Mavericks take 3-1 lead, rule on TXA21/TNT

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., April 24-26)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

The Dallas Mavericks continued their ratings roll Saturday afternoon/evening, amassing a bigger audience by far than any other weekend program. And that doesn't even include sports bar audiences.

The traditional in-home D-FW Nielsen numbers looked like this for a Game 4 that ran until 5:53 p.m.:

TXA21 -- 212,576 viewers

TNT -- 139,503 viewers

That's a total of 352,079 viewers, which matches the audience for Game 1 of the series but oddly enough falls short of the combined 405,223 viewers for Game 2 in San Antonio, in which the Mavs were blown out for their only loss to the Spurs so far. Nighttime hours help.

Game 5 of the series is set for 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on TXA21 and TNT. For the pre- and post-game shows on TXA21, it might be time to initiate the Derek Harper drinking game. Have a slug every time the former Maverick says "No doubt about it" in response to co-host Gina Miller. But definitely don't do it in a bar -- or you'll never make it home. And in-home players might want to advise their bosses they'll be late to work on Wednesday.

In Friday's local news derby results, WFAA8 remained strong at 10 p.m. with wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the preferred advertiser target audience for news programming.

NBC5 likewise swept the 6 a.m. competitions and WFAA8 ran the table at 5 p.m.

The Peacock took the 6 p.m. gold in total viewers and tied for first with WFAA8 among 25-to-54-year-olds.