Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun, March 30-April 1) -- country again gets its kicks
04/02/12 12:54 PM
By ED BARK
CBS again got the ring, with rival networks getting the finger Sunday night. That's 'cause the 47th annual Academy of Country Music Awards shebang emerging as the most-watched program of the weekend.
The ACMs averaged 399,672 D-FW viewers in the 7 to 10 p.m. slot, with the closing hour (447,091) drawing more than twice the crowd of ABC's competing, Dallas-set GCB (209,997 viewers). Country likewise was king among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, although not by quite as wide a margin.
On ESPN Sunday night, the Baylor women's basketball team moved to within one step of a perfect and unprecedented 40-0 season by holding off stubborn Stanford. The NCAA tournament semi-final game drew 149,030 viewers, with 60,844 in the 18-to-49 motherlode. Baylor will face Notre Dame for the title Tuesday night.
AMC's two-hour Season 2 launch of The Killing pretty much played dead in these parts with 20,322 total viewers in the 7 to 9 p.m. slot. a new Mad Men hour then had 54,193 viewers.
CBS also had Saturday's biggest audience draws -- although nothing as big as country -- with the two semi-final games of the men's NCAA hoops tourney. Kentucky's win over Louisville had 243,868 total viewers before Kansas' comeback win over Ohio State drew 270,964.
CBS swept Friday's prime-time parade in total viewers with its regular lineup of Undercover Boss, CSI: NY and Blue Bloods. The first two shows also won with 18-to-49-year-olds before Blue Bloods tanked as usual and fell to an out-of-the-money fourth place in the Big Four network arena behind ABC's No. 1 20/20, Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast and NBC's Dateline.
In Friday's local news derby results, WFAA8 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers while Fox4 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
WFAA8 also took the 6 a.m. competition in total viewers, with Fox4 again on top in the 25-to-54 demographic.
Fox4 made it a clean sweep among 25-to-54-year-olds with wins at 5 and 6 p.m. The respective victors at those hours in total viewers were WFAA8 and NBC5.