The River runs dry for ABC in Dallas-Fort Worth ratings

CBS' 200th episode of NCIS easily had Tuesday's biggest overall haul.

ABC's The River may soon be water under the dam, judging from the ratings for its two-hour premiere.

Hoping to entrance viewers with a mix of mystery, horror, and hand-held cameras, The River somewhat held its own in D-FW's total viewer Nielsens, but fell hard with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

Its 8 to 10 p.m. Tuesday launch averaged 155,804 viewers overall, outdrawing NBC's second half of The Biggest Loser and Parenthood while nipping Fox's 8:30 to 9 p.m. new episode of Raising Hope. But it had less than half the audience for CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles (406,446 viewers) while also losing to the network's Unforgettable (298,060), Fox's New Girl (209,997), and Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast (162,578).

The 18-to-49 verdict was harsher, with The River beating only the flagging Loser while Parenthood rose from fourth to first place at 9 p.m. in this key demographic.

At 7 p.m., CBS' 200th episode of NCIS easily had Tuesday's biggest overall haul, flexing with 548,702 total viewers while also winning comfortably among 18-to-49-year-olds opposite Fox's second place Glee.

In local news derby results, CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers for the third of four weeknight February "sweeps" competitions. Its 304,835 viewers trounced runner-up and reigning champ WFAA8 (189,675 viewers), which has yet to record a late night sweeps win in this measurement.

CBS11 also added its first 10 p.m. gold among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. Nielsens, with WFAA8 continuing its strong push for a second place finish among 25-to-54-year-olds by nipping NBC5 for second place.

But the Peacock ran the table at 5 p.m. for the third time in four weekdays. The 6 p.m. crowns went to CBS11 in total viewers and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.

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lisaltx, anonymous:

I thought about watching The River, but I already have too much stuff to watch at 9 pm on Tuesday (White Collar, Justified). Things get DVR'd and watched later in the week.

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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damn yankee, anonymous:

> Hoping to entrance viewers with a mix of mystery, horror and hand-held cameras

Lost all possible interest right there. If I want to get nauseated by the Michael J. Fox school of filmography, I'll just watch The Bourne Colonoscopy again.

3 months, 2 weeks ago
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