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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., June 19-21) -- Nielsen's all caught up

By ED BARK
Nielsen Media Research caught up with itself by early Monday afternoon, and now is back in the business of reporting the previous night's ratings on the following morning.

The historic switch from analog to digital, on June 12th, had kept local TV stations on waiting lists for a week while the nation's numbers counter coped with the change. Some D-FW stations would just as soon wait a little longer for the dismal ratings they're receiving of late. Count WFAA8 and CBS11 among the almost missing in action Friday at the newscast hours of 5 and 6 p.m.

Both stations struggled to stay above the water line in the key 25-to-54-year-old news audience demographic favored by most advertisers.

WFAA8 had just 19,447 viewers in this age range, barely edging CBS11 (16,206) in the 5 p.m. competition. Fox4 took the top spot with 64,824 viewers of the 25-to-54 persuasion.

At 6 p.m., WFAA8 dipped to 16,206 viewers in the 25-to-54 field while CBS11 sagged to 6,482. Even so, that was better than the preceding CBS Evening News, barely breathing with a pitiful 1,945 viewers in this key demographic. Fox4 again took the gold with 58,342 viewers.

The total viewer crowns at 5 and 6 p.m. respectively went to Fox4 and NBC5, with the Peacock also topping the 10 p.m. ratings in this measurement. NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for first at 10 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds, where it was Fox4's turn to have that sinking feeling. It ran an out-of-the-money fourth with 25,930 viewers in this age range, compared to 51,859 apiece for NBC5 and WFAA8.

The Peacock remained a model of consistency at 6 a.m., again romping to twin wins.

The 9 p.m. local news on KDAF-TV (The 33) continued to feel the pain of the digital age, drawing just 13,286 total viewers, 9,724 of them in the 25-to-54 demographic and 3,369 within the CW network's target 18-to-34 age range.

NBC's coverage of the rain-soaked U.S. Open golf championship, which didn't end until Monday afternoon, dominated the Saturday-Sunday sports ratings.

Saturday's audience peaked at 146,146 total viewers between 5:45 and 6 p.m. Sunday's coverage had a high of 265,720 viewers between 6:45 and 7 p.m.