Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs.-Sun., Aug. 13-16) -- PGA hits Sunday's highest peak but Cowboys double down with Thursday's pretend game opener
08/17/15 12:00 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The closing minutes of pro golf’s last Major drew Sunday’s biggest D-FW crowd. Not that Dallasite Jordan Spieth’s battle against eventual PGA championship winner Jason Day could hold a candle to the Cowboys.
Sunday’s PGA coverage on CBS stretched from 1 to 6:11 p.m., when Day dropped in a short putt to best Spieth by three strokes. The 6 to 6:15 p.m. segment (Nielsen measures in 15-minute increments) drew 369,622 viewers, its biggest audience of the day. Overall the final round averaged 223,168 viewers, with 75,691 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic.
Thursday’s late night Dallas Cowboys game, an opening exhibition loss at San Diego, pulled in an average of 536,998 total viewers on CBS11. The high point came between 9:45 and 10 p.m., when Cowboys-Chargers drew 753,192 viewers.
Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the game averaged 245,996 viewers with a peak of 353,226 between 9:45 and 10 p.m. So a meaningless Cowboys game, in which many key starters didn’t play, easily more than doubled the peak and overall audiences for the PGA’s Spieth-fueled final round in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.
TEGNA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen felt golf’s sting, though. His “Unplugged” interview with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, which ran from 4 to 5 p.m. Sunday, drew just 34,870 total viewers and 6,308 in the 18-to-49 age range. During that same hour, the PGA championship had 244,090 total viewers and 91,460 in the 18-to-49 demographic. In Hansen’s defense, he basically had an unplayable lie.
Elsewhere Sunday, the surging Texas Rangers completed a three-game sweep over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays in an afternoon game on Fox Sports Southwest. Also airing opposite golf, the Rangers averaged 118,558 total viewers, with 40,999 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.
Here are the local news derby results for Thursday and Friday.
Thursday -- NBC5 won a downsized three-way race at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). But the combined audiences for the newscasts on NBC5, Fox4 and TEGNA8 fell far short of the 10 to 10:35 p.m. crowd for the Cowboys on CBS11.
At 6 a.m., edged Fox4 for the most total viewers while Fox4 reversed that result, also by a narrow margin, with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock ran the table at 5 p.m. and TEGNA8 did likewise at 6 p.m.
Friday -- TEGNA8 swept the 10 p.m. competitions while CBS11 perked up and smelled the coffee with a rare doubleheader win at 6 a.m.
CBS11 also had the most total viewers at 6 p.m. and tied NBC5 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and TEGNA8 in the 25-to-54 measurement.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The closing minutes of pro golf’s last Major drew Sunday’s biggest D-FW crowd. Not that Dallasite Jordan Spieth’s battle against eventual PGA championship winner Jason Day could hold a candle to the Cowboys.
Sunday’s PGA coverage on CBS stretched from 1 to 6:11 p.m., when Day dropped in a short putt to best Spieth by three strokes. The 6 to 6:15 p.m. segment (Nielsen measures in 15-minute increments) drew 369,622 viewers, its biggest audience of the day. Overall the final round averaged 223,168 viewers, with 75,691 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic.
Thursday’s late night Dallas Cowboys game, an opening exhibition loss at San Diego, pulled in an average of 536,998 total viewers on CBS11. The high point came between 9:45 and 10 p.m., when Cowboys-Chargers drew 753,192 viewers.
Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the game averaged 245,996 viewers with a peak of 353,226 between 9:45 and 10 p.m. So a meaningless Cowboys game, in which many key starters didn’t play, easily more than doubled the peak and overall audiences for the PGA’s Spieth-fueled final round in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.
TEGNA8 sports anchor Dale Hansen felt golf’s sting, though. His “Unplugged” interview with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, which ran from 4 to 5 p.m. Sunday, drew just 34,870 total viewers and 6,308 in the 18-to-49 age range. During that same hour, the PGA championship had 244,090 total viewers and 91,460 in the 18-to-49 demographic. In Hansen’s defense, he basically had an unplayable lie.
Elsewhere Sunday, the surging Texas Rangers completed a three-game sweep over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays in an afternoon game on Fox Sports Southwest. Also airing opposite golf, the Rangers averaged 118,558 total viewers, with 40,999 in the 18-to-49 motherlode.
Here are the local news derby results for Thursday and Friday.
Thursday -- NBC5 won a downsized three-way race at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming). But the combined audiences for the newscasts on NBC5, Fox4 and TEGNA8 fell far short of the 10 to 10:35 p.m. crowd for the Cowboys on CBS11.
At 6 a.m., edged Fox4 for the most total viewers while Fox4 reversed that result, also by a narrow margin, with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock ran the table at 5 p.m. and TEGNA8 did likewise at 6 p.m.
Friday -- TEGNA8 swept the 10 p.m. competitions while CBS11 perked up and smelled the coffee with a rare doubleheader win at 6 a.m.
CBS11 also had the most total viewers at 6 p.m. and tied NBC5 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and TEGNA8 in the 25-to-54 measurement.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net