NBC5 makes a push in local ratings war

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., May 15)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

NBC5 is feeling the hot, late night breath of Belo8 while Fox4 shows signs of breaking from the pack at 6 a.m. down the homestretch of the May "sweeps."

Tuesday's local newscast ratings results further ensured a very tight battle at 10 p.m. for the hearts and minds of advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds. Belo8's second straight narrow victory with that crowd pulled it ever closer to the Peacock, which retains a thin lead with 14 of the 20 weeknights in the books.

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NBC5 had a small lead-in advantage from Law & Order: SVU, but failed to hold on. Belo8 also won in total homes at 10 p.m., where it now looks assured of victory for the second straight sweeps period.

There was a bit of good news for CBS11, too. The first 15 minutes of its retooled "urgent" 10 p.m. show actually improved slightly over a lead-in from CBS' Academy of Country Music Awards ceremony. But the station still placed third in homes and again fifth with 25-to-54-year-olds. No. 3 Noticias 23, Univision23's Spanish language local newscast, edged ahead of both CBS11 and Fox4.

In the 6 a.m. wars, Fox4 won by a sizable margin in total homes and also had a comfortable win with 25-to-54-year-olds. The race remains tight, but Fox4 looks like it's in the driver's seat.

Belo8 again topped the 5 and 6 p.m. ratings in both Nielsen measurements. Rivals are too far behind at this point to catch up.

The prime-time ratings saw ABC's Dancing with the Stars 8 p.m. results show surprisingly pull in more total homes than American Idol's 7 p.m. performance show. But Idol narrowly won among 18-to-49-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for entertainment programming.

On CW33, the series finale of Gilmore Girls drew a healthy 95,200 homes from 7 to 8 p.m., beating the competing Dateline NBC. A new episode of CW's Veronica Mars then plunged to 19,040 homes, losing even to an Oprah repeat on Ch. 52.

For more local television coverage, check out Uncle Barky's blog