Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., July 12-14) -- CBS triple bogeys PGA tournament coverage
07/15/13 02:49 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
Sunday night’s delayed new episode of Big Brother and three Texas Rangers games showed the most signs of life over the weekend. But the potential big one got away.
D-FW ratings had started to build for the PGA’s John Deere Classic when Texas teen sensation Jordan Spieth got into a three-way playoff and eventually won the tournament on the fifth overtime hole. In doing so, Spieth, 19, became the first teenager to win a PGA tournament in 82 years. Alas, CBS couldn’t be bothered, bailing out at 6:18 p.m. for a rerun of 60 Minutes after a bloc of commercials.
The three-way playoff began at 5:30 p.m., with the local audience building from 89,495 viewers to 137,684 before CBS cut away and left the remaining 42 minutes of drama to the Golf Channel, which many area viewers don’t have on their cable or satellite packages. Spieth, a graduate of Dallas’ Jesuit high school, sunk a two-foot par putt to clinch the win against David Hearn and Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion.
D-FW ratings for Golf Channel’s coverage were not available, although it’s safe to say they dropped sharply from those of CBS.
Locally, CBS11 is both owned and operated by its parent CBS network. But regardless, stations affiliated with CBS are contractually required to carry the designated feeds for their time zones, according to those with first-hand knowledge of this policy. In this particular case, West coast viewers were able to see the rest of the tournament while stations in central and eastern time zones got stuck with the 60 Minutes repeat.
Overall, it makes no sense. But golf for some reason is considered expendable while other sports championships are carried to their conclusions. Imagine cutting away from an elongated World Series, Stanley Cup or NBA Finals game. Particularly In D-FW and Austin, (Spieth led the University of Texas golf team to a national championship in his year there), many viewers were left without a way to see a local kid make history. Handing off to the Golf Channel is better than nothing. But how many of you out there have access to it?
Sunday’s episode of Big Brother, delayed from a 7 to 7:20 p.m. start time, drew 178,989 viewers to rank as prime-time’s most-watched attraction. Earlier Sunday, the Rangers’ road loss at Detroit averaged 137,684 viewers on Fox Sports Southwest.
Saturday night’s Rangers win over the Tigers drew 199,642 viewers on Fox. TXA21’s weekly Friday night game, a lackluster 7-2 loss in Motown, still led all prime-time programming with 137,684 viewers.
Here are Friday’s four-way local news derby numbers:
WFAA8 edged CBS11 at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 notched another 6 a.m. sweep. CBS11 topped the 6 p.m. Nielsens in total viewers but WFAA8 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
NBC5 and WFAA8 shared the 5 p.m. lead in total viewers, with WFAA8 again tops with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net
@unclebarkycom
Sunday night’s delayed new episode of Big Brother and three Texas Rangers games showed the most signs of life over the weekend. But the potential big one got away.
D-FW ratings had started to build for the PGA’s John Deere Classic when Texas teen sensation Jordan Spieth got into a three-way playoff and eventually won the tournament on the fifth overtime hole. In doing so, Spieth, 19, became the first teenager to win a PGA tournament in 82 years. Alas, CBS couldn’t be bothered, bailing out at 6:18 p.m. for a rerun of 60 Minutes after a bloc of commercials.
The three-way playoff began at 5:30 p.m., with the local audience building from 89,495 viewers to 137,684 before CBS cut away and left the remaining 42 minutes of drama to the Golf Channel, which many area viewers don’t have on their cable or satellite packages. Spieth, a graduate of Dallas’ Jesuit high school, sunk a two-foot par putt to clinch the win against David Hearn and Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion.
D-FW ratings for Golf Channel’s coverage were not available, although it’s safe to say they dropped sharply from those of CBS.
Locally, CBS11 is both owned and operated by its parent CBS network. But regardless, stations affiliated with CBS are contractually required to carry the designated feeds for their time zones, according to those with first-hand knowledge of this policy. In this particular case, West coast viewers were able to see the rest of the tournament while stations in central and eastern time zones got stuck with the 60 Minutes repeat.
Overall, it makes no sense. But golf for some reason is considered expendable while other sports championships are carried to their conclusions. Imagine cutting away from an elongated World Series, Stanley Cup or NBA Finals game. Particularly In D-FW and Austin, (Spieth led the University of Texas golf team to a national championship in his year there), many viewers were left without a way to see a local kid make history. Handing off to the Golf Channel is better than nothing. But how many of you out there have access to it?
Sunday’s episode of Big Brother, delayed from a 7 to 7:20 p.m. start time, drew 178,989 viewers to rank as prime-time’s most-watched attraction. Earlier Sunday, the Rangers’ road loss at Detroit averaged 137,684 viewers on Fox Sports Southwest.
Saturday night’s Rangers win over the Tigers drew 199,642 viewers on Fox. TXA21’s weekly Friday night game, a lackluster 7-2 loss in Motown, still led all prime-time programming with 137,684 viewers.
Here are Friday’s four-way local news derby numbers:
WFAA8 edged CBS11 at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 notched another 6 a.m. sweep. CBS11 topped the 6 p.m. Nielsens in total viewers but WFAA8 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
NBC5 and WFAA8 shared the 5 p.m. lead in total viewers, with WFAA8 again tops with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net