Scant interest in Kennedy specials among Dallas-Fort Worth viewers

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Aug. 26)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

CBS and ABC news specials on the life and death of Sen. Ted Kennedy were largely rebuffed Thursday night in the locale where his brother, John, spent his last day on Nov. 22, 1963.

A 7 p.m. CBS retrospective drew just 66,430 D-FW viewers, making it the night's least-watched Big 4 broadcast network attraction. lt ran fifth at that hour behind NBC's America's Got Talent recap (192,647 viewers), Fox Sports Southwest's Rangers-Yankees game and ABC's Wipeout (119,574 viewers each) and Fox's Bones rerun (99,645 viewers).

The Kennedy special managed a third-place tie with Bones among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

At 9 p.m., ABC's Kennedy hour drew 93,002 viewers to place fourth behind CBS' CSI: NY repeat (166,075 viewers), Fox4's local newscast (152,789 viewers) and NBC's Law & Order: SVU reprise (132,860 viewers). The special rose to second place with 18-to-49-year-olds, behind Law & Order: SVU.

Thursday's top draw again was NBC's America's Got Talent results show, which dominated at 8 p.m. with 265,720 total viewers while also reigning with 18-to-49-year-olds.

The 8 p.m. premiere of yet another ABC reality series, Crash Course, had 86,359 viewers to run fourth in that measurement (behind NBC, Fox and Rangers-Yankees). But it moved up two notches to second place with 18-to-49-year-olds.

In local news derby results, WFAA8 controlled the 10 p.m. Nielsens with wins in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 took the silvers.

NBC5 again had twin wins at 6 a.m., with its strongest challenger, Fox4, logging another pair of second-place finishes.

Fox4 swept the 6 p.m. ratings, and now has topped the 25-to-54 competition for four straight weekdays.

NBC5 ran the table at 5 p.m., although that slot's No. 1 attraction with 25-to-54-year-olds was MY27's House of Payne sitcom.