DFW viewers only slightly warm to Fox’s Fringe

by Ed Bark of of UncleBarky.com

Fox's big-ticket new series of the season, Fringe, started decently but hardly spectacularly in D-FW Tuesday night.

From Lost and Alias creator J.J. Abrams, the sci-fi blend of The X-Files and The Twilight Zone averaged 148,572 homes from 7 to 8:35 p.m. That put it second opposite the first 90 minutes of NBC's America's Got Talent (172,928 homes).

Among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, Fringe fought a fairly close but losing three-way battle with both Talent and ABC's Wipeout. Here's the scoreboard:

America's Got Talent -- 110,369

Wipeout -- 100,909

Fringe -- 91,449

(Note: preliminary Nielsens released by the Fox network Wednesday morning say that Fringe won its time slot nationally in the 18-to-49 demographic.)

Meanwhile, back in D-FW on "The 33," the premiere of CW's Privileged outdrew the season's second episode of 90210 in both total homes and among 18-to-49-year-olds. But both series ran fifth in those measurements from 7 to 9 p.m. 90210 did outdraw Privileged in CW's target 18-to-34 demo and ran third overall from 7 to 8 p.m. behind Talent and Fringe.

On the incompatibility charts, here's why Ch. 33's 9 p.m. local newscast has been re-branded "The 33 News." In short, most 18-to-to-34-year-old viewers of CW programming don't dig icky old TV news. Take a look at the downward spiral from 7 to 10 p.m.:

90210 -- 28,917 viewers in the 18-to-34 demo

Privileged -- 19,278

The 33 News -- 6,426

In the bigger fish four-way local news competitions, WFAA8 came within an eyelash of a double grand slam. It swept the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

WFAA8 also edged Fox4 at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds. But Fox4 won by just one-tenth of a rating point in total homes. That 's only 2,436 of 'em.

The second two hours of Fox4's Good Day had a far easier time against the 7 to 9 a.m. network morning shows, comfortably outdrawing them in both ratings measurements.

Check out Uncle Barky's blog for his review of the new Fox show Do Not Disturb.

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