DFW reality locals help NBC to strong Monday night

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

North Texas contestants on Nashville Star and American Gladiators help boost the ratings.

North Texas-infused editions of NBC's Nashville Star and American Gladiators made semi-strong impressions in Monday's D-FW Nielsens.

On Star, Arlington mom-of-five Melissa Lawson made it to the competition's finals next Monday as one of three remaining twangers. The show drew 112,038 homes at 8 p.m. to rank second behind CBS' repeat comedy combo of Two and a Half Men (165,621 homes) and Old Christine (121,780 homes).

Star also took the silver among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, again behind CBS.

At 7 p.m., Gladiators saw the demise of Dallas financial advisor Jeff Davidson, who couldn't quite make it to the brawny show's finals. But his wife, Ally, qualified during last week's competition. Gladiators drew 114,473 homes to run second behind Fox's Bones rerun (129,087 homes), but took the gold in its first half-hour among 18-to-49-year-olds before being nipped from 7:30 to 8 p.m. by CBS' reprise of How I Met Your Mother.

ABC continued to run on near-empty from 7 to 10 p.m. with a first-run reality competition lineup of High School Musical: Get in the Picture (85,246 homes), Wanna Bet (56,019 homes) and The Mole (70,632 homes).

Musical and Bet ran fourth in their time slots in both total homes and in the 18-to-49 demo. Mole likewise finished fourth in total homes but narrowly placed first with 18-to-49-year-olds opposite runnerup Dateline NBC and CBS' CSI: Miami repeat, which otherwise easily won at 9 p.m. in total homes.

The big news in the local news derby was Fox4's 6 p.m. win among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. That brought an end to WFAA8's streak of 25 consecutive weekday sweeps. The ABC station did win again at that hour in total homes.

WFAA8 retaliated with twin wins at 10 p.m. and also ran first in both measurements at 5 p.m., with Fox4 a close second in both competitions.

The 6 a.m. golds went to Fox4 for a second straight weekday. WFAA8's waker upper, still a bit drowsy in the hot summertime Nielsens, had two bronzes behind runnerup NBC5.

Typical viewing patterns are out of whack, though, with school still out and many potential viewers on vacation.