NBC5 news has a big day in DFW ratings

by Ed Bark of of UncleBarky.com

NBC5's usual early morning news wins were sugared Monday with an uncommon sweep of the 10 p.m. local newscast wars.

Add a doubleheader win at 6 p.m. and that's close to a grand slam for the Peacock, which pulled up a competitive second at 5 p.m. to Fox4.

NBC5 had a rare but relatively slim 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in advantage from NBC's preceding Dateline, which regurgitated Martin Bashir's 2003 look inside Michael Jackson's Neverland. It drew 199,290 D-FW viewers in the final 15 minutes, with NBC5 newscast then movin' on up a bit to 205,933 viewers.

The Peacock also won at 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8, the usual late night champ, ran a close second in both measurements.

NBC5 makes its own bed in the early mornings without any help from pre-dawn lead-ins. It again won at 6 a.m., but in close three-way races with Fox4 and WFAA8. A pair of more comfortable 6 p.m. wins made it a signature local news day for the Peacock.

Fox4's twin wins at 5 p.m. are starting to become the norm, but NBC5 is also in the hunt. WFAA8, with mostly dismal summertime ratings from the preceding Oprah Winfrey Show, has faded to a virtual non-factor in a time slot it used to dominate when Oprah ruled the late afternoon roost.

Among 25-to-54-year-olds, WFAA8 barely registered a pulse Monday, drawing just 15,177 viewers in this age range to finish fifth at 5 p.m. behind Fox4, NBC5, CBS11 and KDAF33's repeat of According to Jim. An in-newscast test of the ShamWow -- with WFAA8 essentially ripping off Steve Noviello's longstanding Deal or Dud segments on Fox4 -- failed to improve the station's ratings picture.

Elsewhere in prime-time, the sinking Texas Rangers' home loss to the onrushing Los Angeles Angels drew 112,931 total viewers on Fox Sports Southwest. That was a bit better than the 99,645 viewers tuned to Fox's competing two-hour reprise of an American Idol performance edition featuring Michael Jackson songs.