America’s Got Talent again dominates before The Philanthropist gives it all back in Dallas/Fort Worth ratings

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

NBC stations likely are united in the belief that their network should reverse course and let The Philanthropist lead off Wednesday nights before bringing in the heavy artillery -- repeat and new episodes of America's Got Talent.

But no. Which leaves the Peacock's late night local newscasts in the lurch. The latest returns were typical.

A Talent recap in the 7 p.m. hour won that slot with 172,718 D-FW viewers, handily beating the fourth nightly episode of ABC's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (112,931 viewers). Talent won even more comfortably among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.

At 8 p.m., a new hour of Talent swelled to 279,006 total viewers, tripling the audience for CBS' runnerup repeat of Criminal Minds (93,002 viewers). It was the same story with 18-to-49-year-olds.

Then came The Philanthropist, taking NBC on a bungee jump to the bottom with 119,574 total viewers. That made for a fourth-place finish among the Big Four broadcast networks in both ratings measurements.

Starved for a decent-sized lead-in, NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast ran third in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8 took the top prizes, with CBS11 second in total viewers and Fox4 taking a silver in the 25-to-54 demographic. Also of note: Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast beat all network programming among 18-to-49-year-old viewers.

The 6 a.m. news spoils went to NBC5, which nipped Fox 4 by a tenth of a rating point in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds.

CBS11 had an usually good day in the early evening newscast wars, winning in total viewers at 5 p.m. and tying WFAA8 for first at 6 p.m.

Among 25-to-54-year-olds, NBC5 ran first at 5 p.m., with CBS11 plunging to a distant fourth. Fox4 and WFAA8 shared the 25-to-54 gold at 6 p.m.

Check out Uncle Barky's blog for a preview of the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season.