Josh Hamilton’s Bunyan-esque feat draws lots of DFW viewers

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., July 14)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

Paul Bunyan drew quite a crowd Monday night.

In the person of Texas Rangers' outfielder Josh Hamilton, he hit a record-setting 28 home runs -- including 13 in a row -- during the first round of baseball's All Star Game festivities. D-FW took notice, with 168,056 homes zeroed in on ESPN. That was good enough to beat all competing programming from 8:30 to 9 p.m.

Even more homes -- 180,234 -- then watched a swing-weary Hamilton fizzle out in his final duel with the Twins' victorious Justin Morneau. Only the second half of CBS' CSI: Miami repeat did better Monday night, drawing 188,759 homes.

Monday also brought the season premieres of TNT's The Closer and Saving Grace. They respectively drew 80,375 and 70,632 homes from 8 to 10 p.m. That wasn't quite good enough to beat either Big Josh or any of the competing programming on the four major broadcast networks. Instead, a pair of Fox drama reruns led the free TV parade, with Bones luring 141,265 homes and House, 143,700.

In daytime hours, the premiere of Fox's The Wendy Williams Show (airing only in D-FW and three other markets), ran fifth in total homes at 11 a.m. with just 29,227. It fared better among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds, taking the bronze and slightly outpointing ABC's All My Children and a combination of the syndicated Jeopardy! and The Young and the Restless on CBS11.

The local news Nielsens gave CBS11 a total homes win at 10 p.m. and a first place tie with WFAA8 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 and NBC5 tied at 6 a.m. in total homes. But the Peacock dipped to third in the 25-to-54 demo, behind Fox4 and WFAA8.

Fox4 notched a win at 5 p.m. in total homes and tied WFAA8 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds.

WFAA8 maintained its hammerlock on the 6 p.m. news ratings, running the table for the 16th straight weekday.

Check out Uncle Barky's blog for his thoughts on The Wendy Williams Show.