BCS championship game handily beats the competition

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Jan. 8)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

Florida's surprising domination of Ohio State didn't stop the BCS championship game from dominating the D-FW ratings Monday night.

The 41-14 rout had an overall 16.7 Nielsen rating (397,460 homes) in handily beating all competing programming. It also lured a throng of advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds (333,000), assuring Fox a prosperous beginning to a New Year that will kick into overdrive next week with the season premieres of 24 and American Idol.

On the news front, the debut of Belo8's high-priced Victory Park studios had no immediate payoff. The ABC station's principal showcase in the new digs, Daybreak, placed third in total homes behind frontrunner Fox4 and runnerup NBC5. Daybreak did score a thin, one-tenth of a rating point victory among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for news programming. But it had been doing well with that demo anyway.

NBC5 otherwise notched twin victories at 10 p.m., although the BCS championship game was drawing more than twice as many viewers at that hour. The Peacock also won at 6 p.m. in both ratings measurements.

At 5 p.m. NBC5 notched a total homes win and tied in the 25-to-54-year-old chase with Belo8.

Over on Uncle Barky's site, Ed says there oughta be a law against making cops of Erik Estrada, La Toya Jackson, Jack Osbourne, former wrestler Trish Stratus and skateboarder Jason "Wee-Man" Acuna. But there isn't.