Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Nov. 2) -- Cubs win!!! Cubs win!!!

Bill Murray will take this Groundhog Day over & over & over again. Photo: Ed Bark

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Looking for a ratings grand slam? A drama-drenched, history-rich Game 7 of the World Series will do that for you. And for Fox.

The 8-7 Chicago Cubs’ win over the Cleveland Indians, which went 10 innings and ran until 11:47 p.m. (including a 17-minute late night rain delay), averaged 792,550 DFW viewers and 368,817 in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic. That’s close to twice the total audience for Game 6 and more than double the number of 18-to-49-year-olds.

The Cubs ended a 108-year championship-less drought after blowing a 3-run late inning lead and surviving the bizarro pitching machinations of manager Joe Maddon, who would have been the game’s biggest (Billy) goat had the Indians pulled this one out.

Game 7 faced formidable competition from ABC’s usually potent Country Music Association Awards ceremony, which ran long until 10:21 p.m. and left TEGNA8’s 10 p.m. newscast in the lurch during the ongoing November “sweeps” ratings period. The CMAs still had a nice-sized 370,826 total viewers but a disappointing 105,834 in the 18-to-49 age range.

NBC belatedly opted for wall-to-wall prime-time reruns while CBS substituted a repeat of Criminal Minds at 8 p.m. All were buried.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results for the fifth weekday of the November sweeps.

NBC5 won a downsized two-way competition at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. races and NBC5 did likewise at both 5 and 6 p.m. Fox4’s 6 p.m. newscast was rubbed out by a World Series pre-game show.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net