Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., July 23)
07/24/08 09:11 AM
By ED BARK
TXA21's ballyhooed turnoff turned out to be a bit of a turn-on Wednesday night.
The buildup, however, drew a bigger audience than the station's brief analog signal shutdown at 8:15 p.m. during its nightly two-hour local newscast.
From 7 to 8 p.m., TXA21's "First in Prime" news averaged 73,068 D-FW homes, peaking at 97,424 between 7:15 to 7:30 p.m., according to Nielsen's numbers. That was good enough to outpoint both CBS' Big Brother 10 (70,632 homes) and NBC's Baby Borrowers rerun (31,663 homes) for the full hour.
(Side note: In other words, few in these parts saw 35-year-old rodeo competitor Steven Daigle of Dallas evicted from BB10 Wednesday.)
From 8 to 9 p.m., TXA21's news drew 56,019 total homes, with a peak audience of 75,504 from 8 to 8:15 p.m.
Those are both nice bumps from Tuesday night's numbers, when the news had just 24,356 homes from 7 to 8 p.m. and 38,970 in its second hour.
At Uncle Barky central, our non-digital, dinky little countertop kitchen TV set went to fuzz as anticipated during the 30-second test. The cable hookups all remained in play, as they should have.
TXA21 reporter Jay Gormley, live at the station's transmitter center, presided over the switchoff in a manner that at times made it seem as though he was stationed underground at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons complex.
Meanwhile, anchor Doug Dunbar reported from a phone bank of experts answering questions from perplexed TV watchers who wonder if they'll be ready for the big Feb. 17th FCC-mandated switch from analog to digital signals. The station supposedly was flooded with calls.
Back at the mothership, anchors Tracy Kornet and Chris Salcedo breezily set the table, with Kornet tongue-in-cheekily billing the switchoff as "a fun family event."
Well, it was kinda fun. But make no mistake. All of D-FW's broadcast stations are more than a little concerned about what could happen to their ratings in what would have been the heart of the February "sweeps" competition until Nielsen Media Research mercifully moved them to March for next year only.
Meanwhile, there are still plenty of analog-only sets in this market, and those $40 government-funded coupons toward the purchase of a digital converter box are only available "while supplies last."
Furthermore, as TXA21 reported, TV owners with coupons already in hand are finding it hard to find stores with those digital boxes in stock. So stay tuned, until you can't anymore.
In other ratings news, CBS' rerun combo of Criminal Minds and CSI: NY controlled the total homes ratings from 8 to 10 p..m.
The first hour of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance had the biggest overall audience from 7 to 8 p.m., but ran second among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The respective winners in that key demographic were ABC's Wife Swap at 7 p.m. and NBC's first-run Baby Borrowers at 8 p.m.
In the local news derby, WFAA8's 10 p.m. edition nipped CBS11 in total homes, with the two stations tying for first among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The "Who's in First?" 6 a.m. competition had another different outcome. Fox4 took first in total homes and WFAA8 topped the 25-to-54 demo. NBC5, which had run the table on both Monday and Tuesday, tied for second in both measurements.
Fox4 had a total homes win at 5 p.m., but WFAA8 took the 25-to-54 gold.
WFAA8 once again swept the 6 p.m. competitions, running its weekday streak to 23.
TXA21's ballyhooed turnoff turned out to be a bit of a turn-on Wednesday night.
The buildup, however, drew a bigger audience than the station's brief analog signal shutdown at 8:15 p.m. during its nightly two-hour local newscast.
From 7 to 8 p.m., TXA21's "First in Prime" news averaged 73,068 D-FW homes, peaking at 97,424 between 7:15 to 7:30 p.m., according to Nielsen's numbers. That was good enough to outpoint both CBS' Big Brother 10 (70,632 homes) and NBC's Baby Borrowers rerun (31,663 homes) for the full hour.
(Side note: In other words, few in these parts saw 35-year-old rodeo competitor Steven Daigle of Dallas evicted from BB10 Wednesday.)
From 8 to 9 p.m., TXA21's news drew 56,019 total homes, with a peak audience of 75,504 from 8 to 8:15 p.m.
Those are both nice bumps from Tuesday night's numbers, when the news had just 24,356 homes from 7 to 8 p.m. and 38,970 in its second hour.
At Uncle Barky central, our non-digital, dinky little countertop kitchen TV set went to fuzz as anticipated during the 30-second test. The cable hookups all remained in play, as they should have.
TXA21 reporter Jay Gormley, live at the station's transmitter center, presided over the switchoff in a manner that at times made it seem as though he was stationed underground at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons complex.
Meanwhile, anchor Doug Dunbar reported from a phone bank of experts answering questions from perplexed TV watchers who wonder if they'll be ready for the big Feb. 17th FCC-mandated switch from analog to digital signals. The station supposedly was flooded with calls.
Back at the mothership, anchors Tracy Kornet and Chris Salcedo breezily set the table, with Kornet tongue-in-cheekily billing the switchoff as "a fun family event."
Well, it was kinda fun. But make no mistake. All of D-FW's broadcast stations are more than a little concerned about what could happen to their ratings in what would have been the heart of the February "sweeps" competition until Nielsen Media Research mercifully moved them to March for next year only.
Meanwhile, there are still plenty of analog-only sets in this market, and those $40 government-funded coupons toward the purchase of a digital converter box are only available "while supplies last."
Furthermore, as TXA21 reported, TV owners with coupons already in hand are finding it hard to find stores with those digital boxes in stock. So stay tuned, until you can't anymore.
In other ratings news, CBS' rerun combo of Criminal Minds and CSI: NY controlled the total homes ratings from 8 to 10 p..m.
The first hour of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance had the biggest overall audience from 7 to 8 p.m., but ran second among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The respective winners in that key demographic were ABC's Wife Swap at 7 p.m. and NBC's first-run Baby Borrowers at 8 p.m.
In the local news derby, WFAA8's 10 p.m. edition nipped CBS11 in total homes, with the two stations tying for first among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The "Who's in First?" 6 a.m. competition had another different outcome. Fox4 took first in total homes and WFAA8 topped the 25-to-54 demo. NBC5, which had run the table on both Monday and Tuesday, tied for second in both measurements.
Fox4 had a total homes win at 5 p.m., but WFAA8 took the 25-to-54 gold.
WFAA8 once again swept the 6 p.m. competitions, running its weekday streak to 23.
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