Ugly Mavs loss still comes up big for DFW viewers

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

Wow, fans of the Dallas Mavericks aren't fair weather ones.

Monday's late night trouncing at the hands of Don Nelson's Golden State Warriors played big in the D-FW Nielsens, trouncing the local 10 p.m. newscasts in rolling to an overall average of 221,340 homes from 9:30 p.m. to midnight. Here are the numbers from 10 to 10:30 p.m., when the Mavs still had some hope of extending their 17-game winning streak:

The Mavs game peaked at 261,800 homes between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m. and again between 11 and 11:15 p.m. CBS' CSI: Miami also drew 261,800 homes, with no other Monday program reaching those heights. Otherwise the Mavs game was Monday's most-watched program among two key advertiser target audiences -- 18-to-49-year-olds and 18-to-34-year-olds.

Sunday night's Mavericks-Los Angeles Kobes game, controlled throughout by Dallas, averaged 142,800 homes, peaking at 164,220. So if Mavs owner Mark Cuban is reading this, he should salute fans on his blog for sticking with the Golden State game throughout mostly thin and thin.

In just the four-way local newscast arena, CBS11 won in homes at 10 p.m., but NBC5 overcame a lousy lead-in from NBC's The Black Donnellys to hold sway with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

The Peacock won at 6 a.m. in homes while Fox4 had the edge with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Belo8 took first place at 5 p.m. in both audience measurements and also won in homes at 6 p.m. NBC5 had the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m.

Over on Uncle Barky's site, Ed says Halfway Home on Comedy Central gives puerile humor another good name.