30 p.m. than any of its three competitors did at 10 p.m. On nine of those 10 nights, NBC5 also won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. (Fox4 nipped the Peacock in this key measurement on the night of Thursday, Feb. 20th.)

Here’s how it looked on those nights when all four competitors started their newscasts at 10 p.m. In total viewers, WFAA8 paced the field with five wins. CBS11 had two and Fox4, one. NBC5 ran first only on those nights -- Feb. 6th and 21st -- when NBC closed out its prime-time Olympics package at 10 p.m. instead of 10:30 p.m.

Among 25-to-54-year-olds, NBC5 led the way with four outright wins while also tying WFAA8 for first-place on Feb. 21st. WFAA8 had two outright wins and Fox4 had three.

Nonetheless, NBC5 can run promotions touting itself as the home of D-FW’s most-watched 10 p.m. newscasts during the February sweeps. Those are the rules, even if such claims are misleading.

NBC also fared well in other sweeps results, though. The station won at both 5 and 6 p.m. in total viewers and tied with Fox4 for the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m.

Fox4 otherwise dominated the 6 a.m. competitions and also took the 5 p.m. top spot in the 25-to-54 demographic. That left WFAA8 and CBS11 out in the cold.

OK, here are the official results that will be reflected in Nielsen Media Research data. For the late night wars, they include the mix of 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. newscasts on NBC5 and only the 10 p.m. editions on Fox4, WFAA8 and CBS11. For that reason, year-to-year plusses and minuses won’t be included in this portion of the final numbers. Simply put, they’re basically meaningless. But year-to-year ups and downs will be shown in parentheses for the 6 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. results.

10 P.M.

Total Viewers
NBC5 -- 234,343
WFAA8 -- 198,836
Fox4 -- 163,330
CBS11 -- 156,229

25-to-54-Year-Olds
NBC5 -- 124,923
Fox4 -- 91,407
WFAA8 -- 82,266
CBS11 -- 48,750

6 A.M.

Total Viewers
Fox4 -- 163,330 (plus 50,842)
NBC5 -- 120,722 (plus 46,923)
WFAA8 -- 85,216 (plus 1,711)
CBS11 -- 71,013 (plus 13,117)

25-to-54-Year-Olds
Fox4 -- 91,407 (plus 19,861)
NBC5 -- 57,891 (plus 13,473)
WFAA8 -- 51,973 (plus 7,584)
CBS11 -- 30,469 (plus 5,279)

Comments: An unusual amount of early morning cold and/or perilous weather helped to inflate all four stations’ totals over last February’s. But Fox4 still rules this roost with an iron fist, with no rival station ever seriously in contention throughout February. WFAA8, which lost considerable ground to CBS11 in the total viewers measurement, will go into May with a yet to be named replacement for co-anchor Cynthia Izaguirre, who’s moving to the station’s 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on March 10th. Changes in anchor teams usually generate viewer movement, so WFAA8 needs to choose wisely.

6 P.M.

Total Viewers
NBC5 -- 177,533 (plus 53,482)
CBS11 -- 156,229 (minus 10,024)
WFAA8 -- 149,127 (minus 8,383)
Fox4 -- 134,925 (plus 26,774)

25-to-54-Year-Olds
Fox4/NBC5 -- 60,938 each (plus 3,284/plus 19,411)
WFAA8 -- 57,891 (plus 4,976)
CBS11 -- 24,375 (minus 4,601)

Comments: Leading into special 6:30 p.m. Olympic Zone programming certainly didn’t hurt NBC5’s 6 p.m. prospects. Still, the station vaulted from third to first place in both ratings measurements while also showing the biggest viewer gains by far. Will there be an afterglow in the May “sweeps?” We’ll see.

CBS11 took the biggest falls, losing last February’s top spot in total viewers while basically fading out of the picture with 25-to-54-year-olds. The station’s overall performance in that key demographic is getting worse of late at 6 p.m.. And it was never that strong to begin with.

5 P.M.

Total Viewers
NBC5 -- 142,026 (plus 17,491)
Fox4 -- 120,722 (plus 6,307)
WFAA8 -- 106,520 (minus 19,874)
CBS11 -- 85,216 (minus 1,938)

25-to-54-Year-Olds
Fox4 -- 54,844 (plus 8,548)
NBC5 -- 42,657 (plus 7,122)
WFAA8 -- 36,563 (minus 2,817)
CBS11 -- 27,422 (plus 7,627)

Comments: WFAA8’s 5 p.m. newscasts are paying the price for a still struggling 4 p.m. local edition, which was launched last fall and ran fourth in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds in this latest sweeps period. In response, the station is moving Shelly Slater to the 4 p.m. program and making her the sole anchor in place of Jason Wheeler and Colleen Coyle.

NBC5 dethroned WFAA8 as last year’s 5 p.m. champ in total viewers after narrowly losing a year ago. Fox4 repeated as the 25-to-54 champ while WFAA8 slipped from second to third.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Feb. 25) -- NCIS and The Voice trade punches

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Flexing with a new episode and Olympian ratings, CBS’ NCIS led all prime-time programming Tuesday with 468,686 D-FW viewers.

That easily was enough to brush aside NBC’s competing 7 p.m. edition of The Voice, which drew 340,862 viewers. But the Peacock’s No. 1 non-sports attraction punched back by pounding NCIS among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds by a score of 169,348 to 94,444.

CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles and Person of Interest completed CBS’ total viewers sweep with respective overall crowds of 340,862 and 276,951. Both crime dramas again lagged among 18-to-49-year-olds, though, with the second half of ABC’s The Bachelor winning from 8 to 9 p.m. and Fox4’s local newscast running first in the 9 p.m. hour.

The 9 p.m. premiere of ABC’s Mind Games had 113,621 total viewers to rank fourth in that time slot among the Big Four broadcast networks. It moved up to a third-place tie with Person of Interest in the 18-to-49 measurement.

The new NBC comedies About a Boy and Growing Up Fisher premiered in their regular 8 to 9 p.m. Tuesday slot after post-Olympics previews over the weekend.

About a Boy logged 184,634 total viewers to run third ahead of Fox’s competing New Girl. Growing Up Fisher dipped to 163,330 viewers in also placing third. About a Boy moved up to second place among 18-to-49-year-olds, trailing only the 8 to 8:30 p.m. portion of The Bachelor. Growing Up Fisher and Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine then tied for the bronze in that measurement.

Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show stayed ahead of rivals David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel in both ratings measurements, but with its smallest audiences to date. The second edition of Seth Meyers’ Late Night quickly fell out of favor, though, dropping to a tie with CBS’ competing Craig Ferguson in total viewers and losing to him in the 18-to-49 measurement. Both shows were beaten from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. by Fox4’s syndicated combo of TMZ and the first half-hour of Bethenny.

Here are the local news derby numbers on the second-to-last day of the February “sweeps” ratings period.

CBS11 nipped WFAA8 and NBC5 in a very tight 10 p.m. race for first place in total viewers. NBC5 won outright among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 again ran the table at 6 a.m. and added 5 and 6 p.m. wins in the 25-to-54 demographic. NBC5 had the most total viewers at both of those hours.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Feb. 24) -- The Voice hits more high notes but The Blacklist falters

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s return of The Voice dominated prime-time Monday as the network TV terrain returned to normal after 18 nights of the Winter Games.

The Voice drew 404,774 D-FW viewers from 7 to 9 p.m., which is a bigger haul than any of the Peacock’s last three nights of Olympics coverage. CBS’ sitcom lineup ran second while ABC’s The Bachelor finished third and Fox lagged in fourth.

ABC vaulted to first place in the 9 p.m. hour with Castle. Its 298,255 viewers knocked off NBC’s competing return of The Blacklist (262,748 viewers).

Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, The Voice easily controlled the first two hours and Castle again prevailed over The Blacklist at 9 p.m. The Big Four broadcast networks all offered first-run programming down the backstretch of the February “sweeps” ratings period, which ends after Wednesday’s Nielsen numbers are in.

In post- prime time hours, the debut of Seth Meyers’ NBC Late Night program cruised to a first-place finish with 99,418 total viewers and 71,647 in the 18-to-49 demographic. CBS’ competing Craig Ferguson show was basically nowhere to be found. It drew 7,101 total viewers, with 6,513 in the 18-to-49 age range.

Jimmy Fallon’s NBC Tonight Show also stayed strong, beginning its second week by again routing Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Fallon had more than five times the audience of ABC’s runner-up Kimmel. The score was a rather stunning 87,931 viewers to 16,284.

The Dallas Mavericks’ buzzer-beating win over the New York Knicks, courtesy of Dirk Nowitzki’s bounce-around winning jumper, managed just 63,912 total viewers on Fox Sports Southwest. That’s surprisingly low given the playoff-contending team’s solid play of late.

Here are Monday’s local news derby results:

WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m., but NBC5 won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 once again swept the 6 a.m. competitions and added a 5 p.m. gold with 25-to-54-year-olds.

WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 5 p.m. NBC5 and CBS11 tied for the top spot in total viewers at 6 p.m., with the Peacock alone in first with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Feb. 21-23) -- delayed Daytona 500 catches, passes Olympics closing ceremonies

DSCN4185

Misha the Russian bear could hardly bear to see the Olympics end. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
In an unanticipated prime-time clash, Fox’s rain-delayed Daytona 500 went directly against NBC’s Winter Olympics closing ceremonies Sunday.

NASCAR eventually won the ratings checkered flag, although neither attraction could match the still enormous pulling power of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

The picturesque pageantry from Sochi ran first from 7:30 to 8 p.m. with 369,268 D-FW viewers and 133,525 within the advertiser-treasured 18-to-49 age range.

Walking Dead then commanded the 8 p.m. hour with 390,572 total viewers and an extraordinary 299,616 in the 18-to-49 demographic. That’s a huge percentage. In comparison, the 8 to 9 p.m. portion of the closing ceremonies had respective totals of 340,862 and 113,985 viewers.

The Daytona 500 then kicked in, outdrawing the Olympics from 9 to 9:30 p.m. Daytona had 262,748 viewers in that half-hour segment while the closeout of the Winter Games pulled in 191,735 viewers before giving way at 9:36 p.m. to a commercial-free preview episode of the new NBC sitcom Growing Up Fisher. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Daytona won easily from 9 to 9:30 p.m. by a score of 133,525 to 61,877 viewers.

Daytona ended at 10:18 p.m., with Growing Up Fisher no match for it in either ratings measurement. (By the way, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won, even though Fox News committed a major gaffe earlier Sunday by declaring Jimmie Johnson a three-time Daytona champ. That “news” came from Fox’s replay of the 2013 Daytona -- which Johnson won -- during the long rain delay between the start and finish of the 2014 race. Fox later apologized.)

Also on Sunday night, PBS’ disappointingly tepid season finale of Downton Abbey drew 170,431 total viewers. Just 19,540 were in the 18-to-49 age range.

On Saturday, NBC’s prime-time Olympics coverage won despite drawing its smallest overall crowd in all 18 nights of coverage. An average of 262,748 total viewers partook. The Peacock’s post-Olympics preview episode of the new sitcom About a Boy had 234,343 total viewers, losing its time slot to WFAA8’s 10 p.m. newscast (255,647 viewers). About a Boy won among 18-to-49-year-olds, though, with WFAA8’s news a solid second.

Friday night’s Olympics package also won from start to stop with 305,356 total viewers. It ended at 10 p.m. instead of the usual 10:30 p.m., giving Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show its only on-time start of the week. Fallon and his only guest, Justin Timberlake, rolled to a total of 220,140 viewers, with 130,268 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

Opponents David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel each drew a comparatively paltry 56,810 total viewers. Kimmel edged Letterman for a distant second among 18-to-49-year-olds by a score of 22,797 to 19,540.

Here are Friday’s local news derby numbers, with just three weekdays now left in the February “sweeps” ratings period.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while tying WFAA8 for the top spot among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept both the 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. competitions while adding a 6 p.m. gold with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Feb. 20) -- Olympics skate over rivals with women's figure finals

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Thursday night’s finals of the women’s figure skating competition drove NBC’s Olympics coverage to its best D-FW ratings performance since the Feb. 13th package of events.

The Winter Games averaged 497,091 viewers in their nightly 7 to 10:30 p.m. slot. Fox’s 7 p.m. hour of American Idol made the best showing opposite the Olympics with 269,849 viewers. It was the same story among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, with the Olympics dominating from start to finish and Idol taking the silver.

CBS shifted back into wall-to-wall rerun mode while ABC again asked viewers to swallow two new hours of The Taste and a Scandal repeat. Among the Big Four broadcast networks, that combo again put ABC at the bottom of the heap all night in both ratings measurements.

In late night, Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show bested David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel for the fourth straight night despite starting 25 minutes later at 11 p.m. Buoyed by an engaging and amusing guest appearance by First Lady Michelle Obama, Fallon ran especially strong with 18-to-49-year-olds. He corralled 94,444 viewers in this age range while Letterman drew 16,284 and Kimmel, 9,770.

Thursday also brought a pair of marquee team sports match ups. NBC’s daytime live coverage of the Canada-U.S. gold medal women’s hockey final averaged 85,216 total viewers. TNT’s prime-time Heat-Thunder game drew 92,317 viewers.

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results, with just four weekdays now remaining in the Olympics-skewed February “sweeps” ratings period.

Fox4 continued to flex in the down-sized three-way 10 p.m. competitions, winning for the third straight night in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (the main target audience for news programming). The gap in the 25-to-54 measurement was vast, with Fox4 rolling up 149,298 viewers opposite WFAA8 (54,844) and CBS11 (45,704).

Fox4 likewise ran the table at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. while NBC5 swept at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Feb. 19) -- Olympics still taking the golds while Fox/CBS compete for respectable silvers

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s prime-time Olympics coverage, now in the home stretch, won from start to finish Wednesday, with Fox and CBS nonetheless drawing decent crowds.

The 7 to 10:30 p.m. Winter Games package averaged 411,875 D-FW viewers. Fox’s latest two-hour chunk of American Idol hung in there with 269,849 viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. and CBS’ new episode of Criminal Minds notched that same total in the 8 p.m. hour (although still losing to Idol’s more-watched second half).

CBS’ first-run CSI: Crime Scene Investigation took the 9 p.m. silver with 248,546 viewers; Fox4’s local newscast was a decent draw with 191,735 viewers.

The Olympics also ran the table among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. All the silvers went to American Idol and Fox4 news.

ABC, offering only a new episode of the sure-to-be-canceled Super Fun Night amid a sea of repeats, ran a distant fourth all night long in both ratings measurements.

Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show continued to rout Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman in the late night battle. Fallon is slowly falling off, though, with 149,127 total viewers and 68,391 in the 18-to-49 demographic his lowest scores over the first three nights. It also marked the first time that less than half of Fallon’s audience was within the coveted 18-to-49 age range.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results:

Fox4 swept the downsized three-way 10 p.m. competitions in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. The station added a 6 a.m. doubleheader win and also ran first at 5 and 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

WFAA8's Cynthia Izaguirre on replacing the irreplaceable

0219_glo_izzy

Gloria Campos & 10 p.m. newscast heir Cynthia Izaguirre. WFAA8 image

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Cynthia Izaguirre as usual awoke at a pre-dawn hour Thursday to co-anchor WFAA8’s Daybreak.

But new eras for her and the station also are dawning after Wednesday’s announcement that Izaguirre will be succeeding WFAA8 mainstay Gloria Campos and joining incumbent John McCaa at the 10 p.m. news anchor desk. Her opening night will be Monday, March 10th, with the 5 p.m. newscast also part of her new picture.

Upon request, Izaguirre emailed her thoughts after Thursday’s Daybreak had ended.

“First of all, I want to thank Gloria for welcoming me with open arms six years ago,” Izaguirre said. “She has been a true friend and mentor. For that I am grateful. I want it to be clear that I am not her replacement because there is no replacement for Gloria. I am simply the new 10 p.m. co-anchor. Gloria is enormous shoes to fill and I don’t take that responsibility lightly.”

Both Campos and Izaguirre are mothers of twins. Campos’ sons, Greg and Tony, are 20 now. Izaguirre’s daughter, Karina, and son, Simon, will be two years old in April. In a Wednesday night telephone interview, Campos said, “It’s hard being in television and also being a mom of two kids. But working nightside is a special challenge.” Her husband, Lance Brown, also a journalist, eventually quit his job to be at home with their sons, Campos noted. “That helped a lot.”

Izaguirre and her husband, Jeremy, an architect, will be following in those footsteps, she said. They’ve been married since October 2010.

“Speaking of simple, that’s how I was raised and I also married a very simple man,” Izaguirre said. “After a lot of soul-searching and careful thought, we decided it was now or never for this incredible opportunity. Thanks to my husband sacrificing his career as an architect, I’ll be able to tackle my life-long professional goal because he is at home with our babies! Along with anxious grandparents always willing to pitch in!”

Izaguirre’s Daybreak replacement has not been named yet. WFAA8 news director Carolyn Mungo has not returned emails asking for comment on Campos’ March 7th departure or any of the other station changes in play.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

An exit interview with WFAA8 anchor Gloria Campos

photo-3

WFAA8 stalwarts John McCaa and Gloria Campos, who have been the station’s featured 10 p.m. news anchor duo since August of 2002. WFAA8 photo

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
After quickly tweeting her official departure date as WFAA8’s longtime 10 p.m. news anchor, Gloria Campos headed for Frisco Wednesday afternoon to work on a story scheduled to air on Monday’s late night edition.

She returned to learn for the first time of all the other anchor dominoes that had fallen in her wake. And then Campos found out that the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Alliance for Women in Media had named her this year’s recipient of the Silver Award for Excellence. Quite a roller coaster of emotions for the 30-year WFAA8 veteran, whose last 10 p.m. newscast for the station will be on Friday, March 7th.

“What a day indeed! I’m exhausted,” Campos emailed shortly before joining longtime anchor partner John McCaa at the 10 p.m. news desk.

As previously posted, this has been in the works for quite a while. Campos had lobbied as far back as 2008 for a cutback in her hours. She became a part-timer in August 2012 after dropping the 6 p.m. weekday newscast from her duties. Her final 18-month deal with WFAA8 will expire at the end of February 2014, but Campos, 59, and station management had been in talks about possibly extending her stay a bit after Gannett Co., Inc. officially took control of the station late last year.

In a telephone interview Wednesday night with unclebarky.com, Campos said there might well be a “next chapter” at WFAA8. But it won’t involve anchoring unless she’s asked to fill in on occasion. After March 7th, she plans to take a “sabbatical” with husband Lance Brown. “The station has to get through this transition right now,” Campos said. “I know this for sure. I don’t ever want to work full-time again, in the news business or any other business.”

The spotlight transition at WFAA8 belongs to early morning co-anchor Cynthia Izaguirre, who will become McCaa’s new 10 p.m. desk partner on Monday, March 10th while also joining the 5 p.m. edition. It’s interesting how these things work out. For years, Campos juggled workplace demands and being a hands-on mother to her twin sons, Greg and Tony, who are now 20.

In April of 2012, Izaguirre became the mother of twins -- son Simon and daughter Karina. And for that reason, she initially declined to take the late night anchor position, still the prime plum at local TV stations across the land.

Izaguirre could not immediately be reached for comment. But Campos said she had “pretty much given up that it would be Cynthia” replacing her. WFAA8 interviewed several outside candidates before finally persuading Izaguirre to sign on.

“It’s hard being in television and also being a mom of two kids,” Campos said. “But working nightside is a special challenge.” For that reason, her husband, also a journalist, eventually quit his job, she said. “That helped a lot.”

Campos, the first Hispanic of either gender to be a full-time anchor of 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts in Dallas-Fort Worth, said that television news is “all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was in third grade. But I never planned on working this long. It just kind of happened.”

She arrived at WFAA8 in 1984 from KGBT-TV in Harlingen, TX after first interviewing at D-FW competitors KDFW-TV (now known as Fox4) and KXAS-TV (NBC5).

In her later years at WFAA8, Campos said she’s become more a “supportive mentor” (to Izaguirre, anchor Shelly Slater, reporter Rebecca Lopez and others) than an upwardly climbing anchor star.

“I’m the biggest cheerleader here at Channel 8 -- for a lot of people,” she said. “Part of that comes with the maturity and the confidence you get with having been here as long as I have . . . I’ve tried to be here especially for the women in the news room, because that is not something I had” during her early years in TV news.

Campos’ parents are both alive, but they’re not doing so good,” she said. Her father, 88, and mother, 82, both recently suffered falls. And as their oldest child, “they kind of look to me.”

She’ll have more time for that now. And doing the news at her age isn’t the glamour job it used to be. Salaries and audiences have shrunk while the attendant “social media” demands just keep on coming. In addition, the news itself seems to be getting worse, Campos said.

“All of those things together made me think that this was the right time. I always thought the time to hang it up would be when I started being calloused about the news. But I’m even more affected by the tragedies, so it ended up being just the opposite.

“There have been nights when I’ve driven home crying. The news was just unbearable. I won’t miss that part.”

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Other pieces fall into place at WFAA8 after Campos announces official end date as WFAA8 10 p.m. co-anchor (updated)

Cynthia_Izzaguirre Jason_Wheeler

WFAA8 news staffers Cynthia Izaguirre and Jason Wheeler.

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
WFAA8 10 p.m. co-anchor Gloria Campos’ announcement that she’ll retire from the station on March 7th has triggered a slew of in-house chess moves by the Dallas-based station.

News director Carolyn Mungo did not return a late Wednesday afternoon email regarding Campos and her successor. But a subsequent staff memo obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Robert Philpot includes Mungo’s announcement that early morning co-anchor Cynthia Izaguirre will join incumbent John McCaa on WFAA8’s 10 p.m. newscasts, beginning March 10th. She’ll co-anchor at 5 p.m. with McCaa.

Another WFAA8 anchor, Shelly Slater, will remain with McCaa as the 6 p.m. co-anchor while also soloing on the station’s 4 p.m. newscast, which was launched last fall and so far has been running cold in the D-FW Nielsens opposite established 4 p.m. newscasts on NBC5 and CBS11.

Jason Wheeler, who has been co-anchoring at 4 p.m. with meteorologist Colleen Coyle, will return to reporting and weekend anchoring, Mungo’s meno says. Coyle is also a meteorologist and feature reporter for WFAA8.

The memo reportedly did not say who will be joining Ron Corning on WFAA8’s weekday early morning newscasts. Izaguirre has been anchoring at 6 a.m. since early 2008. Corning joined her in April of 2011 on Daybreak, which currently is running third behind Fox4 and NBC5.

It’s a nice prize for Izaguirre, who earlier had watched WFAA8 put almost all of its promotional muscle behind Corning in an extended comedy campaign that initially enabled Daybreak to make significant inroads in the hotly contested early morning ratings competition. Lately the station has been promoting Daybreak as more of a team effort.

Other than the 10 p.m. newscast, the waker-uppers have become the most important local newscasts of the day, with a big pool of 25-to-54-year-olds starting their workdays and tuning in at least briefly to see what the weather and traffic outlooks will be.

Campos, who is retiring by choice, was praised by Mungo in the memo as “part of the fabric of this newsroom. Her work has inspired so many. One paragraph does not do it justice.”

A subsequent email to Mungo so far also has gone unanswered.

(Of note: Several sources say the Star-Telegram and WFAA8 are in active talks to make a “content sharing” deal after The Dallas Morning News recently ended its longtime synergistic arrangement with WFAA8 and instead partnered with Fort Worth-based NBC5. So WFAA8 and the Star-Telegram have a budding “relationship” in the works that may have made the newspaper something of a favored nation in Wednesday’s big anchor shuffle. All unclebarky.com can do is offer straight-up independent reporting without any ties to any of D-FW’s major TV news providers. This is not meant as any kind of negative reflection on the Star-Telegram’s Philpot, who long has been a fair, objective critic and reporter. If WFAA8 played any calculated favorites Wednesday, it was not his doing. He can’t control these things any more than I could when WFAA8 and my former employer, The DMN, were in “cross-planning” bed with one another during joint Belo Corp. ownership of both media outlets.)



Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

WFAA8 anchor Gloria Campos now has official end date

gcampos-bio-168x217

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
She’s made no secret of her decision to leave Dallas-based WFAA8 at some point this year after a long, trailblazing career.

Now anchor Gloria Campos and the station have reached an agreed-upon departure date. Her last 10 p.m. newscast will be on Friday, March 7th, Campos has just tweeted. She’s been a part-timer since leaving WFAA8’s 6 p.m. anchor desk on August 17th of 2012.

Campos, 59, joined the station in 1984 from KGBT-TV in Harlingen, TX. In January of 1990, she began co-anchoring WFAA8’s weekday 5 p.m. newscasts with the late Chip Moody. Later in that same year, Campos became the first Hispanic of any gender to co-anchor 6 p.m. weekday newscasts in D-FW.

In spring of 1999, she joined a tri-anchor 10 p.m. team before WFAA8 settled on a Campos-John McCaa duo in August of 2002. They’ve been together ever since, and in the November 2013 ratings “sweeps” presided over the only WFAA8 weekday newscast to win its time slot in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

As previously posted on unclebarky.com, Campos had signed an 18-month deal with WFAA8 that was officially supposed to expire at the end of February 2014. But no one anticipated at the time that WFAA8 would be sold by Belo Corp. to Gannett Co., Inc., which officially took control of the ABC affiliate late last year. So Campos had been in meetings about possibly staying a bit longer even though she ached to begin a “new chapter” after 30 years at WFAA8.

“Life is full of transition, and I’m ready for that transition in my life,” Campos told unclebarky.com when she confirmed her move to part-time status at WFAA8. “To be honest with you, I’ve been preparing for this for quite a while.” She first approached WFAA8 management about cutting back in 2008, said Campos, who was elected to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Hall of Fame in 2010.

WFAA8 has been interviewing candidates to replace Campos, but so far has not made an official announcement.

WFAA8 is on track to win the 10 p.m. newscast races again during the ongoing February sweeps, which end on Wednesday, Feb. 26th. But the results will have an asterisk this time out due to prime-time Winter Olympics run-overs that will end up making it a three-way race on 11 of the 20 weeknights figuring into the final Nielsen totals. On all of those nights to date, the 10 to 10:30 p.m. portion of the Olympics has easily outdrawn any of the three competing local newscasts.

Campos is married to fellow journalist Lance Brown and they are the parents of twin sons Greg and Tony, who are now 20.

“We don’t live lavishly,” Campos said. “We don’t have any debts. Believe it or not, I’ve always had that mindset that this job could disappear tomorrow. No one is irreplaceable. I certainly am not queen around here. I want to be the mate of my fate as much as I can be. I think that’s quite remarkable in this business.”

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Feb. 18) -- Olympics hold off Idol while Fallon stays strong

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
American Idol’s latest wrinkle, a three-night “Rush Week,” fell short of NBC’s Olympics coverage Tuesday night while other rival networks mostly stuck it to viewers with repeats during the waning days of the February “sweeps.”

Fox’s Idol drew 255,647 D-FW viewers from 7 to 9 p.m., with 113,985 of them in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 motherlode. The Winter Games had respective totals of 447,382 and 192,145 viewers in those two hours. The Peacock’s entire 7 to 10:30 p.m. Olympics package averaged 433,179 total viewers, with 195,402 in the 18-to-49 age range.

CBS again offered wall-to-wall repeats while ABC’s only first-run competing program was a 9 p.m. burn-off of Killer Women, which has been canceled.

The late night wars were all-new, though, with NBC’s second edition of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon again crushing the opposition despite starting at 11 p.m. instead of 10:35 p.m.

Tonight had 170,431 total viewers from 11 p.m. to midnight, with more than half of them (100,958) in the coveted 18-to-49 age range. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! ran a very distant second with 49,709 total viewers and 13,027 in the 18-to-49 measurement. CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman slogged in with 35,507 total viewers and just 9,770 in the 18-to-49 range. Those are surprisingly big blowouts, although the first real tests will come next week when the Olympics are over and all three shows are lined up at 10:35 p.m.

Here are Tuesday’s local news derby results, with six weekdays now remaining in the Olympics-skewed February sweeps.

Fox4 swept the downsized 10 p.m. race in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. The station added a doubleheader win at 6 a.m. and also won at 5 and 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.

The total viewer golds at 5 and 6 p.m. respectively went to NBC5 and CBS11.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Mon., Feb. 14-17) -- mission accomplished for Fallon's first Tonight

DSCN4179

Jimmy Fallon with 1st Tonight Show guest, Will Smith. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Although pushed back to an 11 p.m. start by his network’s prime-time Olympics package, Jimmy Fallon’s Monday debut as NBC’s latest Tonight Show host had no trouble outscoring his two principal competitors.

Tonight drew 177,533 D-FW viewers, with more than half of them -- 100,958 -- within the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 age range. Although they both had 10:35 p.m. jump starts, rivals Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman were no match for the new kid.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! had 49,709 total viewers and 16,284 in the 18-to-49 demographic. CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman drew just 35,507 total viewers, but did better than Kimmel with 22,797 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

It could have gone even better for Fallon. NBC’s 7 to 10:30 p.m. Olympics coverage averaged 440,281 total viewers, with 172,605 of them in the 18-to-49 range. NBC5’s delayed late night newscast then had respective totals of 284,052 and 133,525. Fallon’s first Tonight had a significant audience fall-off in both measurements, although NBC certainly could have helped him by ending its Winter Games coverage at 10 p.m. on his important opening night. There was ample air in the Peacock’s pre-taped package, so the decision is puzzling.

Fallon not surprisingly fell far short of Jay Leno’s numbers for his final Feb. 6th Tonight Show, which started on time. He drew 397,673 total viewers in D-FW, with 198,659 of them 18-to-49-year-olds.

On Sunday night, NBC’s 6 to 10 p.m. Olympics coverage averaged 433,179 total viewers. From 8 to 9 p.m., AMC’s The Walking Dead ran a close second with 397,673 viewers. But it again bludgeoned the Winter Games in the 18-to-49 measurement, this time winning from 8 to 9 p.m. by a score of 293,103 viewers to the Olympics’ 195,402.

Over on TNT, the high-flying NBA All-Star game (7:56 to 10:23 p.m.) averaged 220,140 total viewers, with 133,525 in the 18-to-49 range.

Saturday’s prime-time prize also went to the Olympics, but with their lowest Nielsen numbers to date. An average of 347,964 viewers hung in there. TNT’s competing All-Star week festivities, ranging from the dunk to the 3-point competitions, pulled in 134,925 viewers to rank second among all programming.

The Olympics also ran first from start to finish on Friday night, averaging 390,572 total viewers. In daytime hours, WFAA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen’s appearance on NBC5’s syndicated Ellen drew 71,013 viewers in the 1 p.m. hour. That put it in a first-place tie with ABC’s competing General Hospital on Hansen’s home station. But Ellen nipped GH for the top spot with 18-to-49-year-olds.

Here are the weekday local news derby numbers, with seven days now remaining in the February “sweeps” ratings period.

Friday -- The downsized three-way competitions at 10 p.m. went to Fox4 and WFAA8 in total viewers; WFAA8 narrowly had first place to itself among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 had the most total viewers at 6 a.m. but WFAA8 popped up to claim an uncommon first place finish in the 25-to-54 measurement.

CBS11 ran first at 6 p.m. in total viewers but WFAA8 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds. The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 trampolined to second place in the latter 5 p.m. measurement despite inheriting a sub-scant 1,219 viewers in the 25-to-54 range from its still ratings-challenged 4 p.m. local newscast.

Monday -- CBS11 took holiday knees all around (for Presidents’ Day), which means that none of its local news numbers count (including what would have been a 6 p. win in total viewers).

Fox4 opted for an “H” at 6 a.m., negating its twin wins at that hour. NBC5 also counted out its 6 a.m. newscast. So you know what? Let’s just call the whole thing off.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Conan, Kimmel provide energy boosts during slack times for Texas-produced network dramas

conan-o-brien reg_600.kimmel.cm.103012

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Once a hotbed for scripted network TV productions, Texas for the time being is down to TNT’s Dallas and NBC’s faltering Revolution.

Late night talkers lately have been ramping it up, though. TBS’ announcement of Conan O’Brien’s springtime stop in Dallas for a week’s worth of shows comes shortly after ABC began spreading the news of Jimmy Kimmel Live! visiting Austin in the middle of next month.

The Conan tapings, tied to the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four at Jerry’s Palace, will be from March 31-April 3 at the downtown Majestic Theater. Kimmel Live has Austin on its schedule from March 10-14 in league with the city’s annual South by Southwest Festival. Tapings will originate from the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts.

Neither show has announced a guest list yet. But you can go here in pursuit of free tickets to one of Kimmel’s shows. And starting on Feb. 18th, click here for a shot at free tickets to Conan.

Texas had a quartet of new network TV productions going at once back in fall 2010. Fox’s Lone Star and The Good Guys, and NBC’s Chase were all filming in the Dallas area. ABC’s My Generation set up in Austin after NBC/DirectTV’s Friday Night Lights wrapped up its five-season run.

But all four freshman series were quickly canceled, with Lone Star and My Generation each lasting for just two episodes. ABC Family’s The Lying Game, which originated from Austin in the wake of My Generation, got sacked last summer after two seasons.

One-week stands by a pair of late night network TV talk shows are a smallish economic boost compared to a long- or even short-running scripted series. Still, it will be nice to have both O’Brien and Kimmel around. And probably in cowboy hats at least once.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Hansen on Ellen: Yep, he's "amazing"

DSCN4173

Applause, applause: WFAA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen and Ellen DeGeneres on Valentine’s Day edition of Ellen. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Loquacious, large-living WFAA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen has had many a wild time and perhaps even some wilder dreams during his more than three decades at the station.

It’s safe to say, though, that he never envisioned bounding onto the Valentine’s Day edition of Ellen, waving to the studio audience as the show’s lead guest, hugging host Ellen DeGeneres and then basking in a standing ovation.

“What an amazing man this is,” she proclaimed. Hansen tried hard to be humble, and in fact did a pretty nice job of it.

As you may have seen, heard or read (initially in Tuesday’s unclebarky.com post), Hansen’s Monday night WFAA8 commentary in support of NFL hopeful Michael Sam (who would be the league’s first openly gay player) has reverberated throughout the nation. DeGeneres struck while he was still hot, flying Hansen and his wife, Chris, to Los Angeles for Thursday’s taping of Friday’s Ellen. It aired at 1 p.m. in D-FW on rival NBC5, now in a new content-sharing relationship with The Dallas Morning News after the paper ended that longtime relationship with WFAA8.

Not surprisingly -- and quite understandably -- WFAA8 prominently plugged Hansen’s Ellen appearance during Thursday’s 10 p.m. newscast. Rivalries go out the window when one of your own makes a big splash on someone else’s air. Also not surprisingly, NBC5 didn’t say a word even though Ellen has long been part of its afternoon lineup. Rivalries remain in place unless one of your own makes a splash on someone else’s air.

It couldn’t have gone any better for Hansen on Ellen. Not only did the host repeatedly praise him, but his wife had a front row seat in the audience. “The lovely Mrs. Hansen” is oft-referenced on the air by her husband but very few viewers have ever seen her. As Hansen said, though, this was a whole lot different.

“It wasn’t like I was going to turn down maybe the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life,” he told DeGeneres. “And seriously, the greatest thing that’s ever happened to my wife,” who went “absolutely crazy” as a daily viewer of Ellen.

“I am so proud of him,” Chris said on-camera, blowing Dale a kiss. “Greatest Valentine gift in the world to be on Ellen.”

“It did get me nominated for husband of the decade,” he quipped.

DeGeneres, openly gay since famously coming out in 1987 on the “Yep, I’m Gay” cover of Time magazine, said that Hansen’s commentary was “up to about 3 million views” on various social media outlets at the time of the taping. That figure now is much closer to 4 million, including 3,689,340 views of just a single top posting on youtube.

“It wasn’t a brave thing, it wasn’t a great thing I did,” Hansen said. “The brave thing and the great thing was what Michael Sam did.”

Hansen said his primary intent with the commentary was to “slam the hypocrisy of the NFL” on many fronts ranging from its long-ago resistance to black players to its more recent drafting of known lawbreakers. His punch line: “You love another man. Well, now you’ve gone too far.”

DeGeneres said in turn, “We really do need people like you. We need heterosexual people that speak out and say this is not OK. Because I can only do so much and say so much. But we need help from other people.”

Hansen said his words in support of Sam may have had more impact because they came from “an old, fat white guy from Dallas, Texas.” And that goes against the “stereotype” of what much of the country expects to hear from someone like him.

In the previous unclebarky.com post, I noted my disagreement in some cases with Hansen’s overall tarring of the NFL. But I’ve always credited him for bluntly speaking his mind and communicating his thoughts in ways that punch right through that piece of plate glass separating living rooms from TV personalities. In past “Unplugged” commentaries, he’s ripped what he viewed as his own station’s hypocrisy regarding use of a Jerry Jones video; called out his two grown children for being ungrateful; and revealed that he was sexually molested as a boy. Among other things. There’s no one anywhere near like him in the D-FW market, and there won’t be ever again. But Hansen has never gone “viral” to this extent. And by now, he might even know what that means.

Here’s the video of Hansen’s appearance on Ellen:



Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., Feb. 12-13) -- CBS continues to let Olympics slide

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Only Fox fought NBC’s Olympics in full battle dress on Wednesday and Thursday nights while CBS holstered its major weapons and settled for reruns.

Thursday’s 7 to 10:30 p.m. Winter Games coverage averaged 518,395 D-FW viewers with 224,712 of them within the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 demographic.

Fox’s 7 to 8 p.m. edition of American Idol put up the most resistance on both fronts, scoring respective totals of 269,849 and 149,808 viewers.

On Wednesday night, Fox won a lone gold medal opposite the Olympics. That came during the first hour of Idol, which drew 166,092 viewers in the 18-to-49 range while NBC’s 7 to 8 p.m. portion of the Olympics had 153,065.

But the Games ran No. 1 throughout the night in total viewers, averaging 426,078 in the 7 to 10:30 p.m. slot. That marked the lowest D-FW viewers total for NBC’s first eight nights of coverage. Idol ran a solid second from 7 to 9 p.m. with 319,559 total viewers. CBS’ 7:30 to 10 p.m. repeat of its 50th anniversary Beatles special drew 99,418 viewers. ABC mixed reruns and first-run programming on both nights, running last for the most part among the Big Four broadcast networks.

Here are the local news derby results:

Wednesday -- In another downsized three-way 10 p.m. race, Fox4 rolled to twin wins in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 as usual ran the table at 6 a.m., likewise swept the 5 p.m. competitions and added a 6 p.m. gold in the 25-to-54 measurement. For the second time in recent weeks, that put the station within just one win of an exceedingly rare double grand slam. But CBS11 spoiled the party with a 6 p.m. first in total viewers while Fox4 ran fourth.

Thursday -- The three-way 10 p.m. race went to WFAA8 this time in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 scored doubleheader wins at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. while also notching a 6 p.m. victory among 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

Although it had no wins, CBS11 celebrated a pair of bronze medals at 6 a.m., where it’s been a doormat since Captain Kangaroo walked the earth. WFAA8 fell to fourth place in both measurements, which is starting to happen with more frequency. But the station should still have enough early morning juice to keep CBS11 at the bottom for another ratings sweeps period. Barring any miraculous turn of events, neither station is a serious threat this time around to either kingpin Fox4 or runner-up NBC5.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

CBS11 anchor/reporter Sharrie Williams heading to Philadelphia

1e6a1401-as-smart-object-1.jpg?w=420&h=236
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
CBS11 weekend anchor/weekday reporter Sharrie Williams is moving up a notch in TV market size, from No. 5 to No. 4.

The station confirms that Williams will be joining Philadelphia’s ABC-owned WPVI-TV as a 5 p.m. weekday anchor and reporter on 11 p.m. newscasts. Ken Molestina, who recently joined CBS11 as weekend co-anchor, will now be going solo.

Williams joined CBS11 in January 2011 from Miami’s WFOR-TV. She replaced Nerissa Knight, who now is with Dallas-based CW33’s early morning Eye Opener program.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Feb. 11) -- Olympics roll again against token resistance

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Opposite wall-to-wall repeats on CBS and mostly reruns on ABC, NBC’s sixth night of Winter Olympics coverage skated to runaway ratings gold Tuesday.

The Peacock averaged 553,901 D-FW viewers from 7 to 10:30 p.m., with skateboarder Shaun White’s failed attempt to three-peat in the half-pipe serving as the featured attraction. The closest competing prime-time attraction, CBS’ 7 p.m. NCIS reprise, drew 191,735 viewers.

The Olympics also soared among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 267,049. Fox’s new 8 p.m. episode of New Girl took the silver with 71,647 viewers in this key demographic. Fox was the only Big Four broadcast network to offer all new programming against the Olympics. That included a one-hour season -- and possible series finale of Dads.

In Tuesday’s local news derby results, WFAA8 took the gold in total viewers in a downsized 10 p.m. race. But Fox4 ran first among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 again ran the table at 6 a.m., with NBC5 a solid second in both ratings measurements. The Peacock swept the 5 p.m. Nielsens and added a 6 p.m. win in total viewers. WFAA8 had the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

KTXD's The Broadcast is home to big gaffe involving two Michaels -- Sam and Irvin

DSCN4162

Lead host Lisa Pineiro during Tuesday edition of The Broadcast.

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Everyone has a slip of the tongue now and then.

Still, on-air TV and radio personalities in particular are mostly well-paid to minimize them. Which didn’t stop Lisa Pineiro, lead host of KXTD-TV’s (Ch. 47) The Broadcast, from contributing an instant classic Tuesday.

Pineiro, former co-anchor of CBS11’s weekday early morning newscasts, was earnestly leading a discussion of star University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam’s decision to publicly state he’s gay.

Pineiro took her cue from WFAA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen’s support of Sam and denunciation of the NFL during a Monday night “Unplugged” commentary.

“I think that anybody who doesn’t agree with what he’s saying, there are issues there,” Pineiro said in further support of Hansen after effusively praising his commentary. Unfortunately for her, she then said more.

“When we come back, No. 88 himself is here,” Pineiro told viewers. Cowboys Hall of Flamer -- Famer -- Michael Irvin.”

Pineiro laughed briefly, as did some of her co-hosts. Irvin, seated off to the side of the anchor desk, could be seen grinning gamely. A commercial break then took everyone away from it all.

The Broadcast airs from 9 to 11 a.m. weekdays on Dallas-based KTXD and is repeated from 4 to 6 p.m. The program also is carried on other London Broadcasting stations in Texas.

The good news for Pineiro and her station, in this case at least, is that both editions of The Broadcast seldom register more than “hashmarks” (no measurable audience) in the D-FW Nielsen ratings. That again was the case on Monday; the program’s Tuesday ratings will come in on Wednesday.

The bad news is that no one bothered to fix anything for the show’s 4 p.m. replay, which is where I saw Pineiro’s flub first-hand after being tipped to it by several sources.

Irvin, in KXTD’s Dallas studios on behalf of the upcoming seventh annual Sky Ranch Christian children’s camp fundraiser, was later asked about Sam by co-host Dawn Neufeld.

“I appreciate him for coming forward,” he said. “I can’t wait ’til he hits somebody and knocks him out” in order to shatter any stereotype that a gay man can’t play in the NFL trenches.

Irvin said that Sam, who’s eligible for this year’s NFL draft, is setting a good example by openly being who he is. “Because that’s the only person you can be the best one of.”

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

WFAA8's Dale Hansen again makes his presence felt in "Unplugged" commentary on the NFL and Michael Sam

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Gannett Co., Inc.’s ownership of Dallas-based WFAA8, which took effect late last year, so far hasn’t muzzled at least one very opinionated and regularly “Unplugged” anchor.

D-FW TV sports dean Dale Hansen, as only he can and as only he dares, weighed in on the Michael Sam situation during Monday’s 10 p.m. newscast. Even though it aired opposite NBC5’s closing half-hour of its network’s Olympics coverage, the commentary drew a very sizable crowd of 347,964 D-FW viewers according to Nielsen Media Research data.

The big tune-in was largely due to the usual suspect -- WFAA8’s dire warnings of freezing rain and slick roads for Tuesday morning’s commute. Hansen will happily take it. His words reached a significantly larger audience than usual. And while I didn’t agree with everything he said, I appreciate the guts it took to say what he did. And the willingness on the part of his station to turn him loose.

Sam has been very much in the news after coming out as a gay man. The powerful SEC conference’s defensive player of the year is now eligible for the NFL draft. But some league people anonymously told Sports Illustrated that Sam’s standing in the draft will be “hurt” by his declaration. The NFL has never had an openly gay player. After all it’s a “man’s game,” Hansen said with intended sarcasm.

Hansen told viewers that the NFL is a league with a history of welcoming drug abusers, rapists and drunk drivers whose actions have killed people. He also said “You beat a woman and drag her down a flight of stairs pulling her hair by the roots, you’re the fourth guy taken in the NFL draft.”

He didn’t name him, but Hansen was referring to former University of Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips, who in fact was the sixth overall pick in the 1996 draft -- by the St. Louis Rams -- after the Baltimore Ravens passed him over with their No. 4 pick because of Phillips’ previous actions. He’s now serving a 31-year prison sentence after being convicted of several other acts of violence.

Hansen sometimes tends to exaggerate in the interests of making his forceful points. But few if any sportscasters make them more effectively. I think his portrayal of the NFL as a halfway house for criminals was painted with too broad a brush. But he then hammered home his essential point: “You love another man? Well, now you’ve gone too far.”

He also delivered down the stretch with an admission that “I’m not always comfortable when a man tells me he’s gay. I don’t understand his world. But I do understand that he’s part of mine.”

Hansen by no means is a perfect man. He has his demons and he’s talked about them on the air. They include an admittedly very troubled relationship with his own two grown children. His father left him with some substantial emotional scars and Hansen has not always succeeded in overcoming them.

Below is the video of Hansen’s complete “Unplugged” commentary on Michael Sam and the NFL. His opinions are his own -- and always have been. Unlike anyone else in D-FW television, he also has the fortitude to go public with them.



Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Feb. 10) -- total domination by Olympics

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s prime-time Winter Olympics coverage has slipped on a few ice patches in the early going, losing in some key ratings measurements to CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, Fox’s American Idol and AMC’s The Walking Dead.

But Monday night was a rout from start to finish. The Olympics averaged 518,395 D-FW viewers from 7 to 10:30 p.m., with 237,739 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old motherlode.

The closest runner-up among competing programming was Fox4’s scary weather-driven 9 p.m. local newscast, which had 305,356 total viewers and 146,552 in the 18-to-49 range.

CBS’ punted with sitcom repeats from 7 to 9 p.m., helping Fox’s first-run Almost Human to take the silver in total viewers from 7 to 8 p.m. while the network’s new hour of The Following ran a competitive third behind The Bachelor in the 8 p.m. hour.

Both Fox dramas also crunched CBS in the 18-to-49 demographic before the network’s new episode of Intelligence performed decently under the circumstances with 241,442 total viewers and 65,134 in the 18-to-49 range.

In Monday’s local news derby results, WFAA8 controlled a downsized three-way 10 p.m. race in total viewers while tying Fox4 for first among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

At the opposite end of the ratings teeter totter, WFAA8 fell to fourth place at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements, with Fox4 chalking up another pair of wins over second-place NBC5. Fox4’s 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Good Day also crunched the competing three network morning shows, even though NBC’s Today had its entire crew in Sochi, Russia for the Olympics.

NBC5 rebounded with a sweep of the 6 p.m. competitions. At 5 p.m., the golds went to WFAA8 in total viewers and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Feb. 7-9) -- return of The Walking Dead tarnishes NBC's Olympic gold

DSCN4161

U.S. Olympic team enters Opening Ceremonies Friday in ugly Christmas sweaters, er, official team uniforms. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s prime-time Winter Olympics blitz dominated the weekend D-FW Nielsen numbers with one rather shocking exception.

AMC’s return of The Walking Dead Sunday night topped the Games from 8 to 9 p.m. among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. In the North Texas viewing area, that has to be the first time a cable attraction has flexed that kind of muscle opposite the Olympics.

Walking Dead amassed 296,360 viewers in the 18 to 49 age range while the competing hour of the Olympics pulled in 273,563. The Olympics otherwise won the 8 to 9 p.m. hour in total viewers by a score of 582,307 to 411,875. The entire 6 to 10 p.m. bloc of Olympics coverage averaged 575,205 total viewers.

Over on CBS, the network’s 7 to 9:30 p.m. 50th anniversary celebration of The Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show drew a nice-sized 284,052 viewers, with 87,931 in the 18-to-49 motherlode. That gave The Beatles an overall second place showing for the night among the Big Four broadcast networks.

A new episode of PBS’ Downton Abbey logged 177,533 total viewers; just 32,567 were of the 18-to-49-year-old persuasion.

The Olympics easily led Saturday night from start to finish with 539,699 total viewers and 198,659 in the key 18-to-49 demographic.

On Friday, the Olympics’ opening ceremonies rolled up a commanding 731,434 total viewers, with 267,049 in the 18-to-49 age range. So for the entire weekend, The Walking Dead ranked as the No. 1 individual attraction for 18-to-49-year-olds. Again, that’s an astonishing achievement.

Here are Friday’s local news derby numbers:

WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. in a downsized three-way race with Fox4 and CBS11. Fox4 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 swept both the 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. competitions while WFAA8 did likewise at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Meteorologist Ron Jackson signs off at Fox4 after 32 years

DSCN4160

Fox4 meteorologist Ron Jackson signed off Sunday after 32 years at the Dallas-based station. He’s retiring at age 57. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The D-FW market’s second longest-standing weathercaster, Ron Jackson, announced his retirement from Fox4 on Sunday’s 9 p.m. newscast after a 32-year stay.

Jackson said that knee surgery and last summer’s kidney stone removal had persuaded him that “time is a little bit short. I’d better retire at an early age of 57 years.”

He’ll still reside in North Texas but plans to travel a lot, Jackson said. “I’m just gonna take it easy the rest of my life.” He thanked Fox4 management for a “great, great retirement package.”

Jackson had worked the weekend shift and filled in when needed on Fox4. NBC5 meteorologist David Finfrock, hired by that station in 1975, remains the area’s dean of temperature takers. He joined the station in 1975 and continues to anchor the weekday 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts. Finfrock signed an agreement with NBC5 in August 2012 that will give him more than 40 years at the station by the time he retires on a still unspecified date.

Jackson was joined at the anchor desk for his final Fox4 newscast by news anchors Richard Ray and Natalie Solis, and sports anchor Mike Doocy. Citing Jackson’s many wins during in-station Nerf hoops games, Doocy tossed two parting gifts to him -- a miniature Nerf basketball and pee wee football.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Feb. 6) -- Leno soars, Olympics slip in first hour

DSCN4154

Dazzling Russian pair achieved liftoff on Olympics’ opening night. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s first night of Olympics coverage and Jay Leno’s farewell Tonight Show took most of the ratings golds after a slippery start for the Winter Games.

CBS’ The Big Bang Theory had 539,699 D-FW viewers from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday to outdraw that portion of the Olympics (489,990). And from 7 to 8 p.m. in D-FW, advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds preferred Fox’s American Idol by a fairly large margin over the Olympics.

The Peacock’s full three hours of coverage likewise averaged 489,990 total viewers, losing only to Big Bang in that measurement.

But Idol so far has been kicking it up a few notches this season in TV’s most sought after demographic. And it had 280,076 viewers in the 18-to-49 age range Thursday night, handily whipping the first hour of the Olympics (201,915). Big Bang also beat the Winter Games with 237,739 viewers of the 18-to-49 persuasion.

Perhaps the Sochi organizers should have thought twice about opening the Olympics with figure skating, snowboarding and skiing preliminaries before Friday night’s official Opening Ceremony, which is certain to completely dominate that night’s Nielsen ratings against far easier competition.

Thursday’s other big TV attraction, Leno’s Tonight Show swan song, rolled up 397,673 total viewers, with 198,659 of them in the 18-to-49 motherlode. That left his now former rivals picking at their broken teeth. CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman had 63,912 total viewers, with 29,962 in the 18-to-49 age range. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live had respective totals of 56,810 and 27,682.

ABC could have just as well shut down for the night -- in both prime-time and late night. The network’s 7 to 10 p.m. lineup of The Taste (92,317 total viewers) and a Shark Tank repeat (63,912 viewers) ran farther out of the money than Mr. Ed in the Kentucky Derby. Their 18-to-49 totals also were pitiful, with the CW’s Vampire Diaries and Reign punching The Taste down to fifth place.

In Thursday’s local news derby results, NBC5 began basking in the warmth of the Olympic torch with dominating wins at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

The Peacock also swept the 5 p.m. competitions and added a 6 p.m. win in total viewers.

Fox4 otherwise ruled, running the table at 6 a.m. and also winning at 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds. On a freezing, snowy Thursday morning, Fox4 impressively reeled in 164,534 viewers in the 25-to-54 demographic during the 6 to 7 a.m. portion of its Good Day. That more than doubled the total of runner-up NBC5 (67,032) while WFAA8 (54,844) held off CBS11 (45,704) to take the bronze.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

While fading away, old weathercasters also do commercials

DSCN4153

The windup and then the pitch: Former D-FW weathercasters Rebecca Miller and Troy Dungan double-team it for home flooring company. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Attention current D-FW weathercasters. This could be your future.

Troy Dungan, who used to be the longtime temperature-taker for WFAA8, has already been seen frequently as a pitchman for foundation and electrical repair companies.

Now, in what’s likely a North Texas first, a commercial for 50floor.com is fronted by both Dungan and former NBC5/CW33 meteorologist Rebecca Miller. They predict your happiness with the great deal you can get on a new custom-built floor.

I ran into their 30-second spot during an episode of HGTV’s House Hunters International, a show that my wife really likes on those occasions when she wrestles the remote from your friendly content provider. Miller is relatively new at this game, but Dungan has been pitching for several years, always in his trademark bow tie.

Weathercasters now log as much or more time on local newscasts as the news anchors. That’s particularly true on a cold, snowy, traffic-slowing day like today -- although any old little drizzle will do. Viewers are supposed to put a lot of trust in them. And the increasingly sophisticated tools at hand are greatly decreasing the times when they’re just flat out wrong. Companies like this sort of reliability. Or to put it another way, would you buy a used car from provocative, regularly “Unplugged” WFAA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen or Dungan?

So who’d be the ultimate pitchman among ongoing D-FW map readers? That’s pretty easy. NBC5’s David Finfrock, who’s said he’ll be retiring in the next few years, is the sort of soothing, beyond reproach presence that just about any employer would be happy to make a spokesman.

Here’s a guy who could sell a reverse mortgage with the greatest of ease. Lawn care companies, funeral parlors, insurance sellers and assisted living centers also would be in good hands with David Finfrock. Imagine him saying, “Folks, I wouldn’t put my name behind Sunny Side Up Retirement Village if I hadn’t first spent a week in their care.” Sold!!!

On the other hand, Dungan’s WFAA8 successor, Pete Delkus, will have to take it down at least a few notches if he wants to someday cash in on being a pitchman. Prospective customers instead might have anxiety attacks after watching a shirtsleeved Pete lean into the screen before telling them, “TEMPERATURES MAY DROP AS MUCH AS 10 DEGREES TONIGHT! BUT YOU’LL STILL SLEEP LIKE A BABY IF YOUR HOME IS PROTECTED BY THE FINE FOLKS AT IRV ERVIN INSULATION!”

By the way, we recently had our floors replaced. Sorry, Troy and Rebecca.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Feb. 5) -- Idol gives Fox a last pre-Olympics glow

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Still flexing with American Idol, Fox took Wednesday night’s ratings gold on the eve of NBC’s sure-to-be dominant Winter Olympics coverage.

The Games from Sochi, Russia will get full prime-time exposure Thursday with a figure skating/snowboarding/skiing jump-start that precedes Friday’s official opening ceremonies. The Peacock will take it.

Idol’s first two-hour edition from Hollywood beat the imminent ratings reaper by drawing 355,065 D-FW viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday. New episodes of ABC’s Modern Family and CBS’ Criminal Minds were the competing runners-up with 291,153 viewers apiece.

Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast then kept the lion’s share of Idol’s audience to win at that hour with 326,660 viewers. Idol and Fox4’s news also won their time slots among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. Modern Family scored the highest among competing attractions.

NBC’s second-to-last Tonight Show with Jay Leno as host easily had the most total viewers in late night with 177,533. But Fox4’s combo of a Modern Family repeat and TMZ knocked Leno to second place with 18-to-49-year-olds.

In local news derby results on the fifth weekday of the February “sweeps,” CBS11 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while Fox4 won among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 ran first in total viewers at 6 a.m. but uncommonly fell to third place with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 and WFAA8 shared the lead in that key demographic.

The Peacock made a bigger showing in the early evening, sweeping the 5 and 6 p.m. competitions in both major ratings food groups.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Former NBC5 reporter/congressional candidate Grant Stinchfield adds full-time Dallas radio show to resume

grant-stinchfield

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Former NBC5 reporter and Republican congressional candidate Grant Stinchfield will be heard -- but not seen -- in a big way later this month.

After joining Dallas-based KLIF radio (570 AM) as a Saturday night talk host in December 2012, Stinchfield is being ramped up to a four-hour program five days a week. KLIF will air The Stinchfield Report from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays, starting on Feb. 17th. He’ll also continue with his one-hour Saturday show, which airs at 9 p.m.

Stinchfield is replacing Kurt Gilchrist, who’s been anchoring a news and information program on KLIF for the past two years. Gilchrist “has done an outstanding job” and will remain with KLIF through March, operations/program manager Tyler Cox said in a publicity release Wednesday.

“I don’t want it to be the same old/same old ‘Let’s-Slam-Obama’ show,“ Stinchfield said in a telephone interview with unclebarky.com. “I still want to expose the idocracy that permeates government at all levels. At some level, four hours a day may not be enough to cover all the nonsense that goes on from here to Washington.”

Stinchfield left NBC5 in April 2011 after buying a Kwik Kar Auto Lube and Repair shop in Irving. He still owns the business and plans to keep it running.

In 2012, Stinchfield ran against incumbent District 24 congressman Kenny Marchant, getting more than 30 percent of the vote against the veteran Republican.

He won’t be campaigning for any elective office this year, but “I’ve never ruled out a future run,” Stinchfield said. “The timing has to be right for me. With a million dollars, I can win that race. But a million dollars is very hard to raise.”

Stinchfield spent seven years at NBC5. During his congressional campaign, he bought a 30-second ad that accused his old station of bias and timidity. “Too many times NBC refused to let me tell the stories you needed to hear,” he said in a spot that aired during two of NBC5’s 4 p.m. newscasts. “Was it liberal bias or simply the fear of losing ad dollars? I believe it was both.” The station later issued a statement that said Stinchfield’s allegations “are simply not true.”

In Wednesday’s interview Stinchfield said, “I do not miss TV at all. And I feel that radio has allowed me the freedom to talk about and expose what’s important without any handcuffs or orders to be politically correct.”

Stinchfield said his new KLIF show will mirror his political campaign in “taking on the establishment and making sure that career politicians and career bureaucrats don’t get away with it. My voice on the radio is the people’s voice. I’m simply the mouthpiece for every average Texan that feels the way I do. They’re just fed up with the direction of the country and the news that they see everyday.”

KLIF recently added syndicated national talk shows hosted by Laura Ingraham and Dennis Miller after dropping Geraldo Rivera and Mike Huckabee from its programming mix. Stinchfield, whose lead-in will be Miller’s show, is the only “locally originated conservative talk host” on KLIF, he said. “I’m excited. KLIF is on its way to returning to its glory days of conservative talk.”

Stinchfield’s marriage, to Amy Vanderoef of WFAA8’s locally produced Good Morning Texas program, has not survived his various post-NBC5 activities. They were divorced a little less than a year ago, he said. They share custody of a son, Wyatt, who was 2 when Stinchfield ran for Congress.

“She’s a terrific lady,” Stinchfield added. “It was totally amicable. She’s a terrific mom. It probably was the smoothest divorce in the history of Dallas.”

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Feb. 4) -- CBS, Fox4 news and Biggest Loser are biggest winners

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Paced as always by NCIS, CBS’ crime-time lineup won from start to finish Tuesday among all D-FW viewers.

But the live two-hour finale of NBC’s The Biggest Loser also made some noise, topping the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 demographic.

NCIS drew 504,192 total viewers to rank as the night’s overall top attraction. Its followup acts, NCIS: Los Angeles (433,179 viewers) and Person of Interest (262,748) easily held serve.

The 7 p.m. 18-to-49 crown also went to NCIS (91,188 viewers) before Biggest Loser weighed in (87,931 viewers) to outpoint CBS from 8 to 10 p.m.

In Tuesday’s local news derby results, Fox4 scored an uncommon doubleheader win at 10 p.m. by drawing the most viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 as usual ran the table at 6 a.m. The station also swept the 5 p.m. competitions and added a 6 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11 blocked an exceedingly rare double grand slam by drawing the most total viewers at 6 p.m. Fox4 ran third in that measurement behind WFAA8.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Feb. 3) -- NBC whiffs with Sports Illustrated's curves ball

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC programmers probably figured they couldn’t go wrong with a two-hour special tied to the 50th anniversary of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.

Boy, were they wrong. Monday night’s two-hour Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: 50 Years of Beautiful turned out to be one of the bigger ratings duds of the season. Airing from 8 to 10 p.m., it drew a scant 42,608 D-FW viewers to rank a very distant last among all prime-time programming on the Big Four broadcast networks.

50 Years of Beautiful likewise had butt-ugly returns among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing just 13,027 of ‘em. In contrast, the night’s best performer in this key demographic, CBS’ 7 p.m. episode of How I Met Your Mother, had 130,263 viewers.

HIMYM also won its time slot in total viewers with 255,647. CBS likewise ran first from 7:30 to 9 p.m. with its regular comedy lineup of 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly and Mom (all with 248,546 viewers). The 9 p.m. winner, ABC’s Castle, ruled with 269,849 viewers.

2 Broke Girls took the 7:30 to 8 p.m. top spot among 18-to-49-year-olds before the second half of ABC’s The Bachelor and Castle took over from 8 to 10 p.m.

In local news derby results on the third weekday of the February “sweeps,” WFAA8 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers while Fox4 drew the most 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 remained fully in charge at 6 a.m. by again running the table. NBC5 swept the 6 p.m. competitions and added a 5 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 5 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Jan. 31-Feb. 2) -- Supie blowout doesn't stop game from being most-watched since Jerry's Palace edition

DSCN4152

Giddyap: Pete Carroll joins pair of Cowboys coaches. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Seattle’s stunning 43-8 blowout of Denver in a game that wasn’t that close didn’t deter Super Bowl XLVIII from swamping last year’s much closer game while also approaching the 2011 Super Bowl XLV at Jerry’s Palace.

The Fox presentation, which ran from 5:32 to 8:55 p.m., averaged 2,591,975 D-FW viewers with a peak crowd of 2,769,507 between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. That easily outdrew last year’s 34-31 Baltimore Ravens win over the San Francisco 49ers, which had 2,258,018 viewers with a peak of 2,457,659.

Super Bowl XLVIII also whipped the 2012 game, in which the New York Giants edged the New England Patriots. That one had respective totals of 2,404,477 and 2,635,125.

A closer game Sunday night might well have given Fox a Super Bowl that surpassed the numbers for the Green Bay Packers’ 2011 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Jerry’s Palace. It averaged 2,791,057 viewers with a high point of 3,068,085 viewers.

The storybook 2010 Super Bowl, in which the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts, also drew a bigger crowd than Seahawks-Broncos. An average of 2,599,153 viewers partook, with a peak crowd of 2,911,323.

In the past six years, the least-watched Super Bowl in D-FW is still the 2009 edition in which the Pittsburgh Steelers nipped the Arizona Cardinals. It had 2,125,760 viewers and reached an audience high of 2,431,338.

Of some concern to the NFL is the fact that less than half of Sunday night’s Super Bowl XLVIII crowd -- 1,142,125 viewers -- fell within the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 age range. On the other hand, that’s still a mammoth turnout.

The TV crowd for Bruno Mars’ entertaining, high energy halftime show did not fall off. Running from 7:09 to 7:22 p.m., it drew roughly 2,691,393 total viewers. (Nielsen Media Research measures in 15-minute increments.)

The closing minutes of Super Bowl XLVIII were another story, with the total audience drooping to 2,272,416 viewers. It was the first big Super Bowl blowout since the Tampa Bay Bucs destroyed the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in the 2003 game.

Fox’s first of two post-game attractions, a special episode of New Girl with a guest appearance by Prince, got underway at 9:23 p.m. after sharing the 9:15 to 9:30 p.m. quarter hour with the Super Bowl post-game show. From 9:30 to 9:45 p.m., New Girl drew a comparatively paltry 660,421 viewers after the 9:15 to 9:30 p.m. segment pulled in 1,256,930 viewers.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine kicked off at 9:54 p.m. In its 10 to 10:15 p.m. increment, the first-year Andy Samberg sitcom had 369,268 viewers. Those are major diminishing returns for both comedies, but still far more than their usual D-FW audiences. The last regularly scheduled new episodes of New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, on Tuesday, Feb. 21st, respectively averaged 92,317 and 71,013 viewers.

The most-watched attraction opposite Sunday night’s Super Bowl, PBS’ 8 p.m. episode of Downton Abbey, had 127,823 viewers.

On Saturday night, NBC’s Best of Jimmy Fallon special collided with Fox’s NFL Honors show from 7 to 9 p.m. The NFL won by a score of 71,013 viewers to 56,810.

Friday’s prime-time winners were CBS’ Blue Bloods in total viewers (255,677) and ABC’s Shark Tank in the key 18-to-49 demographic (140,038).

Here are Friday’s four-way local news derby results on the second day of the February “sweeps” ratings period.

WFAA8 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers but NBC5 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 again swept the 6 a.m. competitions. CBS11 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m., with WFAA8 taking the 25-to-54-gold.

At 5 p.m., NBC5 won in total viewers and tied with CBS11 for the top spot among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net