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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., March 28-30) -- triumphant UW Badgers top Saturday night numbers

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Badger bulwark Frank Kaminsky jumps for joy with teammates after OT win puts Wisconsin in Final Four at Jerry’s Palace. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Please allow your friendly content provider to briefly cross state lines to note that Wisconsin’s pulsating overtime win against Arizona topped D-FW’s prime-time ratings Saturday.

Uncle Barky’s alma mater Bucky Badger basketeers averaged 127,823 viewers on TBS cable. Those aren’t blockbuster numbers but they were good enough to win from start to stop.

Wisconsin’s toughest competition, other than No. 1 seed Arizona, came from Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast. The Badgers drew 149,127 viewers in that hour while the news had 134,925. A peak audience of 184,634 then watched the overtime portion. Wisconsin next will face the much-celebrated kid Wildcats from Kentucky in Saturday’s second Final Four game from Jerry’s Palace.

In other ratings news, AMC’s season finale of The Walking Dead had the weekend’s biggest haul in both total viewers and advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. In the 8 p.m. hour, Walking Dead rolled up 376,369 viewers, with a staggering 257,279 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

Sunday’s down-to-the-wire Kentucky win over Michigan topped CBS’ doubleheader basketball ratings with 227,242 total viewers. In prime-time, ABC’s new Resurrection continued to hold steady, drawing 248,546 viewers in the 8 p.m. slot to tie CBS’ basketball run-over mix of The Amazing Race and The Good Wife (which didn’t start until 8:20 p.m.). Other than Walking Dead’s season-ender, Resurrection had Sunday’s top performance with 18-to-49-year-olds.

NBC’s new Sunday night drama combo of Believe and Crisis continued to lag, running an overall fifth with 18-to-49-year-olds. Believe did manage to beat Fox’s competing Cosmos in total viewers.

Friday’s top prime-time draw was Fox4’s 9 p.m. newscast with 191,735 total viewers. The news also had more 18-to-49-year-olds than any other program.

Here are Friday’s four-way local news derby results (with CBS11 sitting out the 6 and 10 p.m. competitions due to basketball preemptions).

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

Fox4 flexed with another sweep at 6 a.m. and added a 6 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

NBC5 was No. 1 in total viewers at 5 p.m. and shared first place in the 25-to-54 demographic with WFAA8 and CBS11.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., March 26-27 ) -- ABC comes alive while hoops clank

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
ABC paced Thursday’s prime-time ratings with its one-two melodrama punch of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal.

The network got a boost from basketball on CBS instead of the network’s Big Bang Theory-led quartet of sitcoms and Elementary.

Grey’s ranked No. 1 among all prime-time programming in total D-FW viewers (262,748) and advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds (140,038). Scandal then won its 9 p.m. hour in both ratings measurements opposite a strong runner-up showing by Fox4’s local newscast.

Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen swept the 7 p.m. hour but the network’s half-hour 8 p.m. American Idol results show drew bigger crowds despite running a distant second to the first half-hour of Grey’s. The 8:30 p.m. premiere of Fox’s Surviving Jack sitcom had 113,621 total viewers and 35,824 in the 18-to-49 demographic. Those numbers respectively ranked it second and fourth in its time slot, with CW’s Reign tying for second with 18-to-49-year-olds from 8:30 to 9 p.m. in competition with Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS.

CBS bombed with its opening Dayton-Stanford NCAA tournament matchup, which had 71,013 total viewers. It was outdrawn from 7 to 8 p.m. in both ratings measurements by CW’s Vampire Diaries and beat only ABC’s Once Upon a Time in Wonderland in that hour among 18-to-49-year-olds.

The night’s second CBS game, between Florida and UCLA, perked up a bit to 92,317 total viewers. Over on TBS cable, the Wisconsin Badgers’ destruction of the Baylor Bears drew 49,709 viewers while the Dallas Mavericks’ deflating home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers had 63,912 viewers on Fox Sports Southwest. The Texas Rangers’ prime-time pre-season game on TXA21 also averaged 63,912 viewers.

Wednesday’s prime-time Nielsens were dominated by American Idol and Fox4’s following local newscast. Idol pulled in 262,748 viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. before the news impressively held steady with the same total. Both attractions also won among 18-to-49-year-olds, with Fox4’s news outdrawing Idol in this key demographic by a score of 120,498 viewers to 117,241.

Here are the local news derby results.

Wednesday -- Fox4 topped off its big night with 10 p.m. wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). The station as usual added another 6 a.m. sweep.

NBC5 had a strong showing in the early evening, running the table at 5 p.m. and also nipping WFAA8 by a paper-thin margin in total viewers at 6 p.m. The two stations tied for first at 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Thursday -- CBS’ basketball over-run made it a three-way race at 10 p.m., with WFAA8 on top in total viewers and Fox4 winning with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 dominated both ends of the 6 a.m. competitions, likewise ran the table at 5 p.m. and added a 6 p.m. win in the 25-to-54 demographic. WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m., with CBS11 again rubbed out by NCAA basketball.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

WFAA8 quickly marries ruggedly eligible Cowtown newspaper after divorce from philandering Dallas print daily

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Time for them to share and share alike. Image from wfaa.com

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The two sides had been feeling each other up during the past winter.

And as previously posted, WFAA8 may even have gotten to second or third base by leaking a series of anchor shifts to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the day Gloria Campos announced her retirement date.

Now the romance has been officially consummated, with the newspaper and the Dallas-based, Gannett-owned ABC affiliate jointly announcing a “content partnership to better serve news consumers.”

WFAA8 remarried faster than a Gabor sister after the station and its longtime synergistic pal, The Dallas Morning News, had a nasty divorce late last year. The News married into a content-deal with Fort Worth-based NBC5, whose dowry includes a glittering new studio complex located adjacent to the D-FW International Airport.

In announcing the WFAA8-Star-Telegram deal Wednesday evening, the newspaper’s executive editor, Jim Witt, said, “We’ve been admirers of WFAA’s news operation for decades. The opportunity to be partners with the station long recognized as being the best in the market is exciting to us.”

WFAA8 news director Carolyn Mungo figuratively was swept off her feet. “The Star-Telegram is the dominant print and digital news provider in Tarrant County with a deep legacy in Fort Worth,” she said in the wedding announcement. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to work closely with the many professionals at the paper.”

The two sides said they’ll be “sharing a wide range of content, from breaking news to subjects including sports, business, traffic, weather, dining and entertainment from all over the North Texas area.” Staffs of the two media companies also will “work together occasionally to produce joint projects.”

The Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News used to share content, but those days are now completely over. NBC5 and CBS11 previously had partnered up with the Star-Telegram, but the weathered Cowtown hunk again had been a bachelor of late.

Unclebarky.com continues to have a content partnership with independence. It enables this site to play the field without playing favorites in covering North Texas television stations.

It’s getting increasingly tougher, however, to follow up on tips by asking management at NBC5 and WFAA8 to confirm or deny them. It would be easy for them to instead go running to their respective newspaper buds to in a sense say, “Get this on your website before that a-hole with the guerrilla website posts something.”

Neither newspaper critiques the content of D-FW television newscasts, so that area remains wide open. Meanwhile, Fox4 and CBS11 will have to face competitors hoping to flex their new synergistic might on big stories or even patchy rainfalls. Then again, these relationships are made to be broken. This isn’t, after all, the first rodeo for either WFAA8 or the Star-Telegram.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky.com

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon.-Tues., March 24-25) -- CBS/NBC split spoils

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Led as always by the unstoppable NCIS, CBS paced Tuesday’s prime-time Nielsens while ABC played dead with repeats and a new episode of Mind Games.

NCIS drew 461,585 D-FW viewers in the 7 p.m. hour, besting NBC’s results edition of The Voice (326,660). But the Peacock’s top-rated attraction again turned the tables with advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, almost doubling the NCIS total in this key demographic.

CBS otherwise rolled to wins in both ratings measurements with its usual 8 to 10 p.m. lineup of NCIS: Los Angeles and Person of Interest.

ABC ran a very distant last all night among the Big Four broadcast networks. But even repeats of ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife drew bigger crowds than a new 9 p.m. episode of the network’s Mind Games. It barely showed a pulse among 18-to-49-year-olds, with 6,513 viewers in this age range. The time slot winner, Person of Interest, had 87,931.

Also of note: The CW’s Supernatural slipped into fourth place at 8 p.m., beating The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife across the board.

On TNT, the Dallas Mavericks’ gutty overtime win against the Oklahoma City Thunder averaged 127,823 total viewers, with a peak crowd of 184,634 in the closing minutes. That was good enough to beat the second halves of all four local 10 p.m. newscasts.

On Monday night, NBC’s The Voice led from 7 to 9 p.m. in total viewers with 340,862. ABC’s competing two-hour Dancing with the Stars took the silver with 276,951 before its Castle and NBC’s The Blacklist tied in the 9 p.m. hour with 262,748 viewers apiece.

The Voice dominated the 18-to-49-year-olds ratings while CBS’ penultimate episode of How I Met Your Mother knocked Dancing into third place from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Fox’s The Following then rose up to take second place from 8 to 9 p.m. before Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast logged the most 18-to-49-year-olds in that hour by a slim margin over ABC’s competing Castle.

Here are the local news derby results:

Monday -- WFAA8 paced the 10 p.m. ratings in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 as usual swept the 6 a.m. competitions and added 5 and 6 p.m. wins in the 25-to-54 demographic.

Fox4, NBC5 and WFAA8 joined in a three-way tie for the most total viewers at 6 p.m. NBC5 won outright in that measurement at 5 p.m.

Tuesday -- CBS11 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while NBC5 won among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 scored another doubleheader win at 6 a.m., with CBS11 uncommonly claiming bronzes in both measurements ahead of WFAA8.

WFAA8 and CBS11 tied for the most viewers at 6 p.m., but WFAA8 had the 25-to-54 gold to itself. Fox4 and NBC5 shared first place in total viewers at 5 p.m., with Fox4 alone atop the 25-to-54 standings.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

So long to CW33 reporter Doug Magditch

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By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Doug Magditch, a reporter at Dallas-based CW33 for the past three years, is leaving the station for another line of work.

“This is my last week in TV news. I’m heading to AT&T for a great opportunity,” Magditch tweeted Monday.

He joined CW33 in the spring of 2011 after previously working at KSPR-TV, the ABC affiliate station in Springfield, Missouri.

As previously posted, CW33’s Nightcap (“A Different Kind of News”) is scheduled to be supplanted sometime this year by NewsFix, an anchor-less, newsreel form of news presentation currently on Houston’s KIAH-TV. Both stations are owned by Tribune Broadcasting.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., March 21-23) -- AMC's unstoppable Walking Dead

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Three new broadcast network series, all offering their third episodes, went up against AMC’s The Walking Dead in Sunday’s 8 p.m. hour. None lived to tell the tale.

Walking Dead’s zombie hordes and human leftovers galloped to a total of 369,268 D-FW viewers, with an astounding 270,306 of them within the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 motherlode.

ABC’s competing Resurrection put up the bravest front, drawing 255,647 total viewers opposite NBC’s Believe (120,722) and Fox’s sinking Cosmos (78,114). In the 18-to-49 demographic, Resurrection had 104,214, followed by Believe (32,567) and Cosmos (29,310).

CBS’ NCAA basketball run over left the network with a mix of The Amazing Race and The Good Wife from 8 to 9 p.m. That combo had 177,534 total viewers and 48,851 in the 18-to-49 range. So the sum total of 18-to-49-year-old viewers for the Big Four broadcast networks was 214,942. That’s still more than 50,000 shy of Walking Dead’s haul.

At 7 p.m., the premiere of NBC’s American Dream Builders was dead on arrival with just 63,912 total viewers and 19,540 in the 18-to-49 age range. Scrap those construction plans. This one instead is ready for the scrap heap.

CBS won Sunday’s afternoon and early evening hours with back-to-back-to-back NCAA basketball games. Fox’s competing NASCAR race looped into second place while Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill golf tournament ran a distant third on NBC.

On Saturday, Michigan’s win over Texas, eliminating the Longhorns from the tournament, averaged 149,127 total viewers in its late afternoon/early evening slot. The plucky Bucky Badgers’ highly entertaining (for me) comeback win over run ’n’ gun Oregon ran second to UT-Michigan with 127,823 viewers.

CBS’ prime-time Friday hoops were whipped from 8 to 10 p.m. by ABC’s Shark Tank and 20/20 in total viewers. But basketball edged 20/20 among 18-to-49-year-olds.

Here are Friday’s local news derby results:

WFAA8 swept a downsized three-way race at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 was bumped by its network’s basketball coverage.

Fox4 as usual ran the table at 6 a.m. NBC5 had the most total viewers at 5 and 6 p.m. while WFAA8 took both top spots with 25-to-54-year-olds. Basketball preempted CBS11’s 6 p.m. edition.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., March 20) -- Fox4's unstoppable Good Day

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The prime-time ratings usually are front and center in this daily report. But sometimes other numbers cry out for attention.

In Thursday’s Nielsens, Fox4’s dominant Good Day jumped to the head of the pack by super-flexing in the 6 to 9 a.m. portion. This was particularly the case among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. More so than usual, Good Day just crushed everything in its wake, including the three network news morning shows.

From 6 to 7 a.m., here’s how it looked in the 25-to-54 demographic:

Fox4 -- 103,595 D-FW viewers
NBC5 -- 51,797
WFAA8 -- 39,610
CBS11 -- 27,422
CW33’s Eye Opener -- 15,235

(Of note: According to Nielsen, the 5 to 6 a.m. portion of Eye Opener had more viewers in the 25-to-54 age range than either WFAA8 or CBS11.)

Here’s the 25-to-54 scorecard, when Good Day went against the three network offerings from 7 to 9 a.m.

Fox4 -- 76,173
ABC’s Good Morning America -- 51,797
NBC’s Today -- 36,563
CBS This Morning -- 18,281

The 6 to 7 a.m. portion of Good Day had more viewers in the 25-to-54 age range Thursday than every Fox or Fox4 show except American Idol, which drew 109,688.

As a cash cow, though, Good Day is far more milk-able. That’s because Fox4 collects all the ad revenue within the show while getting only a small window of local commercials within Fox network programs such as Idol. So there you go.

On to prime-time, where the top performer, ABC’s Scandal, had 255,647 total viewers in the 9 p.m. hour. Scandal also ranked a runaway No. 1 among 18-to-49-year-olds, the key advertiser measurement for entertainment programming.

Fox otherwise prospered from 7 to 9 p.m. Hell’s Kitchen won the first hour in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds. American Idol ran first in total viewers but was beaten in the 18-to-49 demographic by ABC’s competing Grey’s Anatomy.

The day’s most-watched NCAA basketball tourney attraction was CBS’ prime-time matchup between Texas and Arizona State, which the Longhorns won at the buzzer. It tipped off shortly after 8:30 p.m. and averaged 113,621 total viewers, including 61,877 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

Here are the other local news derby results:

WFAA8 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, with CBS11’s late-nighter knocked deeper into the night by basketball.

Fox4 ran the table at 6 p.m., with CBS11 again a non-starter due to hoops. The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., March 19) -- Idol's sinking feeling

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
On the eve of spring, Fox’s American Idol could not be accused of having any spring in its step.

Wednesday’s two-hour performance edition hit another season low in D-FW, luring just 213,039 viewers in the 7to 9 p.m. slot. That’s barely better than half the crowd drawn by Monday night’s two-hour edition of NBC’s The Voice.

Even worse, Idol went against mostly repeats on ABC. It was beaten by CBS’ competing Survivor (234,343 viewers) and Criminal Minds (276,951).

Idol still managed to win its time slot among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, edging Survivor and winning by a more comfortable margin over Criminal Minds. So Fox could still do worse in what’s been a down year all around for the slumping network. Idol can’t fall much further, though, without prompting serious questions about whether the end is near.

At 9 p.m. Wednesday, CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation topped the total viewer Nielsens with 255,647, meaning that all three CBS shows drew bigger crowds than Idol. CSI and Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast tied for the 18-to-49 lead at that hour.

The CW’s 8 p.m. premiere of The 100 had only 35,507 total viewers despite receiving generally favorable reviews. More than half of them, however -- 22,797 -- were in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

Over on Fox Sports Southwest, the Dallas Mavericks dug out of a huge hole before losing in overtime to the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves. The game averaged 78,114 total viewers.

Here are the four-way local news derby results:

CBS11 nipped Fox4 to run first in total viewers at 10 p.m., but Fox4 had the most 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 once again swept the 6 a.m. competitions, ran the table at 5 p.m. and added a 6 p.m.win in total viewers by a slim margin over WFAA8. NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Conan sets guest list for Dallas shows (with one repeater from Kimmel's shows in Austin)

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By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Conan O’Brien has his guests locked in for the March 31-April 3 Conan shows from Dallas.

They include Adam Sandler, Charles Barkley and Seth Rogen, who also guested on Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s first of five shows from Austin last week.

Tapings of ABC’s Kimmel shows were tied to the annual SXSW festival. TBS’ Conan, which airs at 10 p.m. (central), is visiting during the week leading into the NCAA basketball tournament’s Final Four at Jerry’s Palace in Arlington. All shows will be taped at the Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas.

Here’s the Conan guest list, with a “few surprise appearances” also promised. In other words, it would be a shock if Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and/or Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn’t drop in.

Monday, March 31 -- Adam Sandler, comedian Tig Notaro
Tuesday -- Seth Rogen, musical guest Phillip Phillips
Wednesday -- actor Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory) and musical guest Eli Young Band
Thursday -- Charles Barkley

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon.- Tues., March 17-18) -- CBS/NBC dominate with heavyweights

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
CBS flexed with its powerhouse prime-time lineup Tuesday while NBC did likewise on Monday. The only competitor disturbing their peace was Fox4’s Tuesday 9 p.m. newscast.

NCIS as usual led CBS’ total viewers sweep Tuesday, logging 426,078 in the 7 p.m. The network’s NCIS: Los Angeles and Person of Interest also won their 8 to10 p.m. slots in the D-FW Nielsens with 333,761 and 241,444 viewers respectively.

Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, NBC’s The Voice called the tune at 7 p.m. before NCIS: Los Angeles topped this key demographic from 8 to 9 p.m. Fox4’s 9 p.m. news then jumped in to win comfortably over runner-up Person of Interest.

On Monday, NBC’s twin punch of The Voice and The Blacklist ran the prime-time table in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.

The Voice squared off against the latest new launch of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which stumbled. Voice had 411,875 total viewers to Dancing’s 305,356. The Voice made it a runaway among 18-to-49-year-olds, winning by a score of 205,172 to 97,701. Dancing slipped to third from 7 to 7:30 p.m., with CBS’ How I Met Your Mother taking the silver. Fox’s 7 to 9 p.m. attractions, Bones and The Following, came up fourth across the board.

In late night, NBC’s Jimmy Fallon resumed his winning ways by whipping ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel on Monday and Tuesday in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds. Kimmel had beaten Fallon for the first times on Thursday and Friday, which also were his last of five shows originating from Austin.

Also of note: after three nights of abstinence last week, WFAA8 on Monday resumed its practice of inviting viewer tune-out by inserting a three-minute bloc of commercials between the end of its 10 p.m. newscast and the start of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. As noted previously, NBC5 and CBS11 both go directly from their late news to Fallon and David Letterman. The Peacock does the best job of handing off, even if Fallon on Tuesday night didn’t call anchors Brian Curtis and Meredith Land by their first names (which he did during earlier customized teases). NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs grandly took note of this, saying Fallon had already “forgotten” his colleagues’ names. It made for an uncomfortable close, and Scruggs very likely heard about it.

Here are the Monday and Tuesday local news derby results:

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

Fox4 romped to another pair of 6 a.m. firsts and added a 6 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 swept the 5 p.m. competitions and tied with WFAA8 for the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

Tuesday -- WFAA8 impressively bucked a virtually non-existent lead-in from ABC’s Mind Games to win at 10 p.m. in both ratings measurements over runner-up Fox4.

Score two more 6 a.m. wins for Fox4, which also had the most 25-to-54-year-olds at both 5 and 6 p.m. NBC5 drew the most total viewers at those hours. Left with nothing to brag about on either day was CBS11.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

End of days for KTXD's The Texas Daily (updated)

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Happier days: KTXD station manager Brian Joyce was front and center at a September 2012 launch party for The Texas Daily. Photos: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The Texas Daily, a flagship KTXD-TV (Ch. 47) news program aimed at baby-boomers, is being canceled.

The last edition is scheduled to air on Friday, March 21st, a little less than 18 months after launching on Oct. 1, 2012 with a constellation of former D-FW news stars as rotating contributors and former WFAA8 anchor Jeff Brady as the daily host.

Phil Hurley, executive vice president and COO of London Broadcasting Company (which owns Dallas-based KTXD and stations in five other Texas markets), said that Texas Daily will be replaced at 9 p.m. weeknights with a new syndicated acquisition, America’s Funniest Videos. “We know it will draw an audience,” he said in an email reply.

Texas Daily never found a substantial following after debuting as a one-hour 8 a.m. weekday program and lately airing at 9 p.m. Last week, Texas Daily’s biggest audience was for Thursday’s edition, which had 5,681 viewers in a D-FW market of 7.1 million viewers. The Monday and Tuesday March 10-11 Texas Dailys recorded “hashmarks” (no measurable audience), according to Nielsen Media Research data.

“2014 has started out great in all six of our markets,” Hurley said. “I just decided it was time to put my issues idea (Texas Daily) on hold and just concentrate on the show that was making a profit, The Broadcast. It is just more challenging and rewarding to create distinct and different local programs, but they have to work in today’s business/profit broadcasting world. We just could not draw the ratings needed to justify what we were spending on The Texas Daily.”

The Broadcast, which last year severed an initial partnership with D Magazine, airs from 9 to 11 a.m. on KTXD and is repeated from 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays. Aimed at a younger audience, its Nielsen ratings generally have been no better than those for The Texas Daily. But KTXD, like WFAA8’s competing Good Morning Texas, sells sponsored slots within the show. They’re basically mini-infomercials in which various merchants pay for segments with the shows’ hosts.

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Former longtime WFAA8 news stars Troy Dungan, Tracy Rowlett and host Jeff Brady on the Oct. 1, 2012 premiere of The Texas Daily

In a memo to KTXD staffers Tuesday, general manager Brian Joyce said, “Simply put, The Texas Daily has been difficult to sell advertising into and in order to move forward with what is currently working we need to expand our resources in that direction and The Daily is not part of that plan. We tried to make it part of our plan by spending over $200,000 in promotion (during the) 4th quarter of 2013 and still could not get the traction we needed.”

Texas Daily’s charter roster of contributors was headed by former WFAA8 news stalwarts Tracy Rowlett and Troy Dungan, both of whom usually appeared with Brady on the program’s Monday and Tuesday editions. But Rowlett and Dungan both left in mid-September of last year over contract disputes. KTXD declined to pay them more money when The Texas Daily was syndicated to London Broadcasting’s five other Texas markets.

Regular contributors to Texas Daily, most of them formerly with WFAA8, also included Iola Johnson, John Criswell, Gary Cogill, Phyllis Watson, Jolene DeVito, Midge Hill, Debbie Denmon, John Sparks, Robert Riggs, Scott Murray and Suzie Humphreys. Ex-Fox4 reporter Rebecca Aguilar joined the program several months ago. Former WFAA8 reporter Don Wall also was a latter day addition, as an out-of-studio correspondent.

Hurley said that KTXD still plans to include Brady, the only full-time Texas Daily personality, “in some future projects we have in the planning stages.” Otherwise, he said, “the biggest reward was having the opportunity to work with all of the former anchors and pundits that contributed to the show. It was a real pleasure for all of us.”

KTXD and ME-TV, a purveyor of vintage network reruns, ended their partnership in late October of last year. KTXD now is buying its own syndicated repeats, among them Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, Fantasy Island, Mad About You, Designing Women and Community. Besides The Broadcast, its local programming includes daily morning simulcasts of the Mark Davis radio program and weekend/late night editions of Lone Star Roads.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., March 14-16) -- Resurrection rises over Believe

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Starved for a new hit, ABC appears to have one in Resurrection.

Sunday’s second episode stayed strong in the 8 p.m. hour, drawing 291,153 D-FW viewers while also ranking first among the Big Four broadcast networks in advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds (117,241).

ABC doubled its pleasure by soundly beating NBC’s competing new Believe, which had its first Sunday outing after premiering to big ratings on Monday while nestled behind The Voice. Left to fend for itself, Believe had 156,229 total viewers and only 35,824 in the 18-to-49 demographic. It trailed CBS’ The Good Wife in both measurements but ran ahead of Fox’s Cosmos in total viewers. Believe and Cosmos tied for third among 18-to-49-year-olds in the broadcast network arena.

Sunday night’s grand champion again was AMC’s 8 p..m. hour of The Walking Dead, which had 340,862 total viewers and an eye-popping 234,482 in the 18-to-49 age range. That’s a huge percentage, but nothing out of the ordinary for Walking Dead. Sunday’s episode was notable for its two deaths. We’ll leave it at that.

The 9 p.m. premiere of NBC’s Crisis improved on its Believe lead-in by drawing 198,836 total viewers. That put it a close second to CBS’ The Mentalist (205.039 viewers) and just ahead of Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast (191,735 viewers). Mentalist fell from first to fourth among 18-to-49-year-olds while ABC’s Revenge vaulted from fourth to first. Crisis took the bronze.

In Sunday evening sports activity, the Dallas Mavericks’ thrashing of the Oklahoma City Thunder on their home court averaged 113,621 total viewers on Fox Sports Southwest. The Mavs’ 18-to-49 haul was 48,851. CBS’ 5 to 6 p.m. NCAA basketball tournament selection show had 63,912 viewers, with 35,824 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

On Friday, Jimmy Kimmel’s last show from Austin gave him his second straight win over Jimmy Fallon. This time it wasn’t close. Kimmel thrashed Fallon by a score of 120,722 to 56,810 in total viewers and won on the 18-to-49 scorecard by a count of 29,310 to 19,540.

It should be noted that all three network late night talkers, including David Letterman, were easily beaten in the 18-to-49 measurement by Fox4’s competing syndicated combo of Modern Family repeats and TMZ.

CBS had Friday’s most-watched prime-time show with Hawaii Five-0 (262,748 total viewers). ABC’s Shark Tank and CBS’ Undercover Boss paced the 18-to-49 Nielsens with 81,418 apiece.

D-FW viewers again had no stomach for NBC’s Hannibal, making it prime-time’s least-watched show in both ratings measurements in competition among the Big Four broadcast networks. Hannibal lured just 6,513 viewers in the 18-to-49 range, dumping it into sixth place at 9 p.m. behind Fox4’s local newscast, ABC’s 20/20, TXA21’s Baylor-Texas basketball game, CBS’ Blue Bloods and CW33’s Nightcap.

Here are Friday’s four-way local news derby results:

WFAA8 nipped both Fox4 and CBS11 by paper-thin margins at 10 p.m. in the total viewer Nielsens. But Fox4 ran comfortably ahead among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

It was a big Friday for Fox4, which also swept the 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. competitions and added a 6 p.m. first with 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11 edged Fox4 and WFAA8 for the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

D-FW NEWS NOTE
Former NBC5 early morning news anchor Mark Hayes, abruptly dropped by the station in early January, lately has been solo anchoring the weekend editions of CW33’s Nightcap, which air at 5 and 9 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Conan primes for Dallas shows with cereal drama aboard mechanical bull

While Jimmy Kimmel winds down his one-week stay in Austin, Conan O’Brien is revving up his March 31-April 3 shows in Dallas.

As previously posted, he’ll be doing his TBS Conan late nighter from the downtown Majestic Theater in appearances tied to the NCAA Final four basketball shootout at Jerry’s Palace.

In a new promo, behold O’Brien riding a mechanical bull while trying to eat a bowl of cereal. Next up? How about Conan aboard the Texas Giant roller coaster while trying to play checkers with sidekick Andy Richter. Always trying to help. Here’s the video:
Ed Bark

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., March 13) -- first wins for Kimmel over Fallon

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Lady Gaga in a snow white coffee filter dress and matching top hat finally helped turn the trick for ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The late night talker’s fourth show from Austin beat NBC’s Tonight Show Thursday in the D-FW ratings for the first time since Jimmy Fallon took over for Jay Leno on Monday, Feb. 17th. CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman, featuring guest Bryan Cranston, scored a moral victory by placing second behind Kimmel in total D-FW viewers while continuing to run third with advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds.

Perhaps not coincidentally, it also marked the second night of WFAA8 wising up and going directly to Kimmel from its 10 p.m. newscast rather than inviting viewer tune-out with a three-minute bloc of commercials between the two programs. NBC5 and CBS11 long have provided direct routes from their late night news to Fallon and Letterman. The disparities have been noted in previous unclebarky.com posts.

Here are Thursday’s late night scorecards:

Total Viewers
Kimmel -- 99,418
Letterman -- 92,317
Fallon -- 78,114

18-to-49-Year-Olds
Kimmel -- 45,594
Fallon -- 35,824
Letterman -- 19,540

In Thursday’s prime-time Nielsens, CBS’ The Big Bang Theory as usual was the most-watched program in both total viewers (390,572) and 18-to-49-year-olds (162,835).

CBS’ The Millers then won from 7:30 to 8 p.m. in total viewers but was beaten by the second half of Fox’s newly dispatched Hell’s Kitchen in the 18-to-49 demographic.

Fox’s American Idol results edition, pushed back one hour to get out of the way of Big Bang, nonetheless took a kidney punch from CBS’ Two and a Half Men. It ran second to the CBS sitcom in total viewers before the second half of Idol moved into the top spot. Idol beat both CBS shows among 18-to-49-year-olds, but still ran second for its full hour behind ABC’s competing Grey’s Anatomy.

Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast then remained on a roll by winning its time slot in total viewers. The news also had significantly more total viewers than Idol, by a count of 276,951 to 241,444. And that’s a first.

Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Fox4 ran a close second to ABC’s 9 p.m. episode of Scandal.

Here are Thursday’s four-way local news derby results.

WFAA8 and CBS11 shared the 10 p.m. lead in total viewers while WFAA8 was alone on top among 25-to-54-year-olds (the main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions and added 5 and 6 p.m. wins in the 25-to-54 demographic. NBC5 had the most total viewers at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

NBC5's Kendra Lyn heading back to Disneyville (updated with comments from her)

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By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
After two years of grinding it out on the early morning beat, NBC5 reporter Kendra Lyn is heading back to Orlando, FL.

Friday, March 14th, was her last day.

“Thanks for a memorable two years, North Texas, and making me part of your morning!” Lyn tweeted.

In an email response to unclebarky.com, Lyn said her husband recently was promoted to National Catastrophe Manager with Esurance. “It coincides with the end of my 2-year contract here at NBC5. So we’re relocating for his job, and we miss the friends, family and ties we have in Florida. I’ll definitely pursue available television opportunities in Orlando.”

Lynn joined NBC5 in March 2012 from Orlando’s WESH-TV, where her on-air name was Kendra Oestreich during a five-year tenure. She was married in Florida on March 29, 2013 to Ryan Conlon, with the ceremony taking place on St. Pete Beach, according to Lyn’s Facebook page. The couple had lived in North Texas for the past year.

“Texas truly did connect me to my husband,” Lyn said. “This is where we met and it will always have a place in our hearts.”

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues.-Wed., March 11-12) -- Idol hangs in, Fox4's 9 p.m. news takes cakes on both nights

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Wednesday’s two-hour editions of American Idol don’t have nearly the ratings pulling power anymore of NBC’s Monday night double shots of The Voice.

But Fox will still take Idol’s numbers on any night during an ongoing tough season. Wednesday’s 7 to 9 p.m. outing averaged 284,052 D-FW viewers, with 255,647 in the first hour and 305,356 in the second.

That was enough to hold off CBS’ competing pairing of Survivor (205,938 viewers) and Criminal Minds (291,153), plus ABC’s 8 p.m. episode of Modern Family (241,444) on a night when the Big Four broadcast networks all offered wall-to-wall new programming.

Idol had an easier time winning among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, with Modern Family its only real threat. Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast then rolled to first place finishes in both ratings measurements, drawing an overall audience of 276,951 viewers to 255,647 for CBS’ runner-up CSI: Crime Scene Investigation while dominating the 18-to-49 demographic.

In late night, Jimmy Kimmel’s third show from Austin on ABC came its closest yet to beating NBC’s Jimmy Fallon-hosted Tonight Show in total viewers. But Fallon still won by a count of 92,317 to 85,216. And he had twice as many 18-to-49-year-olds as Kimmel. It marked the first time that WFAA8 went directly from its 10 p.m. newscast to Kimmel rather than inviting tune-out with a 3-minute bloc of commercials between the two programs. NBC5 and CBS11 long have gone straight from their late night newscasts to their networks’ talk shows.

In Tuesday’s prime-time Nielsens, CBS punted with three hours of repeats while its three main broadcast rivals went all new. NBC’s 7 p.m. hour of The Voice easily ranked as the top attraction in total viewers (411,875) and 18-to-49-year-olds (231,226).

The Peacock’s new About a Boy won from 8 to 8:30 p.m. in both measurements. Growing Up Fisher then was edged in total viewers by CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles rerun, but won its time slot among 18-to-49-year-olds.

Fox4’s local newscast took the golds across the board, with a particularly dominant showing in the 18-to-49 demographic (104,214 viewers to 39,080 for NBC’s runner-up new episode of Chicago Fire).

Meanwhile, sing a requiem for ABC’s Mind Games, which was slaughtered across the board at 9 p.m. and had a sub-measly 6,513 viewers in the 18-to-49 age range.

Here are the four-way local news derby numbers:

Tuesday -- WFAA8 nipped Fox4 at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 remained in charge at 6 a.m. with twin wins; NBC5 ran the table at 5 p.m. and added a 6 p.m. gold among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

Wednesday -- WFAA8 again logged a pair of first place finishes at 10 p.m. and Fox4 did likewise at 6 a.m. NBC5 continued to run strong in the early evening, this time sweeping both the 5 and 6 p.m. competitions.

D-FW PROGRAMMING NOTE

Former Texas Rangers star catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez has been added as a pre- and post-game analyst this season. Fox Sports Southwest says he will join holdovers Mark McLemore, John Rhadigan and Dana Larson.

FSS plans to air 129 regular season Rangers games in 2014, with Rodriguez making his debut on Monday, March 31st before the Rangers face the Philadelphia Phillies in their home opener at Arlington’s renamed Globe Life Park.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

On hand in Austin for Kimmel's first of five shows

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Lights, cameras, more lights: Jimmy Kimmel’s five shows this week from SXSW-fueled Austin are impressively back-dropped by a neon array of long-lasting, signature establishments. Photos: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
AUSTIN, TX -- The next best thing to being there is . . . well, there’s really no substitute when it comes to late night TV talk shows.

Monday’s first of five Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s from Austin had no trouble filling roughly 2,400 seats in the three-tiered Long Center for the Performing Arts. Your friendly content provider joined in for the 6:10 p.m. taping before hitting the always under construction I-35 for a trip back to Dallas that proved to be a horror show of highway tear-ups and one complete freeway shutdown. Buzz kill accomplished, but it wasn’t ABC’s or Kimmel’s fault.

Attending in person can be a revelation, even for someone whose in-house experiences date back to one of NBC’s last Johnny Carson Tonight Shows. This was my first on site visit in an “arena setting,” though. Usually the regular home studios look significantly smaller than they appear on TV.

In this case, both the stage and the seating areas looked and felt vast. Rotund warmup man Don Barris had no problem at all revving up the energy level with the usual treatise on when, how and how long to applaud. Kimmel, in a western get-up, entered to a tumultuous ovation after his “In Flight Video” (the host dresses like an airplane pilot) further instructed the crowd in the basics of late night talk show behavior. “Please do not have a baby during the show,” he advised.

Kimmel’s backdrop was stunning. His set designers went all out in constructing a neon montage to an array of venerable Austin establishments. Among those making the cut were the Austin Motel, Alamo Draft House, Soho Lounge, Hut’s Hamburgers, The Continental Club, Heritage Boot Co. and Kruger’s Jewelers.

The five shows are tied to Austin’s annual and ongoing South by Southwest festival (SXSW). Kimmel marveled that “everywhere you go, they offer you a beer.”

The host brought his regulars with him, including sidekick Guillermo (“I’m Tex and he’s Mex tonight”) and the Cleto and the Cletones house band. Here’s where being there proved to be a big plus. On TV, house bands generally are heard only in short bursts. They play the opening theme and bridge commercial breaks. But in person, one gets to hear this particular band rock at length. And Cleto and the Cletones laid down some hard-driving, air-tight stuff. They were just dynamite.

Kimmel briefly talked to the crowd during one break. He thanked everyone for coming and brought out Guillermo (Rodriguez) to tell him, “You’re really hammered right now.” From this perspective, Kimmel and the show’s producers need to ramp down the drunken Mexican routine. Guillermo likewise was depicted as being smashed during a red carpet Oscar stint at which he offered interviewees shots of something or other while also indulging each time himself. It’s an easy laugh, but it’s also starting to get pretty de-humanizing.

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Kimmel went the “Hook ‘em Horns” route during his monologue.

Kimmel’s guests on opening night were actor Seth Rogen, rapper/entrepreneur Snoop Dogg and the Austin-based band White Satin.

Rogen and Kimmel also did a filmed sendup of an Austin-based Season 2 of True Detective. But although new actors will be fronting it, Rogen fell back on a sendup of Matthew McConaughey’s off-center Rust Cohle while Kimmel didn’t seem to be acting the part of anyone in particular. It had its moments but not enough of them -- in addition to running too long.

The interview segment with Rogen went well, but the actor didn’t inter-act at all with the audience while leaving to another ovation to make way for Snoop Dogg. In contrast, Snoop basked in the crowd’s closing applause while also encouraging more.

Tuesday night’s guests will include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was roundly booed when Kimmel teased his appearance on-air. The host chuckled before reminding his audience, “Hey, our governor was Arnold Schwarzenegger, guys.”

As posted earlier in this space, Kimmel’s first show from Austin failed to outdraw rival Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show in the D-FW Nielsen ratings. It was a pretty close competition, though. And as usual, WFAA8 oddly continues to do Kimmel a disservice by airing a lengthy bloc of commercials between the end of its 10 p.m. newscast and the start of his show.

Rivals NBC5 and CBS11 go directly from brief newscast “kickers” and anchor goodnights to the Fallon and David Letterman shows. Common sense says that WFAA8 in contrast is inviting viewer tune-out -- unless you just love a long string of commercials -- while NBC5 and CBS11 are doing their best to minimize it.

WFAA8 continued this practice Monday night even while sending staffer Mike Castellucci to Austin for a feature on SXSW that included a brief sit-down with Kimmel. The piece aired on Monday’s 10 p.m. newscast before the station distanced itself from Kimmel Live! with that aforementioned string of commercials.

Here are Kimmel’s announced guests for the rest of his shows in Austin:

Tuesday -- Gov. Rick Perry, actress Rosario Dawson, musical guest Aloe Blacc (Jimmy Vaughn will sit in with the band).
Wednesday -- Actor Robert Duvall, chef Rachael Ray, musical guest Damon Albarn (Johnny Winter with the band).
Thursday -- Lady Gaga, actress Darby Stanchfield, musical guest The Preatures
Friday -- Rapper Lil Wayne 2, Willie Nelson (Los Lonely Boys with the band).

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Sat.-Mon., March 8-10) -- big openings for Resurrection, Believe; but Kimmel's first show from Austin still can't beat Fallon's Tonight

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Two new out-of-body broadcast network dramas ascended to ratings heavens with their Sunday and Monday premieres.

So much so that ABC’s Resurrection was more than a match for AMC’s The Walking Dead in direct competition on Sunday at 8 p.m. (D-FW numbers were not immediately available for the season finale of True Detective, which also aired at 8 p.m. and very likely had a smaller audience due to substantially less viewer penetration by HBO.)

Resurrection opened with an eye-opening 333,761 D-FW viewers, trampolining off just 99,418 for ABC’s preceding Once Upon a Time. Walking Dead drew an unusually low 163,330 viewers.

Among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, Resurrection and Walking Dead tied with 117,241 apiece.

(In the national Nielsen ratings, Resurrection edged Walking Dead in total viewers, but lost to the AMC zombie hour in the 18-to-49 demographic. The 8 p.m. episode of True Detective ran fourth among all cable programs Sunday, but its total audience was roughly one-quarter that of Resurrection’s and Walking Dead’s.)

Another Sunday night premiere, Fox’s new version of Cosmos, got off to a tough start in the exceedingly competitive 8 p.m. hour. In D-FW, it drew 134,925 total viewers with 55,364 in the 18-to-49 age range.

On Monday, NBC rolled through prime-time with another two-hour edition of The Voice and a preview episode of Believe, which now will move to its regular Sunday spot.

The Voice led all TV attractions with 404,774 total viewers before Believe topped its 9 p.m. slot with 284,052. ABC’s The Bachelor: After the Final Rose ran a solid second at 9 p.m. with 241,444 total viewers. Their battle for 18-to-49-year-olds was closer, with Believe prevailing by a score of 130,268 to 127,011. The Voice had no serious competition in that key demographic from 7 to 9 p.m., rolling up a Monday high of 205,172 viewers of the 18-to-49 persuasion.

Monday’s late night wars saw ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel launching his first of five shows from Austin. But he still ran behind NBC’s Jimmy Fallon. JF’s Tonight Show had 149,127 total viewers to JK’s 127,823. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Fallon had 71,647 to Kimmel’s 55,364. CBS’ David Letterman again ran far behind, particularly with 18-to-49-year-olds. He totaled just 13,027 of ‘em.

In Monday’s local news derby results, WFAA8 had decent ratings returns from Cynthia Izaguirre’s first 10 p.m. WFAA8 newscast with John McCaa after Gloria Campos’ Friday retirement. The station won in total viewers with 220,140, holding off rivals Fox4 and NBC5 (205,938 apiece).

But among 25-to-54-year-olds (the main advertiser target audience for news programming), Fox4 led the way with 118,829 while NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for second with 106,642 each. CBS11, which had a mediocre lead-in from CBS’ Intelligence and a continued lousy lead-out from Letterman, lately has been getting killed in this key demographic. On Monday the station finished well out of the money with 15,235 viewers in the 25-to-54 age range. That just won’t cut it.

In the other four-way local news derby results, Fox4 as usual swept the 6 a.m. competitions while NBC5 notched twin wins at 5 p.m. WFAA8 topped the 6 p.m. Nielsens in both ratings measurements.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., March 7) -- Campos goes out like a champ with the day's most-watched show

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Famous last words: ”And now for the final time, thank you and goodnight. I’m Gloria Campos, Channel 8 news.” Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Icing on the cake. WFAA8 anchor Gloria Campos’ last newscast also ranked as the most-watched television program -- night or day -- in all of D-FW Friday.

Her goodbye to viewers on the 10 p.m. newscast drew 284,052 viewers, doubling the total of 142,026 for runner-up CBS11.

The Campos farewell, after 30 years with the station, also had a bigger audience than anything else Friday. CBS11’s 6:30 p.m. edition of Wheel of Fortune came closest, with 262,748 viewers. That’s definitely the way to go out.

The first Hispanic of any gender to anchor a weekday evening newscast in D-FW had been feted all week by her station in a series of “30 Years With Gloria” features. On Friday, Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings read a proclamation in her honor.

“I’m truly humbled by your outpouring of well-wishes,” Campos said during her closing remarks. Her voice broke near the end while tears welled up. “And now for the final time, thank you and goodnight. I’m Gloria Campos, Channel 8 news,” she concluded before her 10 p.m. desk mates, co-anchor John McCaa, weatherman Pete Delkus and sports anchor Dale Hansen, converged on her. A mariachi band played Campos off.

Campos 10 p.m. swan song also ranked No. 1 among all Friday in the two major advertiser demographic groups -- viewers 18-to-49 and 25-to-54.

In Friday’s other four-way local news derby results, Fox4 again swept the 6 a.m. competitions and added a 5 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

WFAA8 ran the table at 6 p.m. and NBC5 had the most total viewers at 5 p.m.

Here is the video of Campos’ goodbye to viewers and WFAA8:



Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., March 6) -- another Big Bang pow

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
It’s become a given that CBS’ The Big Bang Theory will outdraw the first half-hour of Fox’s American Idol. And it wasn’t even close again Thursday night.

Big Bang pulled in 447,382 D-FW viewers from to 7 to 7:30 p.m. while Idol had its smallest crowd of the season (248,546 viewers) in that half-hour. Idol as a whole averaged 262,748 viewers, matching the audience for ABC’s 8 p.m. episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, Idol ran third behind Big Bang and Grey’s while barely outdrawing ABC’s 9 p.m. hour of Scandal in this key demographic. Scandal and CBS’ Elementary tied for the most total viewers at 9 p.m. with 191,735.

NBC’s Jimmy Fallon continued to beat ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and CBS’ David Letterman in both audience measurements, although his numbers keep shrinking. In these parts at least, Kimmel should notch his first victories next week with five shows originating from Austin and tied to the annual South by Southwest movie and music festival.

In Thursday’s local news derby results, WFAA8 swept the 10 p.m. Nielsens in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 again ran the table at 6 a.m. while WFAA8 notched a pair of 6 p.m. wins.

NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for the most total viewers at 5 p.m.; Fox4 won with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Once more with feeling: an appreciation and evaluation of WFAA8 anchor Gloria Campos

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WFAA8’s barrier-breaking Gloria Campos will sign off Friday night. Photos: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Old enough to know the TV news business isn’t what it used to be and young enough to enjoy life after it, WFAA8 anchor Gloria Campos is both fortunate and far-seeing to be leaving on her terms.

That’s not so easily done these days. Campos, winding up a nearly 30-year career at WFAA8 with Friday’s 10 p.m. newscast, has seen other D-FW “legacy” anchors get less than glowing send-offs.

“I want to be the master of my fate as much as I can be,” Campos said in one of our many interviews over the years. “I think that’s quite remarkable in this business.”

Indeed it is. NBC5’s longtime 10 p.m. duo of Mike Snyder and Jane McGarry was broken up piecemeal after both anchors were marginalized. Snyder got demoted before being cut loose. McGarry was facing the same fate before “resigning” after pleading no contest to a DWI charge and apologizing on her Facebook page.

Former WFAA8 stalwart Tracy Rowlett has been a non-person at the station since jumping to rival CBS11 in 1999. WFAA8’s extensive entrance lobby photo history has no images of the anchor whose historic partnership with Iola Johnson, the market’s first African-American anchor, led the station to national prominence and ratings riches. Johnson’s tenure didn’t end well either. She left at the height of her powers after a contract dispute.

Another famed WFAA8 anchor, the late Chip Moody, was fated to battle cancer and other attendant health problems for the last decade of his life. He intermittently made it back onto the air for brief periods of time. It’s the only thing that kept him going. But by that time many viewers were reacting to how he looked rather than what he said.

Obviously the stations aren’t always at fault in these situations. But it all goes to show how hard it can be to stick the landing. Campos, 59, has done it, though, leaving WFAA8’s last ratings stronghold after requesting to go part-time 18 months ago. She had been negotiating off and on with the station since 2008.

Under the terms of her final contract with WFAA8, Campos willingly relinquished the 6 p.m. newscast but stayed on the 10 p.m. edition with John McCaa. They’ve been a duo since August of 2002. And in the November “sweeps” ratings (February’s were skewed by NBC’s Olympics run-overs), WFAA8 won the late night news wars in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the key news demographic for advertisers.

WFAA8 has been feting Campos all this week via “30 Years with Gloria” segments during newscasts. It’s been buttered a little thickly at times, but Campos’ achievements are considerable as well as historic.

She joined WFAA8 in 1984 from Harlingen’s little KGBT-TV, where Campos co-anchored the station’s 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts while also producing the late night editions. In 1990 she became the first Hispanic of any gender to be permanent anchor of a weekday D-FW newscast. First came the 5 p.m. and then quickly the 6 p.m., which was a bigger deal then than it is now.

Being in television news “is all I’ve ever really wanted to do since I was in third grade,” Campos said. “I really didn’t have anchor aspirations at all, but of course it’s funny how things happened.”

Her husband, Lance Brown, a former sports anchor whom Campos met at KGBT, says the couple “never thought for a moment this would last . . . We just thought it would be great to have Dallas on our resumes after working in a small market. And then maybe go to Phoenix, San Diego or San Antonio. Gloria, however, was able to go through the ranks at WFAA to become the queen bee.”

Brown became a stay-at-home dad after twin sons Greg and Tony were born in 1993. By that time, Campos also had inherited the “Wednesday’s Child” mantle from former WFAA8 anchor John Criswell after he relocated to rival KDFW-TV (now billed as Fox4). These were very profitable times for both local television news stations and their most prominent anchors.

“Timing is everything,” Brown says. “And ‘Glo’ was fortunate to ride the wave in broadcasting when TV news became something stations found they could make big money with instead of just being a way to fulfill FCC (Federal Communications Commission) requirements for public service. She made an extraordinary amount of money. The first year we were married, we made a combined $17,000. But with diminishing ratings, those golden days are over.”

Campos became a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame in 2010. She’s also been a beacon and role model for the likes of WFAA8 reporter Rebecca Lopez, anchor Shelly Slater and Cynthia Izaguirre, who on Monday, March 10th moves from WFAA8’s early morning Daybreak to join McCaa as co-anchor on the 10 p.m. editions. WFAA8 has been promoting the transition in a spot that ends with Izaguirre saying, “I love you, Glo.” And Campos replying, “I love you, too.”

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Happy together: Campos/Izaguirre in new WFAA8 promotional spot.

“I want to thank Gloria for welcoming me with open arms six years ago,” Izaguirre said in earlier comments to unclebarky.com. “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.”

History is repeating itself in an uncanny way, though. Izaguirre also is the mother of twins, daughter Karina and son Simon. They’ll be two years old in April. And Izaguirre’s husband, Jeremy (who’s an architect), also will be a stay-at-home dad while Izaguirre, in her words, is “able to tackle my life-long professional goal.”

Transitions abound at WFAA8, which other than a continued strong performance at 10 p.m. is struggling in the four-way newscast ratings battles at 6 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. The station’s new 4 p.m. newscast, launched last fall, also has been slow to gain any traction opposite the more established editions on NBC5 and CBS11.

In a swirl of activity Monday, Izaguirre will debut as WFAA8’s full-time 10 p.m. anchor while also joining McCaa for the 5 p.m. editions. Slater will remain the 6 p.m. co-anchor, with McCaa still her partner. But her primary responsibility will now be as sole anchor of the 4 p.m. editions, which formerly were helmed by Jason Wheeler (moving back to weekend anchoring/weekday reporting duties) and Colleen Coyle, who’s also a staff meteorologist.

WFAA8 has posted the early morning anchor position being vacated by Izaguirre, but hasn’t decided yet on who will join incumbent Ron Corning. In the interim, it will be “a mix of folks,” news director Carolyn Mungo said in an email response Friday. ”But Alexa (early morning traffic reporter Alexa Conomos) will be scooting over a few chairs and co-anchoring while we figure things out.”

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John McCaa for now is staying the course after turning 60.

Amid all of this, there’s no question that Campos will be missed. This was not a case of WFAA8 downsizing her duties en route to eventually showing her the door. The station would have preferred that she stay aboard the 10 p.m. newscast rather than leave it in times of ratings prosperity. But Campos instead is writing her own ticket while leaving behind a track record of enduring success and refreshing candor when speaking to shleppers like your friendly content provider.

Campos, who’s also WFAA8’s most interesting Tweeter, has always been unafraid to speak her mind.

When Rowlett announced his decision to leave the station for CBS11, she was the only on-camera colleague who would speak on the record. His departure will leave “a big hole in my heart,” she said in April of 1999. “Because he is a very good partner and friend. He and I are very close, and he was basically hurt and insulted by the (contract) offers tendered to him at Channel 8.”

Contributing to a 2009 D CEO profile of McCaa, Campos remembered chafing when they initially were made to be part of a tri-anchor 10 p.m. team with former WFAA8 staffer Scott Sams. “We were saddled with Scott Sams for a while,” she said. “And to be brutally honest with you, I really kind of resented that. I felt like they didn’t have enough confidence in John and me to navigate this boat.”

She likewise spoke forthrightly In an interview with unclebarky.com tied to her decision to go part-time at WFAA8. “When I said I was going to Channel 8, “ Campos recalled, “someone asked me, ‘Why would you want to come here? They don’t like Mexicans in Dallas.’ But I don’t have control over that.”

Former Good Morning America anchor Joan Lunden had the right approach, Campos added. “Even if not everyone likes me, enough people like me. I’ve always felt the same way. I’ve never deluded myself that I’m everyone’s cup of tea.”

Campos has swerved a bit on whether she’ll ever anchor again at WFAA8. “If they need me, of course,” she told unclebarky.com. “But I know this for sure. I don’t ever want to work full time again, in the news business or any other business.”

She and her husband intend to “take a sabbatical” that includes spending time with her 88-year-old father and 82-year-old mother. Both are recovering from recent falls and “they’re not doing so good,” Campos said. There could be a “next chapter” of some sort at WFAA8. But it wouldn’t involve anchoring, Campos stresses.

“I’m not sure you’ve heard or seen the last of Gloria,” husband Lance says. “She won’t be doing flooring or foundation commercials (in the mode of former WFAA8 weather dean Troy Dungan). “Then again, if someone comes along with an offer she can’t refuse, who knows? Maybe she’ll be endorsing the new version of the thigh master or rapping the Trophy Nissan jingle or singing the Milestone Electric song.”

None of those are likely. But the Camposes do plan to sell their Dallas home (“taxes are pretty high and I’m a retiree now,” says Gloria), keep the one near Cedar Creek Lake and perhaps someday relocate to the Texas Hill Country.

Some news anchors, both local and national, just can’t stop breathing that rarefied on-air ether. They live to be on TV. Gloria Campos gives every indication that she’s perfectly capable of leaving it all behind. Life is worth living away from the camera, too. So while McCaa soldiers on after turning 60, his longtime leading lady quits while she’s ahead, looks ahead and leaves her considerable legacy untarnished. For her, it seems to be very much the right thing to do.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., March 5) -- Idol still standing but staggered

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Fox’s latest two hours of American Idol initially dodged a bullet from CBS’ competing Survivor before getting plugged by the network’s Criminal Minds Wednesday night.

In other words, times continue to change dramatically for a show that still draws a crowd but no longer crushes all comers.

Idol’s 7 to 8 p.m. hour held off Survivor in D-FW by a score of 305,356 viewers to 276,951. But the second hour was edged by Criminal Minds, which had 281,211 viewers to Idol’s 279,081. Idol still prevailed in both hours among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, with ABC’s Modern Family the second best draw among shows in the 7 to 9 p.m. bloc.

CBS won at 9 p.m. in total viewers with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (198,836). But Fox4’s local newscast reigned with 18-to-49-year-olds. Although greatly diminished in recent seasons, Idol still easily ranks as Fox’s most popular prime-time attraction in both ratings measurements. So there’s that.

ABC again had the least-watched show among the Big Four broadcast networks. Its 8:30 p.m. episode of the new Mixology drew 99,418 total viewers and 26,054 in the 18-to-49 demographic. The l’il CW network “topped” that, though, with “hashmarks” (no measurable audience) among 18-to-49-year-olds for its 8 p.m. episode of The Tomorrow People.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results:

CBS11 ranked first at 10 p.m. in total viewers while Fox4 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 nipped NBC5 in total viewers at 6 a.m. but cruised to a dominating No. 1 finish among 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at both 5 and 6 p.m.; Fox4 took the 25-to-54 golds at those hours.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., March 4) -- ABC gets buried

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Sunday’s Oscar high wore off Tuesday for ABC, which dragged bottom with a quartet of first-year series.

The network has been re-tooling its biggest fall investment, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which fell on its shield at 7 p.m. with just 85,216 D-FW viewers opposite the high-powered pair of CBS’ NCIS (461,585) and NBC’s The Voice (426,078).

S.H.I.E.L.D. did manage to tie Fox’s Glee for third place in the 7 p.m. hour. But it ran fourth among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds on a night when the Big Four broadcast networks all offered wall-to-wall new episodes.

CBS also won the 8 to 10 p.m. slot in total viewers with NCIS: Los Angeles (347,964) and Person of Interest (262,748). The 18-to-49 golds in those hours went to Fox’s 8 p.m. episode of New Girl, the second half of NCIS: Los Angeles and NBC’s Chicago Fire.

ABC’s The Goldbergs nipped New Girl in total viewers, but the network otherwise ran fourth across the board with Trophy Wife and its second episode of Mind Games. The performance of Mind Games was particularly dismal. It had just 42,608 total viewers and 19,540 in the 18-to-49 demographic. The series replaced another failed ABC freshman series, Killer Women, two weeks earlier than originally planned.

NBC’s 8 to 9 p.m. pair of new comedies, About A Boy and Growing Up Fisher, held up reasonably well. Both ran second in their time slots in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds. Then again, they inherited a big lead-in audience from The Voice -- and lost well over half of it.

Here are Tuesday’s local news derby numbers:

CBS11 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. but fell to fourth among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). Fox4 and NBC5 shared the lead in that key demographic.

Fox4 racked up another pair of wins at 6 a.m. while the 6 p.m. firsts went to CBS11 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at 5 p.m. and shared the 25-to-54 lead with Fox4.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., March 3) -- NBC powers up

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
NBC’s twin punch of The Voice and The Blacklist rolled through prime-time Monday with one little hiccup.

Both shows won their time slots in total D-FW viewers, beginning with The Voice’s 447,382 from 7 to 9 p.m. The Blacklist stayed strong with 340,862 viewers in the 9 p.m. hour.

The Voice likewise controlled the Nielsen numbers among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. But Fox4’s local 9 p.m. newscast, still profiting from the “arctic chill” gripping North Texas, rose up to tie Blacklist for the top spot.

ABC’s 90-minute special, The Bachelor: The Women Tell All ran a solid second in both ratings measurements from 7 to 8:30 p.m. An 8:30 p.m. repeat of ABC’s first episode of Mixology then dove to the bottom of the prime-time heap. Its 56,810 total viewers were but a small fraction of The Bachelor’s 269,849. The fall-off among 18-to-49-year-olds was even sharper, from The Bachelor’s 146,552 to Mixology’s 29,310.

In the late night wars, the exclusive booking of clownish, coarse Toronto mayor Rob Ford on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! failed to do the trick against NBC’s Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He beat Kimmel by a 156,229 to 71,013 score in total viewers and rolled to a 91,188 to 20,843 win in the 18-to-49 demographic. CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman remained dead in the water with respective totals of 42,608 and 6,513 viewers.

WFAA8 didn’t do Kimmel any favors Monday by running a big bloc of commercials, most of them onerous Texas political spots, between the end of its 10 p.m. newscast and the start of Kimmel Live! That gives viewers an extended invitation to look elsewhere or tune out entirely. NBC5 and CBS11 continue to have the good sense to end their newscasts with closing “kickers” that lead directly to Fallon and Letterman. WFAA8 regularly fumbles this ball in times when Kimmel needs all the help he can get against NBC’s new guy.

Here are Monday’s local news derby numbers:

NBC5 edged Fox4 and WFAA8 for first place at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

On a day of double-header wins, Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions, NBC5 ran the table at 5 p.m. and WFAA8 enjoyed a twofer at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net

Fun with "Travoltifying" (D-FW home game)

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
John Travolta’s mangling of singer Idina Menzel’s name during Sunday’s Oscar ceremony already has a slate.com widget in which you can “Travoltify” your moniker.

For the record, he introduced her as “Adele Dazeem” -- or something like that -- before she performed the eventual Oscar-winning “Let It Go” from the animated film Frozen. My Travoltified name would be “Eli Black” when put through the slate.com spin cycle. But what fun is that? I’d rather that Travolta call me Ernst Bowwow. We can all be dreamers.

Uncle Barky now will get on with his own very special Travoltifying of some of D-FW’s better-known TV news personalities. And one never knows. Sometimes a new ID is required when moving to another market. So you’re welcome, one and all.

WFAA8 news anchor Gloria Campos -- Flo Outpost
NBC5 weathercaster Rick Mitchell -- Flick Satchel
Fox4 anchor Lauren Przybyl -- Lola Lybyzrp
CBS11 news anchor Karen Borta -- Karina Aorta
Fox4 news anchor Clarice Tinsley -- Sherise Tassel
WFAA8 weathercaster Pete Delkus -- Pat Dillpickle
NBC5 news anchor Meredith Land Edith Ocean
CBS11 news anchor Brendan Higgins -- Blanton Huggy
Fox4 news anchor Steve Eagar -- Sven Iggle
CBS11 news anchor Doug Dunbar -- Dag Bartime
NBC5 reporter Randy McIlwain -- Sandy Freighttrain
WFAA8 news anchor John McCaa -- Ron Decay
Fox4 sports anchor Mike Doocy -- Spike Juicy
CBS11 weathercaster Larry Mowry -- Harry Bowery
Fox4 news anchor Tim Ryan -- Slim Lyon
NBC5 weathercaster David Finfrock -- Navid Pinprick
WFAA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen -- Radminov Kerplunky
CBS11 news anchor Adrienne Bankert -- Adele Bankrupt
NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs -- Hootie Scaggs
Fox4 news anchor Heather Hays -- Meriwether Days
WFAA8 news anchor Cynthia Izaguirre -- Corinthia Wasaberry
CBS11 reporter Bud Gillett -- Spud Gannett
NBC5 news anchor Brian Curtis -- Ryan Seacrest
Fox4 weathercaster Dan Henry -- Stan Horny
WFAA8 reporter Brett Shipp -- Shep Shape
CBS11 sports anchor Babe Laufenberg -- Bubba Leafenblog
NBC5 news anchor Deborah Ferguson -- Lenora Furnace
Fox4 reporter Becky Oliver -- Blinky Hollister
WFAA8 traffic reporter Alexa Conomos -- Francesca Cosmos
CBS11 traffic reporter Whitney Drolen -- Brittany Bowling
NBC5 news anchor Kristi Nelson -- Krispy Nils
Fox4 traffic reporter Chip Waggoner -- Kip Wagtail
WFAA8 news anchor Shelly Slater -- Kelly Spader
CBS11 news anchor Tracy Kornet -- Lacy Trombone
NBC5 news anchor Marc Fein -- Mike Mightyfine
Fox4 anchor/reporter Natalie Solis -- Natasha Solstice
WFAA8 news anchor Ron Corning -- Rain Cornsapoppin
CBS11 reporter Steve Pickett -- Cleve Stickit

And that’s all, folks.

Email comments or questions to:unclebarky@verizon.net

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Feb. 28-March 2) -- Ellen-fueled Oscars blasts past recent editions

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Queen of the Oscars: Host Ellen DeGeneres in a late-breaking costume change during Sunday’s ceremony on ABC. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony on ABC had no big surprises in the major categories and also a proven winner in host Ellen DeGeneres.

Returning to preside after a seven-year gap, she helped spur the Oscars to a significant improvement in the D-FW ratings over last year’s outing with Seth MacFarlane. DeGeneres was widely viewed as a comfier, “safer” host than MacFarlane, who took a critical lashing in some quarters for his dicey routines on “boobs” and Jews in Hollywood.

Running from 7:30 to 11 p.m. (plus four minutes worth of closing credits), this year’s Oscars averaged 1,164,613 viewers and 547,126 within the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 age range. The MacFarlane-hosted show, which had a virtually identical running time, drew 922,483 viewers with 430,569 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.

The Ellen-hosted Oscars also outdrew the 2012 show with Billy Crystal (respective totals of 1,054,760 and 477,906) and a 2011 edition co-hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway (907,267 and 417,906).

The least-watched Oscar ceremony by far is still 2009’s with host Hugh Jackman. It drew just 677,589 D-FW viewers with 291,176 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

DeGeneres last hosted in 2007, before unclebarky.com had total viewer numbers available for inspection. But her 571,692 households for that show was easily surpassed by 698,344 for Sunday night’s Oscars. It also had appreciably more 18-to-to-49-year-olds than her 2007 outing, which drew 403,160.

Sunday night’s biggest Big Four broadcast network draw opposite the Oscars was Fox4’s frigid weather-driven 9 p.m. local newscast, which had 269,849 total viewers.

In Friday’s prime-time Nielsens, CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods tied for the most total viewers with 241,444 apiece. ABC’s Shark Tank as usual dominated among 18-to-49-year-olds.

The return of NBC’s Hannibal ran a distant fourth at 9 p.m. with a paltry 63,912 total viewers. Just 13,027 of them were in the 18-to-49 demographic, making Hannibal Friday night’s least-watched Big Four attraction in that key measurement.

Here are Friday’s local news derby results:

CBS11 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while Fox4 won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 also swept both the 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. competitions and added a 6 p.m. gold with 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net