WFAA8 scores big with Russ Martin interview

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

The 10 p.m. newscast featuring his interview drew 458,367 D-FW viewers.

Russ Martin

Barbara Walters' one-on-one with cancer-stricken Patrick Swayze paced Wednesday's prime-time ratings before WFAA8 drew by far the biggest audience of the day with a 10 p.m. newscast featuring a heavily promoted interview with deposed radio jock Russ Martin.

Martin, still collecting a seven-figure salary after 105.3 FM went to an all-sports format, spat a little tobacco juice and otherwise said little to reporter Janet St. James after taking her for a spin in his orange Dukes of Hazzard Dodge Charger. Still, it was by and large entertaining, with a playful St. James more or less impersonating Becky Oliver/Brett Shipp/Bennett Cunningham by scurrying after Martin while asking, "Russ, why won't you talk to us? What are you afraid of?"

She used to be a recurring guest on his show, St. James told viewers. So Martin didn't really mean it when he groused, "Leave me alone. Geez!"

He did say this, though: "Stations change formats, companies make decisions. You got a bottom line, you have to worry about things like that. So no, I don't take it personally."

Martin also made it clear that the Russ Martin Listeners Foundation is still intact. As proof, St. James showed a $30,000 check made out to the family of Dallas police officer Norm Smith, who was killed outside an apartment complex Tuesday night while serving a felony warrant. The newscast drew 458,367 D-FW viewers following the Walters special, which had 292,292 viewers in dominating its 9 p.m. time slot.

Over on CBS, the network's annual two-hour People's Choice Awards averaged 186,004 viewers. That put it second in the 8 p.m. hour and third from 9 to 10 p.m.

The CW's premiere of 13 -- Fear Is Real was a blockbuster in its own little way. Fear had 119,574 viewers, outdrawing the return of NBC's sputtering Knight Rider (106,288 viewers) to finish fourth from 7 to 8 p.m. And it tied Fox's Bones for third place among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.

Fear fared even better among CW's principal target audience of 18-to-34-year-olds. It ran first from 7 to 7:30 p.m. and then dropped to second, behind ABC's Scrubs repeat, in the 7:30 to 8 p.m. slot.

In the cable universe, the second season premiere of FX's Damages drew 39,858 viewers at 9 p.m. and 46,501 for the 10 p.m. repeat.

The local news derby Nielsens showed WFAA8 also dominating at 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming. It had more than twice as many as runnerup NBC5.

NBC5 and Fox4 tied for first in total viewers at 6 a.m., with the Peacock tops among 25-to-54-year-olds.

NBC5 swept the 5 p.m. competitions; the 6 p.m. golds went to WFAA8 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 age range.