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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Dec. 30-Jan. 2) -- foot-bowl palooza, plus the Cowboys

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Hmm, where do we begin? Well, let’s start with the Dallas Cowboys on a 2016-2017 weekend that also was packed with prominent college bowl games and other significant pro pigskin match ups.

The Cowboys’ less than aggressive approach to their season finale resulted in a 27-13 loss on an afternoon when the lowly Philadelphia Eagles were gifted with Mark Sanchez at quarterback for most of the game after brief sightings of Dak Prescott and -- wonder of wonders -- Tony Romo.

Running until 3:05 p.m. on Fox, Cowboys-Eagles averaged 1,526,931 D-FW viewers and 622,177 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old age range. Although falling more than 400,00 short short of the Dec. 11th season high in total viewers (Cowboys at the Giants), that’s still a very impressive crowd for a noon-starting game. The Romo factor obviously didn’t hurt.

Dallas finished the regular season with a 13-3 record and now awaits its next foe -- likely either the Green Bay Packers or New York Giants.

The Packers, whom the Cowboys whipped handily early in the season, are a team to be feared again after winning their last six games. They won the NFC’s North division on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, beating the Detroit Lions to the tune of 603,501 total viewers in D-FW. Fox’s Sunday Cowboys followup, the Giants win over the Washington Redskins, did appreciably better than that with 814,363 viewers. Over on CBS, the noon-starting New England Patriots-Miami Dolphins matchup barely registered with a puny 43,627 viewers.

On Monday, Uncle Barky’s alma mater Wisconsin Badgers beat previously unbeaten Western Michigan 24-16 in the Cotton Bowl at Jerry’s Palace. A noon start didn’t help, but c’mon people. The game averaged just 109,067 viewers on ESPN, barely better than ABC’s competing Outback Bowl (101,795 viewers), in which Florida blew out Iowa 30-3.

Then came ESPN’s crazily entertaining, marathon Rose Bowl, won 52-49 by USC over Penn State on a last second field goal. The game stretched all the way to 8:25 p.m. and averaged 305,386 viewers. The Orange Bowl, sent to ESPN2 for most of the first quarter, emerged on ESPN at about 8:30 p.m. Oklahoma’s rout of Auburn ended at 11:24 p.m. From 8:30 p.m. until closing, the game drew an average of 290,844 viewers.

On Saturday, college football’s pair of Final Four games were both one-sided and also on ESPN. Alabama’s 24-7 win over Washington came first, averaging 341,742 total viewers after kicking off a little after 2 p.m.. Clemson’s 31-0 plastering of Ohio State came up a bit bigger audience-wise with 392,639 viewers. Alabama and Clemson will square off Jan. 9th on ESPN for the national championship.

There also were some notable entertainment series premieres. Fox fared the best with Sunday’s 7 p.m. sneak-preview of The Mick, which had a very nice-sized 421,724 total viewers and 189,219 in the 18-to-49 demographic. The sitcom now moves to its regular Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. slot.

Over on CBS, the Sunday 7:30 p.m. premiere of Ransom had 145,422 total viewers and 41,692 in the 18-to-49 realm. The multi-country co-production will take its crime-busting to 7 p.m. Saturdays.

On Monday, NBC offered the two-hour 8 p.m. launch of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Celebrity Apprentice, which drew 138,151 total viewers and just 38,485 in the 18-to-49 age range. It was whipped in both measurements by ABC’s competing two-hour return of The Bachelor, which had respective totals of 159,964 and 83,385 viewers.

Here are Friday’s local news derby results. (All four combatants took holiday exemptions on Monday.)

CBS11 won in total viewers at 10 p.m. while NBC5 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions and NBC5 did likewise at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net