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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Mon., Feb. 12-15) -- Grammys raise the roof

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
CBS’ three-and-half-hour Grammy Awards, notable for its tributes to prominent deceased artists, ruled prime-time Monday and increased its D-FW audience from last year’s show.

The Grammys averaged 658,663 viewers, up from 627,660 for the 2015 show. A total of 285,813 were in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic, a slight bump from last year’s 280,688.

Nothing else came close Monday night. Fox’s 7 p.m. episode of The X-Files offered the most resistance in the total viewers measurement with 184,142 while ABC’s The Bachelor ran second with 18-to-49-year-olds (66,690).

Lady Gaga’s super-showy ode to the late David Bowie soaked up the most Twitter commentary, with ardent fans on both sides of whether she succeeded or failed. Glenn Frey, B.B. King and Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White also were saluted. The latter’s tribute came from Stevie Wonder, with Arlington’s Pentatonix getting a nice national showcase by harmonizing alongside him.

Sunday night’s ridiculously high-scoring NBA All-Star game, simulcast on TNT and TBS, also drew a bigger crowd than last year’s -- but with an asterisk. The 2015 game had to go directly against NBC’s blockbuster 40th anniversary Saturday Night Live celebration. It ended up limping away with 139,480 total viewers and 78,845 in the 18-to-49 age range.

The 2016 All-Star game drew 113,318 total viewers on TNT and another 49,577 on TBS for a combined 166,895. More than half of that crowd again was in the 18-to-49 motherlode, with 73,041 watching TNT and 31,757 choosing TBS for a total of 104,798. But AMC’s 8 p.m. return of The Walking Dead smoked that portion of the All-Star game with 262,049 total viewers and an eye-popping 165,136 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

On to Saturday night, where CBS’ two-hour Republican presidential candidate insult-a-thon easily led all prime-time programming with 290,378 total viewers. The competing TNT/TBS All-Star weekend competitions, led by the slam-dunk and three-point shooting contests, ran second with a combined 169,978 total viewers. The Republicans also nipped the All-Stars among 18-to-49-year-olds.

Friday night’s top draws were CBS’ 9 p.m. episode of Blue Bloods in total viewers (276,214) and ABC’s 8 p.m. edition of Shark Tank in the 18-to-49 realm (92,095).

Here are the Friday and Monday local news derby results as we near the mid-point of the February “sweeps” ratings period.

Friday -- TEGNA8 and CBS11 tied for the lead at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 remained unbeaten in the sweeps at 6 a.m. and NBC5 rolled to doubleheader wins at both 5 and 6 p.m.

Monday -- NBC5 took a President’s Day holiday exemption for all of its main newscasts while Fox4 counted out everything except its 10 p.m. newscast. CBS11 knocked out its 6 a.m. news and had the 6 and 10 p.m. editions rubbed out by a Grammy Awards special and the extended portion of the actual awards.

So the hell with it.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net