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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Oct.24-26) -- Sunday Night Football doubles up on competing Game 5 of World Series

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The Saints’ rout of the Packers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football dominated prime-time while Fox’s competing Game 5 of the World Series battled CBS’ regular lineup for a distant second place.

SNF averaged 509,102 D-FW viewers while the Giants’ 5-0 win over the Royals drew 244,090. CBS’ prime-time attractions were pushed back an hour because of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Indianapolis Colts over-run. Here’s how it looked in each one-hour prime-time increment.

7 to 8 P.M.

The World Series and 60 Minutes tied with 299,882 total viewers apiece.

8 to 9 P.M.

Madam Secretary -- 299,882
World Series -- 223,168

9 to 10 P.M.

The Good Wife -- 230,142
World Series -- 223,168

Saints-Packers also drew twice as many advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds as the World Series, which in turn out-scored the CBS lineup in each hour to finish second in this key demographic among the Big Four broadcast networks. But as usual, AMC’s The Walking Dead flexed among 18-to-49-year-olds, beating everything but Sunday Night Football from 8 to 9 p.m.

Saturday’s Game 4 of the World Series, which stretched all the way to 11:08 p.m., fared better by controlling that night’s ratings in both audience measurement. Overall, the game averaged 230,142 total viewers while also cruising with 18-to-49-year-olds. Despite the lopsided 11-4 Giants win, the Series even beat the first half-hour of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, with host Jim Carrey, in the 18-to-49 demographic.

As a warmup for Game 4, Fox spent much of the afternoon and early evening with TCU’s 82-27 mega-crushing of Texas Tech. The game mercifully ended at 6:30 p.m. and dominated its time slot with an average of 195,272 total viewers. Then came ESPN’s prime-time matchup between LSU and Mississippi, which led the entire Saturday college football parade with an average of 209,220 total viewers.

On Friday night, the closest game of the World Series, a 3-2 win by the Royals, still fell short of CBS’ The Amazing Race and Blue Bloods in the total viewer Nielsens from 7 to 8 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m. Game 3 also barely beat ABC’s Shark Tank in the 8 p.m. hour. Running until 10:25 p.m., Royals-Giants overall averaged 223,168 total viewers.

But Game 3 of the Series was the top draw all night among 18-to-49-year-olds. And in an otherwise ratings-starved fall for Fox, even diminishing returns for recent World Series match-ups amount to a late October windfall.

Also on Friday, the premiere of NBC’s supernatural Constantine ran fourth in total viewers from 9 to 10 p.m. with 90,662. It was the same story with 18-to-49-year-olds.

OK, let’s finish up with Friday’s local news derby results.

At 10 p.m., CBS11 won a downsized three-way race in total viewers while Gannett8 ran first among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions and CBS11 topped the total viewer Nielsens at both 5 and 6 p.m. Gannett 8 took the 5 and 6 p.m. golds in the 25-to-54 measurement.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net