Mavs a hit, thanks to reruns on the four major networks

by Ed Bark of of UncleBarky.com

Score it as perfect timing for the Dallas Mavericks. Opposite nothing but reruns on all four major networks, the Mavs played and narrowly won a spine-tingling game against the visiting Phoenix Suns and Steve Nash. Net results in Thursday's D-FW Nielsens? Not bad.

Channel 21's telecast of the game (which ran from 7:15 to 9:49 p.m.) drew 133,280 homes. TNT cable's coverage pulled in an additional 59,500 homes locally, landing the Mavs just a bit shy of 200,000 homes for the night. Thursday's most-watched network attraction, a repeat of CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, was seen in 209,400 homes.

Here's a sideline report. Nielsen numbers say that twice as many 18-to-49-year-old men watched the Mavs as women in that advertiser-targeted age group. On the other hand, almost five times as many women than men were viewing ABC's Grey's Anatomy from 8 to 9 p.m. That's the way the ball bounces gender-wise.

The daily local newscast derby found Belo8 faring the best. The ABC station tied NBC5 at 10 p.m. in total homes and placed first outright with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser demographic for news programming.

Belo8 also won at 5 p.m. in both measurements and was first at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.

CBS11 had the top spot in total homes at 6 p.m. while NBC5 again cruised to a pair of comfortable wins at 6 a.m.

Also of note: Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast beat everything except the Mavs in total homes. Network competition at that hour was reruns of ER, Shark and Men in Trees.

Over on Uncle Barky's site, Ed recalls his interview with James Brown in jail in 1989.