Idol's numbers remain off the charts | None | Uncle Barky's Bytes

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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Jan. 26) -- Idol's numbers remain off the charts

By ED BARK
Two new judges and cloudy forecasts for Season 10 haven't yet caused Fox to lose any sleep over American Idol's punching power.

The D-FW Nielsens show that Wednesday's two-hour audition chunk from Milwaukee bludgeoned everything in its path while ratings also stabilized nationally. It helped that ABC punted with mostly repeats. But CBS sent a new episode of Criminal Minds into battle -- and was slaughtered.

Idol, in which newbie Steven Tyler is starting to gain traction, averaged 581,759 viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. locally. That wiped out former judge Paula Abdul's Live to Dance (96,960 viewers) in the 7 p.m. hour and more than doubled the audience for CBS' following Criminal Minds (283,954 viewers).

Also again left for dead was a new episode of NBC's made-in-Dallas Chase. It ran fourth at 8 p.m. with a lost cause audience of 69,257 while also finishing well out of the money among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

CBS recovered in part at 9 p.m., with a first-run hour of Blue Bloods nipping Fox4's Super Bowl XLV-stuffed local newscast in total viewers by a score of 277,028 to 263,177. But Fox4's news called the tune at that hour in the 18-to-49 demographic while Blue Bloods plummeted to fourth.

ABC's new Off the Map medical soap opera, from the creators of Grey's Anatomy, tied for third in total viewers at 9 p.m. with NBC's reprise of Law & Order: SVU. The two series likewise shared the bronze with 18-to-49-year-olds.

In the four-way local news derby competitions, WFAA8 impressively overcame its smallish Off the Map lead-in to ring up twin wins at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 and NBC5 again fought close battles for the 6 a.m. top spots, with the Peacock barely on top in total viewers and Fox4 winning by a sliver with 25-to-54-year-olds. As the February "sweeps" ratings period nears (with a Thursday, Feb. 3rd start date), both WFAA8 and CBS11 appear to be completely out of contention in the early morns.

In the early evening hours, Fox4 swept the 5 p.m. races and added a 6 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11 won at 6 p.m. in total viewers for the third straight weekday.
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