Tiger a tiger for ratings in DFW

by Ed Bark of of UncleBarky.com

NBC had a Tiger in its tank Monday afternoon, particularly in the dramatic last 15 minutes of the U.S. Open playoff.

Tigers Woods' 19-hole, one-stroke victory over resilient Rocco Mediate drew 209,462 D-FW homes from 3:15 to 3:30, making it the most-watched 15-minute bloc of the day. That may be unprecedented, even in a summertime sea of reality series and repeats. And it doesn't count all the workplaces sneaking a peek at one of the all-time dramatic finishes to a major golf championship.

NBC's portion of the playoff overall averaged 142,239 homes after high-jumping from an almost non-existent lead-in from the Martha Stewart's syndicated hour (19,485 homes).

In prime-time, NBC's mostly live 90-minute edition of Nashville Star had a weak-kneed 104,731 homes, even though four Texas-tied competitors, including Melissa Lawson of Arlington, are now among the Final 10. That relegated the show to a fourth place finish against competing programming. But its final half-hour, from 9 to 9:30 p.m., won that slot among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

ABC's The Mole continued to dig a hole for itself, finishing fourth in both ratings measurements.

In the local news derby, WFAA8 nipped CBS11 for first place at 10 p.m. in total homes while doing the same to NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

The Peacock retaliated with twin wins at 6 a.m., in each case edging Fox4. In the total homes measurement, CBS11 finished unusually close to third-place WFAA8, with just two-tenths of a rating point (4,871 homes) between them.

WFAA8 prevailed in total homes at 6 p.m. and ran in a rare three-way tie with Fox4 and NBC5 for first place in the 25-to-54 demo.

The ABC station took both news competitions at 5 p.m.