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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Feb. 27) -- bizarro Daytona 500 beats 10 p.m. newscasts

By ED BARK
Beset by everything but a plague of locusts and rivers of blood, Fox's long-delayed Daytona 500 finally ended just a few strokes before midnight Monday.

It ranked as D-FW's most-watched attraction from 10 p.m. until the checkered flag while running just a hair behind ABC's Castle in the 9 p.m. hour. But among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, Daytona rolled over all rival 9 p.m. attractions.

NBC's The Voice again emerged as Monday night's juggernaut, though, amassing 453,865 viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. while also crunching all comers in the 18-to-49 demographic.

The Peacock's Smash then pretty much crashed, falling to a fourth-place 169,353 total viewers at 9 p.m. while also claiming that spot with 18-to-49-year-olds.

The 10 to 10:30 p.m. portion of Daytona drew 237,094 total viewers in edging WFAA8's local newscast (230,319 viewers). In its final quarter hour -- 11:45 p.m. to midnight -- the race still had an audience of 216,771 viewers tuned to high-speech drivers in their oval offices.

In the 10 p.m. local newscast field, WFAA8 also beat its two rivals -- NBC5 and CBS11 -- among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. With just two weekdays remaining in the February ratings "sweeps," the race among 25-to-54-year-olds remains extremely close among WFAA8, NBC5 and CBS11. The total viewers gold at this hour will go to CBS11 by a comparatively comfortable margin.

Fox4 won another doubleheader at 6 a.m., this time by unusually big margins. But the race for second place with 25-to-54-year-olds will go down to the wire between NBC5 and WFAA8, which took Monday's silver while its Daybreak continues to ply potential viewers with its roving free food truck. NBC5 currently has no plans to provide dessert.

WFAA8 swept the 6 p.m. local news competitions as the Daytona got underway on Fox. At 5 p.m., Fox4 won in total viewers and NBC5 with 25-to-54-year-olds.