Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., March 1) -- seems like old times: Leno smacks Letterman
03/02/10 10:00 AM
By ED BARK
Jay Leno's first Tonight Show do-over Monday amounted to a rerun of his past battles with David Letterman's Late Show.
Leno drew nearly triple Letterman's audience in D-FW while annihilating him even worse among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds. Of course it's early. And there was an obvious curiosity factor. But still . . .
Here are the numbers:
TOTAL VIEWERS
Tonight Show -- 217,162
Nightline -- 128,940
Late Show -- 74,649
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Tonight Show -- 75,017
Nightline -- 52,186
Late Show -- 13,046
Letterman also was beaten in total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds by CW33's 10:30 to 11:30 p.m. repeats of Two and a Half Men and Friends. His featured guest was Bill Murray Monday night while Leno countered with Jamie Foxx and Olympic downhill skiing gold medalist Lindsey Vonn.
Elsewhere on Monday's landscape, ABC's climactic two-hour The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love, starring Dallas pilot Jake Pavelka, won the 7 p.m. hour in total viewers before finishing second from 8 to 9 p.m. behind new episodes of CBS' Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory.
But Bachelor beat all competing programming in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic and also ran first in that age range at 9 p.m. with its After the Final Rose recap. CBS' new hour of CSI: Miami tied After the Final Rose for first in total viewers.
Fox punted at 7 p.m. with a House rerun that ran fourth across the board before a new episode of 24 beat NBC's Law & Order for third place in both ratings measurements.
The 9 p.m. second hour of L&O, first of a wave of Jay Leno Show replacements, drew a respectable 217,162 total viewers. That was good enough to beat Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast, and a significantly better showing than Leno had been making on most nights.
NBC's Chuck continued to be its highest-rated Monday show, this time with 223,948 total viewers and an even better showing with 18-to-49-year-olds, where it ran second at 7 p.m.
On to the local news derby results, where WFAA8 rode a strong lead-in from After the Final Rose to a doubleheader win at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the preferred advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 got off to a decent 10 p.m. restart by finishing second in total viewers before dipping to third with 25-to-54-year-olds behind runnerup CBS11.
The Peacock again ran the table at 6 a.m., with Fox4 taking the silvers.
WFAA8 controlled the 5 and 6 p.m. newscast ratings in total viewers, but Fox4 again won both matchups among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The February "sweeps" ratings period, which ends Wednesday night, will be written off as largely inconsequential at 10 p.m., where NBC's Olympics overruns skewed the numbers.
NBC5's early evening newscasts also benefited from being sandwiched between afternoon and prime-time Winter Games coverage. But the 6 a.m. Nielsens are relatively pure, and NBC5 looks like a winner there.
Jay Leno's first Tonight Show do-over Monday amounted to a rerun of his past battles with David Letterman's Late Show.
Leno drew nearly triple Letterman's audience in D-FW while annihilating him even worse among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds. Of course it's early. And there was an obvious curiosity factor. But still . . .
Here are the numbers:
TOTAL VIEWERS
Tonight Show -- 217,162
Nightline -- 128,940
Late Show -- 74,649
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Tonight Show -- 75,017
Nightline -- 52,186
Late Show -- 13,046
Letterman also was beaten in total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds by CW33's 10:30 to 11:30 p.m. repeats of Two and a Half Men and Friends. His featured guest was Bill Murray Monday night while Leno countered with Jamie Foxx and Olympic downhill skiing gold medalist Lindsey Vonn.
Elsewhere on Monday's landscape, ABC's climactic two-hour The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love, starring Dallas pilot Jake Pavelka, won the 7 p.m. hour in total viewers before finishing second from 8 to 9 p.m. behind new episodes of CBS' Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory.
But Bachelor beat all competing programming in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic and also ran first in that age range at 9 p.m. with its After the Final Rose recap. CBS' new hour of CSI: Miami tied After the Final Rose for first in total viewers.
Fox punted at 7 p.m. with a House rerun that ran fourth across the board before a new episode of 24 beat NBC's Law & Order for third place in both ratings measurements.
The 9 p.m. second hour of L&O, first of a wave of Jay Leno Show replacements, drew a respectable 217,162 total viewers. That was good enough to beat Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast, and a significantly better showing than Leno had been making on most nights.
NBC's Chuck continued to be its highest-rated Monday show, this time with 223,948 total viewers and an even better showing with 18-to-49-year-olds, where it ran second at 7 p.m.
On to the local news derby results, where WFAA8 rode a strong lead-in from After the Final Rose to a doubleheader win at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the preferred advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 got off to a decent 10 p.m. restart by finishing second in total viewers before dipping to third with 25-to-54-year-olds behind runnerup CBS11.
The Peacock again ran the table at 6 a.m., with Fox4 taking the silvers.
WFAA8 controlled the 5 and 6 p.m. newscast ratings in total viewers, but Fox4 again won both matchups among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The February "sweeps" ratings period, which ends Wednesday night, will be written off as largely inconsequential at 10 p.m., where NBC's Olympics overruns skewed the numbers.
NBC5's early evening newscasts also benefited from being sandwiched between afternoon and prime-time Winter Games coverage. But the 6 a.m. Nielsens are relatively pure, and NBC5 looks like a winner there.
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