News trumps “reality” amongst DFW viewers

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., July 2)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

A 10 p.m. local newscast again ranked as the day's most-watched program while Fox's So You Think You Can Dance and NBC's The Baby Borrowers fought for attention in the 8 p.m. hour.

The second hour of Dance and summer's second episode of Borrowers tied in total D-FW homes with 138,829 apiece. But Dance edged Borrowers by one-tenth of a rating point (3,153 viewers) among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.

Dance won Wednesday's opening 7 to 8 p.m. hour in both ratings measurements, with ABC's Wife Swap running second.

At 9 p.m., a repeat of CBS' CSI: NY ruled in total homes (177,799), but NBC's three-ring hokum, Celebrity Circus, nipped the coppers and Fox4's local newscast in the 18-to-49 demo.

Your local news derby Nielsens gave WFAA8's late nighter comfortable wins in total homes (192,412 for Wednesday's high) and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

The 6 a.m. golds went to NBC5 in total homes and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

The Peacock and Fox4 tied at 5 p.m. in total homes, with the usually potent WFAA8 sliding to fourth place. But the ABC station won at that hour with 25-to-54-year-olds and also swept the 6 p.m. ratings for the eighth straight weekday.

Check out Uncle Barky's blog for a celebration of Geraldo Rivera's birthday (which just so happens to be American's birthday).