CBS/ABC dominate with crime, dancing in Dallas-Fort Worth ratings

by Ed Bark of of UncleBarky.com

The second night of the new fall season gave CBS another big lift while ABC was still kicking with another two hours of hoof and puff.

The 7 p.m. hour went to the season premiere of CBS' NCIS, which drew 358,722 D-FW viewers to beat the first hour of ABC's Dancing with the Stars (325,507 viewers).

CBS' launch of NCIS: Los Angeles then drew an even bigger crowd at 8 p.m., with 378,651 viewers. But so did Dancing, which prevailed with 391,937 viewers.

The 9 p.m. hour went to CBS' premiere of The Good Wife (358,722 viewers), which had a comfortable margin over the first outing of ABC's runnerup The Forgotten (212,576 viewers).

Even better for CBS, it swept the 7 to 10 p.m. ratings among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, with Good Wife making the biggest haul (152,336 viewers in this age range).

NBC's The Jay Leno Show lagged for the second straight night, with its host's ample jaw broken in two places with 139,503 total viewers at 9 p.m. Leno moved up to second with 18-to-49-year-olds, beating The Forgotten. But among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming, he slid back to third. That's not a good sign when you're the lead-in for local newscasts that prize 25-to-54-year-olds, particularly women.

Two helpings of Fox's Hell's Kitchen put the network in fourth place from 7 to 9 p.m. among total viewers. But the first hour of Kitchen moved up to third in the 18-to-49 demographic, beating the opening hour of NBC's competing Biggest Loser. Those positions were reversed in the 8 p.m. hour.

At 5:30 p.m., the second outing of The 33's local newscast outdrew the CBS Evening News in total viewers. But it made a bigger noise among 25-to-54-year-olds, beating all three network newscasts while running a competitive second to Fox4's local news. In each measurement, The 33's 5:30 p.m. news had more than twice as many viewers as its nightly 9 p.m. edition.

In other local news derby results, CBS11 won for the second straight weeknight at 10 p.m. in total viewers, but WFAA8 had the edge with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 again dropped to fourth on both scoreboards.

The Peacock and Fox4 tied at the 6 a.m. hour in total viewers, with NBC5 winning narrowly among 25-to-54-year-olds.

WFAA8 took the 5 and 6 p.m. competitions in total viewers, but Fox4 dominated at those hours in the 25-to-54 demographic.