Cowboys score big in Dallas/Fort Worth ratings for debut in Jerry’s punt-blocking palace

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Aug. 21-23)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

D-FW's second pre-season dose of the Dallas Cowboys -- and their first game in Jerry's Colosso-dome -- kicked all competing programming to the curb Friday night.

Fox4's telecast of the Cowboys' win over Tennessee averaged a mega-sized 750,659 viewers, peaking at 817,089 from 8:15 to 8:30 p.m. Those numbers easily exceeded the turnout for CBS11's inaugural pre-season road tilt against Oakland, which loped in with an average of 531,440 viewers and a peak audience of 690,872.

The most-watched prime-time program opposite Cowboys-Titans -- NBC's two-hour Dateline -- drew 112,931 D-FW viewers. Friday night's Texas Rangers-Tampa Bay Rays game on Fox Sports Southwest, had a bunt-sized 46,501 viewers.

The Cowboys also dominated among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, averaging 288,467 viewers in this age range. Dateline again was the distant No. 2 choice in prime-time, managing 51,859 viewers in the 18-to-49 sweet spot.

On Sunday night, ABC's final 10th anniversary edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire had 146,146 total viewers to win the 7 p.m. hour. But Millionaire fell to second with 18-to-49-year-olds, behind Fox's two reruns of The Simpsons.

A tribute to the late Don Hewitt on CBS' 60 Minutes had 126,217 total viewers at 6 p.m., running a close second to ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos (132,860 viewers). 60 Minutes then drooped to third with 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing just half the audience of Funniest Home Videos.

The Rangers' face-saving Sunday afternoon road win at Tampa had 79,716 total viewers on FSS, good enough to top all daytime programming.

Friday's local news derby Nielsens were dominated by NBC5 and Fox4.

The Peacock swept a downsized three-way 10 p.m. competition in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

NBC5 also ran the table at 6 a.m. on the last weekday before school reopens Monday. Fox4 muscled up to win all the golds at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

In a rarity, WFAA8 was shut out of the winners' circle, and ran fourth at 5 p.m. in both ratings measurements.