powered by FreeFind

Apple iTunes

Archives

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., April 1-3) -- latest Walking Dead finale shows some signs of viewer fatigue

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Fans of The Walking Dead are getting restive, at least judging from the “social media” backlash of late.

Sunday night’s latest season finale of AMC’s zombie-infested apocalypse showed some signs of ratings leakage. Airing from 8 to 9:30 p.m., Walking Dead drew 304,543 D-FW viewers and was beaten during those 90 minutes by CBS’ ACM awards (332,873 viewers). The entire three-hour country music jamboree tied Walking Dead for the most total viewers of any single program Sunday. NBC’s 7 p.m. hour of Little Big Shots took the bronze with 276,214 viewers but outdrew the ACMs head-to-head in the 7 to 8 p.m. slot.

Walking Dead continued to prosper with advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds. But its 171,488 viewers in this key demographic were a significantly lower percentage than usual. The ACMS ran a very distant third with an average of 53,987 viewers in the 18-to-49-age range for the entire three-hour program. Little Big Shots ran second for the night with 63,514 viewers.

The Dallas Mavericks’ afternoon road win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team’s fourth straight in their post-season drive, drew scant attention on Fox Sports Southwest. The game had just 35,412 total viewers and 9,527 in the 18-to-49 age range. In the Wolves category, Fox4’s early afternoon reprise of Dances With Wolves fared better than Mavs-Wolves on both counts. The movie averaged 42,494 total viewers and 12,703 in the 18-to-49 demographic. That’s cold.

On to Saturday night and the NCAA men’s hoops Final Four, where Villanova’s opening game destruction of Oklahoma by a record margin of 44 points averaged 240,802 total viewers and 82,568 in the 18-to-49 measurement. The second game, with North Carolina soundly beating Syracuse, had respective totals of 198,307 and 73,041 viewers. Both matchups were on TBS, but still dominated Saturday’s TV attractions.

Friday’s prime-time Nielsens as usual were paced overall by CBS’ 9 p.m. episode of Blue Bloods, which had 290,378 total viewers. Fox’s 8 p.m. hour of Hell’s Kitchen drew the most 18-to-49-year-olds (63,514).

Here are Friday’s local news derby results.

CBS11 edged NBC5 for the most total viewers at 10 p.m., but the Peacock won by a comfy margin among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 as usual squashed the competition at 6 a.m. in both ratings barometers while the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of its Good Day again whipped the three competing network morning shows.

NBC5 reigned in the early evening with sweeps at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net