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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed.-Thurs., April 13-14) -- Stars shine brighter on Fox Sports Southwest

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Dallas Stars’ regular season games were largely left for dead in the D-FW Nielsen ratings, with even 50,000 viewers a big haul.

But it’s now the Stanley Cup playoffs. And the Stars’ bulked up with a 4-0 shutout of the Minnesota Wild in Thursday night’s Game 1 of their first-round series.

Running until 11:18 p.m., Stars-Wild averaged 84,989 viewers and 53,987 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Any TV program drawing considerably better than 50 percent of its viewers from the 18-to-49 motherlode is considered a rousing success revenue-wise. So that’s a very nice number for the Stars. FSS also says these are the best ratings for any Stars game since the April 27, 2014 Game 6 of a first-round playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks.

The Texas Rangers were sent to FSS+ for their home win against the Baltimore Orioles. Sorry sports fans, but the FSS+ ratings weren’t immediately available.

Elsewhere in prime-time Thursday, Fox’s premiere of the “reality-competition” series American Grit as a replacement for American Idol emerged as a 90-pound weakling in the 8 p.m. hour. It drew just 77,906 total viewers and 38,108 in the 18-to-49 age range.

NBC’s 7 p.m. launch of another “reality” physicality hour, Strong, flexed in comparison with 120,401 total viewers but an identical 38,108 within the 18-to-49 realm. Still, both Strong and Grit ran an overall last in their time slots in the total viewer ratings race among the Big Four broadcast networks. And although lackluster, their 18-to-49 ratings were good enough to put each show in second place.

On Wednesday, Fox’s Empire again ranked as the runaway top draw in prime-time with 375,367 total viewers and 190,542 in the 18-to-49 demographic. Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast enjoyed the tail wind, comfortably winning at that hour in total viewers (283,296) and with 18-to-49-year-olds (92,095).

It also was a big and intriguing night in the cable sports arena, where the Dallas Mavericks regular season finale against the San Antonio Spurs on FSS drew fewer total viewers than both Kobe Bryant’s last game on ESPN2 and the Golden State Warriors’ record-setting 73rd win versus the Memphis Grizzlies.

Kobe set the pace with a surreal 60 points against the Utah Jazz before a star-studded home crowd. The late night game averaged 113,318 total viewers and a robust 73,041 in the 18-to-49 age range.

The Warriors, who routed Memphis in direct competition with the Kobe show, drew 99,154 viewers and 47,636 in the 18-to-49 range. Mavs-Spurs lagged behind both games in total viewers with 92,071, but ran second ahead of Warriors-Jazz among 18-to-49-year-olds (57,163).

Here are the Wednesday-Thursday local news derby results.

Wednesday -- CBS11 nipped both Fox4 and TEGNA8 at 10 p.m. in total viewers while Fox4 had a comfier win among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions and added total viewer wins at 5 and 6 p.m. NBC5 ran first in both early evening hours with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Thursday -- NBC5 and TEGNA8 tied for the most total viewers at 10 p.m., but TEGNA was alone on top among 25-to-54-year-olds.

Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. and NBC5 did likewise at 5 p.m. The Peacock also had the most total viewers at 6 p.m. while tying Fox4 for the 25-to-54 lead.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net