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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Oct. 25)

By ED BARK
Taco fans and the Peacock cheered up Thursday night.

NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast ended an elongated dry spell with twin wins in the Nielsens for the first time since Sept. 5th. That's right, Sept. 5th. And Red Sox centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury's 4th inning steal of second base in Game 2 of the World Series means a free taco for any humanoid with a pulse.

Taco Bell will be handing them out from 2 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 30). It should be a seminal event in American history.

The Series ratings again weren't so hot, though, at least in less than baseball-crazed D-FW. The prime-time portion of Game 2 averaged 197,284 homes, up a bit from the 192,412 homes tuned in Wednesday night.

This time, however, ratings peaked rather than drooped in late night, with the Rockies making a game of it by losing 2 to 1 instead of 13 to 1. Game 2 drew an average of 244,372 homes from 10:30 to 11:15 p.m. Thursday. On the previous night, just 134,770 homes were still in the game by that time.

From 8 to 10 p.m., the Series was outdrawn by ABC's league-leading Grey's Anatomy (299,579 homes) and CBS' combo of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (245,996) and Without A Trace (231,382).

Boston-Colorado fared a bit better among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds, losing to Grey's and CSI but beating Trace.

In the local news derby, NBC5 won a close three-way contest at 10 p.m. in total homes and had a more comfortable winning margin with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Here's how it looked in total homes:

9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in: ER -- 191,412 homes
NBC5 news -- 189,977 homes

Lead-in: Big Shots -- 141,265 homes
Belo8 news -- 180,234 homes

Lead-in: Without A Trace -- 236,253 homes
CBS11 news -- 170,492 homes

Fox4 again took both 6 a.m. bouts, twice edging Belo8 while NBC5 continued to lag well back in third place.

Belo8 ran the table at 5 p.m. and also won at 6 p.m. in total homes. The Peacock was tops at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.