Local newscasts still pack a punch in DFW

by Ed Bark of of UncleBarky.com

It's a truism, among naysayers at least, that local TV newscasts have lost their relevance and ratings punch in a crowded media environment.

In reality, though, it just doesn't happen to be true -- at least not in D-FW and particularly in the late night arena.

On Saturday and Sunday, local 10 p.m. newscasts were the most-watched programs of the day. And sometimes two or more of them had larger audiences than the next closest attraction.

Sunday's overall gold medalist, WFAA8's 10 p.m. newscast, drew 185,106 total homes. And NBC5 (160,750 homes) and CBS11 (148,572 homes) were both within hailing distance.

A repeat of CBS' Cold Case also had 148,572 homes to tie as Sunday's third biggest attraction. NBC's two-hour dose of prime-time Summer Olympics trials averaged just 82,810 homes.

On Saturday, NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast, with 138,829 homes, had a larger audience than anything else. Fox's America's Most Wanted (129,087 homes) ran second. ABC's splashy three-hour broadcast premiere of the movie Camp Rock managed just 41,405 homes. It also fell short of the night's three 10 p.m. newscasts among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

On Friday, only CBS' repeat of Numb3rs (163,185 homes) had a larger audience than CBS11's 10 p.m. news (143,700 homes) and NBC5's competing late night newscast (129,087 homes). ABC's live, two-hour Daytime Emmys celebration drew only 87,682 homes. It used to do much better than that.

It's true that network summertime schedules are pockmarked with reruns. But there's ample first-run entertainment programming as well, and one or more of the late night local newscasts repeatedly outdraw most of that, too. This also happens with some frequency in the "regular" season.

In Friday's other local news competitions, NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for first at 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

At 6 a.m., Fox4 continued a recent mini-resurgence by winning in both ratings measurements for the third consecutive weekday.

NBC5 had a big day in the early evening, running the table at 6 p.m. and also winning at 5 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demo. Fox4 took first place at 5 p.m. in total homes.