Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs.-Sun., June 14-17) -- high-flying NBA Finals continue to juice ABC
06/18/12 10:31 AM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
ABC's high-flying, superstar-drenched NBA Finals continued to dominate prime-time, with Games 2 and 3 running up the score against all competing programming.
Sunday night's Miami Heat win over the Oklahoma City Thunder averaged 480,961 D-FW viewers, with a peak crowd of 684,184 between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, the game averaged 246,577 viewers with a high of 387,478. Those are very good percentages in this key demographic.
NBC's prime-time portion of the U.S. Open's final round got as high as 284,512 total viewers in the 8:30 to 8:45 p.m. segment. It also hit its 18-to-49 high point during those 15 minutes with 134,497 viewers. Over on Fox Sports Southwest, the Texas Rangers' Sunday afternoon win over Houston averaged 176,127 total viewers. Live sports remain the optimum way to score big audiences locally and nationally.
Back to the NBA Finals, which on Thursday night averaged 426,768 viewers for Game 2, with 227,363 in the 18-to-49 motherlode. The respective peak audiences were 508,058 viewers and 285,005 viewers, both between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m.
On Friday night, Game 1 of Rangers-Astros went directly against ABC's live three-hour Megastunts special, in which Nik Wallenda successfully high-wired across Niagara Falls.
Nationally, ABC had its best Friday night Nielsens in five years. Locally, the Yu Darvish-fueled Rangers knocked Nik off his ratings perch. The game averaged 270,964 viewers on TXA21, with a high of 352,253 from 10 to 10:15 p.m.
The Wallenda pre-game hour had 52,837 viewers from 7 to 8 p.m. The two-hour main event, which was about two-thirds further buildup, drew 162,578 viewers with a peak audience of 284,512 between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m.
Rangers-Astros also easily out-hit Wallenda among 18-to-49-year-olds. Only 48,035 viewers in that coveted age range watched the final two hours of ABC's made-for-TV pseudo thrill show. That's a mediocre percentage, particularly when compared to the NBA Finals.
Here are the results in the Thursday-Friday local news derbies.
Thursday -- CBS11 swept a downsized three-way 10 p.m. competition in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. But the combined audience for the news on CBS11, Fox4 and NBC5 fell short of that portion of ABC's NBA Finals.
Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. and added 5 and 6 p.m. wins among 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 ran first in total viewers at 5 p.m. and CBS11 took the 6 p.m. gold in that measurement.
Friday -- WFAA8 topped the 10 p.m. faceoff in total viewers but NBC5 countered with a win in the 25-to-54 demographic.
The Peacock also prevailed at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds while tying Fox4 for first place in total viewers.
WFAA8 scored big in the early evening, running the table at both 5 and 6 p.m.
@unclebarkycom
ABC's high-flying, superstar-drenched NBA Finals continued to dominate prime-time, with Games 2 and 3 running up the score against all competing programming.
Sunday night's Miami Heat win over the Oklahoma City Thunder averaged 480,961 D-FW viewers, with a peak crowd of 684,184 between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, the game averaged 246,577 viewers with a high of 387,478. Those are very good percentages in this key demographic.
NBC's prime-time portion of the U.S. Open's final round got as high as 284,512 total viewers in the 8:30 to 8:45 p.m. segment. It also hit its 18-to-49 high point during those 15 minutes with 134,497 viewers. Over on Fox Sports Southwest, the Texas Rangers' Sunday afternoon win over Houston averaged 176,127 total viewers. Live sports remain the optimum way to score big audiences locally and nationally.
Back to the NBA Finals, which on Thursday night averaged 426,768 viewers for Game 2, with 227,363 in the 18-to-49 motherlode. The respective peak audiences were 508,058 viewers and 285,005 viewers, both between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m.
On Friday night, Game 1 of Rangers-Astros went directly against ABC's live three-hour Megastunts special, in which Nik Wallenda successfully high-wired across Niagara Falls.
Nationally, ABC had its best Friday night Nielsens in five years. Locally, the Yu Darvish-fueled Rangers knocked Nik off his ratings perch. The game averaged 270,964 viewers on TXA21, with a high of 352,253 from 10 to 10:15 p.m.
The Wallenda pre-game hour had 52,837 viewers from 7 to 8 p.m. The two-hour main event, which was about two-thirds further buildup, drew 162,578 viewers with a peak audience of 284,512 between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m.
Rangers-Astros also easily out-hit Wallenda among 18-to-49-year-olds. Only 48,035 viewers in that coveted age range watched the final two hours of ABC's made-for-TV pseudo thrill show. That's a mediocre percentage, particularly when compared to the NBA Finals.
Here are the results in the Thursday-Friday local news derbies.
Thursday -- CBS11 swept a downsized three-way 10 p.m. competition in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. But the combined audience for the news on CBS11, Fox4 and NBC5 fell short of that portion of ABC's NBA Finals.
Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. and added 5 and 6 p.m. wins among 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 ran first in total viewers at 5 p.m. and CBS11 took the 6 p.m. gold in that measurement.
Friday -- WFAA8 topped the 10 p.m. faceoff in total viewers but NBC5 countered with a win in the 25-to-54 demographic.
The Peacock also prevailed at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds while tying Fox4 for first place in total viewers.
WFAA8 scored big in the early evening, running the table at both 5 and 6 p.m.