Split decision in battle of ABC/CBS titans in Dallas-Fort Worth ratings

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Oct. 1)

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

CBS' crime dramas squared off with ABC's med centers Thursday in another pitched battle for viewers and bragging rights.

In D-FW, both won. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, with 391,937 viewers and The Mentalist (411,866 viewers) carried the night against ABC's competing Grey's Anatomy (338,793 viewers) and the season premiere of Private Practice (279,006 viewers).

But both of ABC's health care hours had the edge with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, in which Grey's led all four shows with 171,784 viewers in this age range.

ABC also had heartening returns for the second episode of its ambitious Flashforward series, which won at 7 p.m. with 18-to-49-year-olds. Fox's Bones, however, won the 7 p.m. hour in total viewers.

NBC's The Jay Leno Show again cratered, running fourth at 9 p.m. in total viewers and tying for third in the 18-to-49 demographic with Fox4's local newscast. Leno's total audience -- 132,860 viewers -- was less than half that for both The Mentalist and Private Practice.

In local news derby results, WFAA8 impressively routed the competition at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

NBC5's post-Leno edition ran an out-of-the-money fourth in both measurements. Its paltry 93,002 total viewers fell almost infinitely short of WFAA8's 345,436. Runner-up CBS11, with 205,933 viewers, also had more than twice as many as NBC5.

The Peacock and Fox4 tied at 6 a.m. in total viewers, but Fox4 won for the second straight morning among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 also fared well in the early evening, sweeping the 6 p.m. competitions, winning at 5 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds and tying NBC5 for first in total viewers.