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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Mon., Dec. 10-13) -- Cowboys numbers go through the roof, probably for last time this season

By ED BARK
The Dallas Cowboys' concluding game this season on NBC's big Sunday Night Football stage drew the team's biggest D-FW audience to date.

A mega-crowd of 1,627,540 watched the Cowboys drop their ninth game of the season, a 30-27 loss to the likely playoff-bound Philadelphia Eagles. That's quite a pole vault from the season's ratings low point -- a measly 907,276 viewers for the Halloween home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The 4-9 Cowboys almost assuredly won't approach Sunday's heights again with their remaining holiday season games against the Washington Redskins, Arizona Cardinals and Eagles. In fact, the Christmas night game against equally crummy Arizona could well be the least-watched of this desultory season.

Also on Sunday, your friendly content provider's playoff-contending Green Bay Packers played like zeroes in a 7-3 loss to the lowly Detroit Lions that drew 325,508 viewers on Fox. A Jerry Jones-spiked edition of CBS' 60 Minutes lured a bigger crowd (408,616 viewers) after a football runover delayed its start time to 6:30 p.m.

Monday's prime-time Nielsens were controlled wall-to-wall in total viewers by CBS' all-new lineup of four sitcoms and a Christmas-themed Hawaii Five-0. In it, Steve McGarrett shot a machine gun to the tune of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." OK, not really, but the action hour did have a Christmas motif.

CBS also ran the table Monday night with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds while a new Mariah Carey Christmas special on ABC ran fourth across the board with a puny 55,406 viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. In contrast, CBS' combo of Two and a Half Men and Mike & Molly drew 360,136 and 270,102 viewers respectively from 8 to 9 p.m.

Here are the local news derby results for Friday and Monday.

Friday -- CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers but NBC5 stretched its first-place streak to four straight weeknights among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming on most stations.

The Peacock also prevailed at 6 a.m. in total viewers while Fox4 had the edge with 25-to-54-year-olds.

WFAA8 swept the 6 p.m. competitions and tied for first at 5 p.m. in total viewers with CBS11. Fox4 won at 5 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demographic.

Monday -- CBS11 had a bountiful day, again running first at 10 p.m. in total viewers and this time edging NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds to halt the Peacock's four-night run.

NBC5 took the 6 a.m. gold in total viewers while CBS11 made a rare appearance in the early morning winner's circle by tying Fox4 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds.

CBS11 ran the table at 6 p.m. Fox4 and WFAA8 tied for first in total viewers at 5 p.m., with Fox4 winning the gold outright in the 25-to-54 measurement.