Sopranos unlikely to have whacked local audience for NBA Finals

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

D-FW ratings for The Sopranos' Sunday finale aren't available yet, but Tony and company almost certainly came up no better than second to ABC's Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

San Antonio's easy win over Cleveland averaged 226,100 homes in trouncing CBS' competing Tony Awards ceremony (90,440 homes). The gap only increased with advertiser-craved younger viewers. Here's a telescoped look:

18-to-49-Year-Olds

Spurs-Cavaliers -- 158,100

Tonys -- 24,800

18-to-34-Year-Olds

Spurs-Cavaliers -- 75,506

Tonys -- 8,033

ABC's new Fast Cars & Superstars, preempted Thursday by Belo8's locally produced pre-Finals special, conked out with just 57,120 total homes for its second episode.

On Saturday afternoon, a thrilling Belmont Stakes lured only 59,500 homes, which is a shame. That finish was everything that The Sopranos wasn't, with Rags to Riches out-gutting favorite Curlin to become the first filly to win the Belmont since 1905.

Friday's prime-time ratings again showed that most D-FWians are otherwise occupied. The top network draw, a repeat of CBS' Numb3rs, drew a less than robust 126,140 homes.

Univision23's Noticias 23 local newscast had a bigger turnout than that, finishing second to Belo8 in homes with 133,280. But here's the bigger news. Noticias 23 was the No. 1 newscast among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. In fact it wasn't even close. Here's the Friday night breakdown with that key audience demographic:

Noticias 23 -- 132,020

Belo8 -- 77,490

NBC5 -- 68,880

CBS11 -- 54,530

Fox4 -- 48,790

Fox4 carried the day at 6 a.m., though, winning in both ratings measurements. Belo8 once again did likewise at 5 and 6 p.m.

Uncle Barky didn't think The Sopranos had a great finish.