World Series outscores 10 p.m. newscasts but football again is sports leader in Dallas-Fort Worth ratings

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Nov. 2)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

Fox's Game 5 of the World Series gained momentum throughout the night, but ESPN's Monday Night Football again ran up the biggest score.

Both sports attractions easily outpointed the remaining three late night local newscasts on the third weeknight of the November "sweeps." Game 5 ended at 10:26 p.m. and MNF stretched all the way to 11:16 p.m. Let's look first at the 10 to 10:30 p.m. scorecards in total D-FW viewers.

Monday Night Football, which kicked off at 7:40 p.m., came within an eyelash of outdrawing all competing programming from 7:45 to 11:15 p.m. Pocket calculator technology shows that ABC's Dancing with the Stars performance show spoiled the party, luring 378,651 viewers from 7:45 to 9 p.m. while MNF had 365,365.

Football ran the table, though, among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, the key measurement for non-news programming.

The World Series, which started at 7 p.m., fell short of Dancing and CBS' 8:30 p.m. showing of The Big Bang Theory in the total viewer Nielsens. CBS' CSI: Miami then beat Game 5 during the 9 p.m. hour. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, though, Game 5 was beaten only by Dancing. And by football, of course.

In the other local news derby results, WFAA8 won the three-way 10 p.m. news race among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 was a close second with NBC5 a non-factor.

The 6 a.m. Nielsens yielded Fox4's first twin wins over NBC5 since Oct. 12th. The Peacock had been rolling merrily along in the early mornings, but settled for the silvers on Monday.

Fox4 also had a gainful day in the early evening, sweeping the 5 p.m. competitions and winning at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 had the other gold, edging Fox4 at 6 p.m. in total viewers.

Check out Uncle Barky's blog for his review of the new ABC series V.