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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Nov. 5) -- heavy duty news day favors WFAA8 in afternoon hours

By ED BARK
Local coverage of the horrific shootings at Fort Hood preempted mid-to-late-afternoon entertainment programming Thursday, with WFAA8 attracting the overall largest audiences.

Here's the breakdown from 2:30 to 5 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the preferred advertiser audience for news programming:

TOTAL VIEWERS
WFAA8 -- 106,288
Fox4 -- 79,716
NBC5 -- 73,073
CBS11 -- 53,144

25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
WFAA8 -- 51,600
Fox4 -- 36,424
NBC5 -- 27,318
CBS11 -- 21,247

The largest audiences gathered between 4 and 5 p.m. before regularly scheduled newscasts kicked in. In that hour, NBC5 edged Fox4 for second place in total viewers but remained third among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 ran first in both measurements.

Ratings for news coverage couldn't match those of CBS' The Mentalist, which easily had Thursday's biggest haul with 365,365 total viewers in the 9 p.m. hour while also winning with 18-to-49-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for non-news programming.

Fox's Bones began the night with a 7 p.m. win in total viewers, but ran second to CBS' Survivor: Samoa in the 18-to-49 demographic. CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation paced the 8 p.m. field in both audience measurements.

CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast took its dominant Mentalist lead-in to the bank with a win in total viewers while WFAA8 again finished second. The tables were turned among 25-to-54-year-olds, though, with WFAA8 topping runner-up CBS11.

At 6 a.m., NBC5 ended Fox4's three weekday winning streak with a two-pronged sweep.

WFAA8 won in total viewers at both 5 and 6 p.m. while also taking a 5 p.m. gold in the 25-to-54 bout. NBC5 won at 6 p.m. in that demographic.