Wednesday, May 7, 2008

WFAA’s 10 p.m. newscast outdraw American Idol and Dancing with the Stars

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., May 6)

By Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

Fox's American Idol and ABC's Dancing with the Stars again controlled the prime-time ratings, but a pair of late night newscasts made bigger impressions.

Tuesday's most-watched program of the day wasn't Idol or Dancing, but WFAA8's 10 p.m. newser. It rang up 292,272 total D-FW homes while Idol had 282,530 and Dancing 270,352 to control their respective 7 and 8 p.m. slots.

Dancing, which celebrated its 100th episode, evicted rapper Mario and welcomed an array of past celebrity contestants, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. He had the good fortune to sit next to blonde bombshell Stacy Keibler, but otherwise had nothing to do but laugh and applaud from a front row seat. Notably absent: third-season champ Emmitt Smith.

On Idol, Rockwall's Jason Castro bombed with performances of "I Shot the Sheriff" and "Mr. Tambourine Man," forgetting some of the lyrics to the latter.

"Jason, I'd pack your suitcase," said judge Simon Cowell. It indeed does look grim for him on a day when voters will reduce Idol's Final Four to a trio. And Castro doesn't seem to care that much anyway.

But we tarry.

Fox4's 9 p.m. newscast also made a big noise in Tuesday's Nielsens, running a very close second to ABC's Women's Murder Club in total homes but easily topping the time slot among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. Murder Club, starring Dallasite Angie Harmon, slid to a third-place tie with CBS' CSI: Miami in that key demo.

The 10 p.m. news numbers also saw WFAA8 win handily among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. NBC5 ran a distant second in both ratings measurements.

At 6 a.m., Fox4 reclaimed the gold in total homes, with WFAA8 a competitive second and the Peacock performing poorly for the first time in the May "sweeps" with a distant third place finish.

WFAA8 rebounded to take first place with 25-to-54-year-olds, followed closely by Fox4 and not-so-closely by NBC5.

The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day registered an unusually high 146,136 total homes in again stomping the three network morning shows. It also dominated in the 25-to-54 demo.

That total homes haul for Good Day fell just short of the 151,007 for Tuesday's Oprah on WFAA8. Her show also had higher than usual ratings for an interview with Barbara Walters tied to her new book.

WFAA8 won at 5 p.m. in both races, added a 6 p.m. victory in total homes and tied the Peacock for first with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Pegasus News content partner - UncleBarky.com

Check out Uncle Barky's blog for his review of Barbara Walters' appearance on Oprah Tuesday afternoon.

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