powered by FreeFind

Apple iTunes

Archives

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 17) -- sluggish start for Fox's rebuilt comedy night

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Mixing two freshman comedies with a pair of returning ones, Fox mostly got less than it banked on Tuesday night.

The network’s biggest surprise may have been the performance of scathingly reviewed newcomer Dads, which opened at 7 p.m. with 165,221 D-FW viewers.

The Seth MacFarlane-produced sitcom still lost its time slot to the first half of CBS’ NCIS repeat (261,600 viewers). But Dads won the half-hour with advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds and had a bigger audience in both measurements than anything that followed on Fox.

The network’s Andy Samberg-fueled Brooklyn Nine Nine, much more favorably received by TV critics, then fell to 144,568 total viewers while also placing second behind NCIS with 18-to-49-year-olds.

Fox’s new season premieres of New Girl (110,147 total viewers) and The Mindy Project (103,263) continued the downward trend opposite the first hour of NBC’s America’s Got Talent (275,368) and CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles rerun (206,526).

New Girl also ran third among 18-to-49-year-olds before Mindy Project salvaged a distant second place finish behind Talent. The 9 p.m. hour also was dominated by Talent.

On Fox Sports Southwest, the Texas Rangers ended their seven-game losing skid with a 7-1 win at Tampa Bay. The game drew 130,800 viewers, which still constitutes a ratings slump. When rolling along in first place, the Rangers routinely drew between 200,000 and 300,000 viewers per game.

In Tuesday’s local news derby results, NBC5 basked in the Talent afterglow by racking up 10 p.m. wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8 almost pulled off a 10 p.m. total viewers win, though, trampolining from the 41,305 viewers it inherited from ABC’s closing 15 minutes of Iron Man II to 137,684. But the Peacock prevailed with 144,568 viewers.

Fox4 remained solid at 6 a.m. with twin wins while the 6 p.m. golds narrowly went to NBC5 in total viewers and WFAA8 in the 25-to-54 demographic. CBS11 broke through with the most viewers at 5 p.m., but Fox4 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net