Wednesday, October 3, 2007

DFW goes crazy for Cavemen

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Oct. 2)

By Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

ABC again dominated D-FW's prime time landscape Tuesday. Even the premiere of Cavemen did well, although I wish they'd give one of 'em a girlfriend named Sally. Then there could be an episode titled, "When Hairy Met Sally." Hoo-hah.

But we tarry. Cavemen ran a strong second in the total homes Nielsens to CBS' NCIS, but easily beat the venerable Mark Harmon drama among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds. ABC's following newcomer Carpoolers did likewise, upping its audience a bit from Cavemen as viewers warmed their sets for the Dancing with the Stars results show.

Dancing, with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban staving off eviction, easily drew the night's biggest crowd with 358,033 homes. Then ABC's Boston Legal mopped up, controlling the 9 p.m. slot with 287,401 homes opposite NBC's Law & Order: SVU (175,363) and CBS' new Cane (141,264), which also ran behind Fox4's local newscast in total homes.

Belo8's local news again flexed at 10 p.m., with its three competitors bunched together in a relatively close fight for a distant second in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Here's how it looked:

TOTAL HOMES

Belo8 -- 258,174

NBC5 -- 160,750

Fox4 -- 136,394

CBS11 -- 133,958

25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS

Belo8 -- 157,850

NBC5 -- 103,320

Fox4 and CBS11 (tied) -- 83,230

Fox4 again won at 6 a.m. in total homes while tying Belo8 for first place among 25-to-54-year-olds. The ABC station ran the table at 5 and 6 p.m.

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