Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., Oct. 17-18) -- throwaway Thursday Night Football game still takes most of the spoils
10/19/18 01:33 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarky com on Twitter
Fox’s Thursday Night Football got stuck with two losing teams, with one of them putting on one of the worst shows in prime-time NFL history, save for those who had the Denver Broncos as their Fantasy defense.
Nonetheless, the Broncos’ 45-10 walloping of the pitiful Arizona Cardinals outdrew all of the night’s alternatives except for CBS’ 7 to 8 p.m. combo of The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. And among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, the game won across the board.
Big Bang, most of which aired before football started, drew the most total D-FW viewers with 323,348. Young Sheldon followed with 281,172 before the NFL pitched a shutout for the rest of the night on Fox alone (not counting the NFL Network tack-on for its simulcast). The game overall averaged 224,938 viewers.
In the 18-to-49-year-old realm, Broncos-Cardinals clubbed the opposition all night, finishing with an average of 90,576 for a game in which Denver led 35-3 at halftime.
On TBS, the Boston Red Sox closeout of the Houston Astros in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series drew roughly half the audience for football in the total viewers measurement and about one-fourth the audience among 18-to-49ers.
CNN’s 6 to 7 p.m. town hall meeting with Texas Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke (Republican incumbent Ted Cruz declined) drew 40,067 total viewers to make it the network’s most-watched program of the day.
In Wednesday’s prime-time programming parade, NBC’s 8 p.m. hour of Chicago Fire had the most total viewers (217,908) while Fox’s 7 p.m. episode of Empire ranked No. 1 with 18-to-49-year-olds (51,326).
Here are Wednesday’s and Thursday’s local news derby results.
Wednesday -- The 10 p.m. firsts were split between NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).
Fox4 again swept the 6 a.m. competitions while NBC5 enjoyed twin wins at both 5 and 6 p.m.
Thursday -- NBC5 swept both the 10 p.m. and 5 p.m. races, with Fox4 notching another pair of 6 a.m. firsts. At 6 p.m., the Peacock and CBS11 tied for the lead in total viewers, but NBC5 was alone in first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Of note: In the 6 a.m. skirmishes, CBS11 finished second with 25-to-54-year-olds on both Wednesday and Thursday. That’s rarefied air for the station, which usually runs fourth in this key news demographic. TEGNA8, which previously had been creating some distance at 6 a.m. between rivals NBC5 and CBS11, limped in with a third place finish among 25-to-54-year-olds on Wednesday and ran last on Thursday.
But TEGNA8’s attention-attracting traffic anchor, Demetria Obilor, has been on vacation of late and will return Monday. Could that have made that big of a difference? The November ratings “sweeps” start on Thursday, Oct. 25th.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net
@unclebarky com on Twitter
Fox’s Thursday Night Football got stuck with two losing teams, with one of them putting on one of the worst shows in prime-time NFL history, save for those who had the Denver Broncos as their Fantasy defense.
Nonetheless, the Broncos’ 45-10 walloping of the pitiful Arizona Cardinals outdrew all of the night’s alternatives except for CBS’ 7 to 8 p.m. combo of The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. And among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, the game won across the board.
Big Bang, most of which aired before football started, drew the most total D-FW viewers with 323,348. Young Sheldon followed with 281,172 before the NFL pitched a shutout for the rest of the night on Fox alone (not counting the NFL Network tack-on for its simulcast). The game overall averaged 224,938 viewers.
In the 18-to-49-year-old realm, Broncos-Cardinals clubbed the opposition all night, finishing with an average of 90,576 for a game in which Denver led 35-3 at halftime.
On TBS, the Boston Red Sox closeout of the Houston Astros in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series drew roughly half the audience for football in the total viewers measurement and about one-fourth the audience among 18-to-49ers.
CNN’s 6 to 7 p.m. town hall meeting with Texas Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke (Republican incumbent Ted Cruz declined) drew 40,067 total viewers to make it the network’s most-watched program of the day.
In Wednesday’s prime-time programming parade, NBC’s 8 p.m. hour of Chicago Fire had the most total viewers (217,908) while Fox’s 7 p.m. episode of Empire ranked No. 1 with 18-to-49-year-olds (51,326).
Here are Wednesday’s and Thursday’s local news derby results.
Wednesday -- The 10 p.m. firsts were split between NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).
Fox4 again swept the 6 a.m. competitions while NBC5 enjoyed twin wins at both 5 and 6 p.m.
Thursday -- NBC5 swept both the 10 p.m. and 5 p.m. races, with Fox4 notching another pair of 6 a.m. firsts. At 6 p.m., the Peacock and CBS11 tied for the lead in total viewers, but NBC5 was alone in first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Of note: In the 6 a.m. skirmishes, CBS11 finished second with 25-to-54-year-olds on both Wednesday and Thursday. That’s rarefied air for the station, which usually runs fourth in this key news demographic. TEGNA8, which previously had been creating some distance at 6 a.m. between rivals NBC5 and CBS11, limped in with a third place finish among 25-to-54-year-olds on Wednesday and ran last on Thursday.
But TEGNA8’s attention-attracting traffic anchor, Demetria Obilor, has been on vacation of late and will return Monday. Could that have made that big of a difference? The November ratings “sweeps” start on Thursday, Oct. 25th.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net