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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., June 22) -- draft dodging

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
ESPN’s marathon coverage of the NBA draft, which ran from 6:40 to 11:22 p.m., ended up as an air ball in the D-FW Nielsen ratings.

Overall, the draft averaged just 58,169 viewers and dribbled off to 7,271 for the closing minutes. The audience peaked between 7:30 and 7:45 p.m., with 87,253 viewers on hand for the segment that included the Dallas Mavericks’ pick of point guard Dennis Smith, Jr. at 7:33 p.m.

Advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds also tuned out, with the draft averaging a lowly 22,450 viewers in this key demographic and 35,278 for the Mavs’ pick.

In contrast, CBS’ 7 p.m. rerun of The Big Bang Theory hit Thursday night’s high point in total viewers with 210,862. It also led among 18-to-49-year-olds (44,899).

ABC and NBC went head-to-head from 7 to 10 p.m. with the debuts of their summertime Thursday lineups.

The Peacock’s trio of returnees led across the board in total viewers. Hollywood Game Night had 101,795, followed by The Wall (116,338) and The Night Shift (101,795).

Hollywood Game Night also won among 18-to-49-year-olds, but CBS’ repeat of Mom ran first from 8 to 8:30 p.m. before the second half of The Wall edged CBS’ Life In Pieces reprise for the top spot.

Then came ABC’s new version of The Gong Show, which outdrew both CBS and NBC in the 18-to-49 range but was beaten by Fox4’s competing 9 p.m. local newscast.

The Gong Show dug out of a huge hole left by ABC’s two-hour debut of the “reality competition” series Boy Band, which mega-bombed from 7 to 9 p.m. with 36,356 total viewers and 16,036 in the 18-to-49 realm. Gong Show trampolined to 94,524 total viewers and 38,485 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.

TEGNA8 touted its 10 p.m. news during The Gong Show with a classic lowest common denominator tease by co-anchor Cynthia Izaguirre.
She promised “wild video” of car crashes, a developing story on a killer bees attack and a “police chase you’ve got to see” involving a crazed 81-year-old grandma. “You don’t want to miss News 8 at tonight,” Izzy warned.

Well, it sort of worked -- but not like clockwork. TEGNA8 and CBS11 tied for the 10 p.m. lead in total viewers, but Fox4 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming) while TEGNA8 slipped to second.

Fox4 drew the most total viewers at 6 a.m., but NBC5 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds.

TEGNA8 and NBC5 shared the 6 p.m. spoils, with the ABC station drawing the most total viewers and NBC5 the choice among 25-to-54-year-olds.

At 5 p.m., the Peacock and TEGNA8 tied for the most total viewers, but NBC5 comfortably won with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net