Mar 2009
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., March 30) -- usual win for Dancing, unusual No. 1s for Daybreak
03/31/09 10:51 AM
By ED BARK
ABC's Dancing with the Stars again waltzed through Monday's prime-time ratings while WFAA8's Daybreak had twin wins at 6 a.m. for the first time since, well, we'll have to look that up.
Dancing drew 378,651 D-FW viewers from 7 to 9 p.m., whipping CBS' runnerup all-new comedy lineup of The Big Bang Theory (186,004); How I Met Your Mother (192,647); Two and a Half Men (298,95) and Rules of Engagement (225,862).
The ABC juggernaut also swept the time period among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds, although it beat Two and a Half Men by just 3,241 viewers in the 8 to 8:30 slot.
CBS' CSI: Miami took over as usual at 9 p.m., luring 362,079 total viewers opposite ABC's runnerup Castle, which dipped to 205,933. CSI likewise had a big edge among 18-to-49-year-olds, with Fox4's 9 p.m local newscast claiming second place.
New episodes of Fox's House and 24 ran a disquieting fourth among 18-to-49-year-olds; NBC's Chuck and Heroes took the bronzes. 24 improved to third place at 8 p.m. in the total viewer Nielsens while House tied Chuck for the No. 3 spot.
In the local news ratings derby, WFAA8 barely missed a double grand slam. The ABC station won in total viewers at 6 a.m., and at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming, WFAA8 had the golds to itself at 6 a.m., and at 5 and 10 p.m. Its only stumble came at 6 p.m., where NBC5 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
WFAA8's twin wins at 6 a.m., where it has been running a distant third and sometimes fourth, were the station's first early morning sweep since -- holy crap! -- Friday, Oct. 24, 2008. For the historical record, here's how it looked on Monday:
TOTAL VIEWERS
WFAA8 -- 112,931
NBC5 -- 106,288
Fox4 -- 99,645
CBS11 -- 39,858
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
WFAA8 -- 75,883
Fox4 and NBC5 -- 63,741 each
CBS11 -- 24,282
ABC's Dancing with the Stars again waltzed through Monday's prime-time ratings while WFAA8's Daybreak had twin wins at 6 a.m. for the first time since, well, we'll have to look that up.
Dancing drew 378,651 D-FW viewers from 7 to 9 p.m., whipping CBS' runnerup all-new comedy lineup of The Big Bang Theory (186,004); How I Met Your Mother (192,647); Two and a Half Men (298,95) and Rules of Engagement (225,862).
The ABC juggernaut also swept the time period among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds, although it beat Two and a Half Men by just 3,241 viewers in the 8 to 8:30 slot.
CBS' CSI: Miami took over as usual at 9 p.m., luring 362,079 total viewers opposite ABC's runnerup Castle, which dipped to 205,933. CSI likewise had a big edge among 18-to-49-year-olds, with Fox4's 9 p.m local newscast claiming second place.
New episodes of Fox's House and 24 ran a disquieting fourth among 18-to-49-year-olds; NBC's Chuck and Heroes took the bronzes. 24 improved to third place at 8 p.m. in the total viewer Nielsens while House tied Chuck for the No. 3 spot.
In the local news ratings derby, WFAA8 barely missed a double grand slam. The ABC station won in total viewers at 6 a.m., and at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming, WFAA8 had the golds to itself at 6 a.m., and at 5 and 10 p.m. Its only stumble came at 6 p.m., where NBC5 ran first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
WFAA8's twin wins at 6 a.m., where it has been running a distant third and sometimes fourth, were the station's first early morning sweep since -- holy crap! -- Friday, Oct. 24, 2008. For the historical record, here's how it looked on Monday:
TOTAL VIEWERS
WFAA8 -- 112,931
NBC5 -- 106,288
Fox4 -- 99,645
CBS11 -- 39,858
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
WFAA8 -- 75,883
Fox4 and NBC5 -- 63,741 each
CBS11 -- 24,282
|
"Terrified" of losing his job, DPD officer Powell tells CBS11 he's sorry, acted sorrier
03/30/09 10:51 PM
By ED BARK
The bookends are now in place after Monday's first TV appearances -- outside of a police dash cam video -- of the principals in a traffic violation incident that became a virtually non-stop story both nationally and locally.
The day began with Ryan and Tamishia Moats telling their side on ABC's Good Morning America. It ended with Dallas police officer Robert Powell talking exclusively to CBS11 and reporter J.D. Miles on the station's 10 p.m. newscast.
Miles didn't mess around, immediately asking Powell what it felt like to be "a person who has to be the most hated person in Dallas, if not beyond?"
Powell, speaking precisely and remorsefully throughout, said without blinking, "It has been difficult. We're worried about our two young children."
The 25-year-old traffic cop, a three-year veteran of the DPD, is on administrative leave following his actions on the night of March 17th. That's when he stopped the Moatses outside the Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano after they ran a red light rushing to see Tamishia's mother before she died. Powell in effect told Miles that he blew it by haranguing Ryan Moats and detaining him to the point where his wife's mother died before he could get to her bedside. Sentiment since has run overwhelmingly against Powell in comments to various news organization Web sites.
"When you look at that tape -- and I've seen all 16 minutes of it -- a lot of people see to them a cocky, arrogant young officer who just doesn't get it. Is that a fair assessment?" Miles asked.
"I believe it's pretty fair in this case, because I acted improper," Powell replied.
But is his mea culpa merely out of fear he'll lose his job or does it come as the result of "personal reflection?" Miles asked that one bluntly, too. And Powell responded in kind.
"I would say that it is both," he said. "To say that I'm scared of being fired, I would say it's an understatement. I'm terrified. I have a family. I have two young children."
Powell also said he'd like to meet personally with the Moatses if given the opportunity. And the Moatses earlier said that they'd accept his apology because, as Tamishia put it in part, "He's a human being."
"I think back to my family, to my mother, that if I was in his (Ryan Moats') situation, that if I want to get to my mother, I'm going to do everything that I can to do it," Powell said.
He should have showed compassion, but for some reason didn't, Powell said. "If I could take it back, I would."
Both Powell and the Moatses obviously want to move on, as do some who say they've grown weary of this story in the time since WFAA8 reporter Rebecca Lopez broke it on Wednesday's 10 p.m. newscast.
Still, both of these interviews were instructive and maybe even cathartic. The Moatses have never sought publicity in this matter, and Powell couldn't have been much more contrite, even if he's now looking only to save his own hide. Whatever your views, at least both sides have been heard.
So the chase should be over for both local and national media. If Powell and the Moatses in fact do meet, let them do so in private. Whatever Powell's superiors decide should be the final, public chapter in a story that otherwise has run its course.
Lopez's major league scoop keeps competitors on her heels
03/30/09 12:43 PM
By ED BARK
Last Wednesday at first didn't look like much, at least from Rebecca Lopez's perspective as WFAA8's principal police reporter.
"It was a really slow news day, and I didn't have anything to pitch for the 10 p.m. newscast," she recalled Monday in a telephone interview from New York. "So I just thought of calling some people that I know on the beat."
One of her sources told her he'd "overheard something that you might be interested in." Hours later, Lopez had what turned out to be the biggest story in her 10-plus years at the Dallas-based station. The traffic stop incident involving Ryan and Tamishia Moats and Dallas traffic cop Robert Powell quickly became a mega-story, both locally and nationally, after Lopez first reported it on Wednesday's 10 p.m. newscast.
"I proceeded to follow the records and get the police tape," Lopez says. "And then obviously when you see the tape, there was just no doubt that it was going to be a big story."
Only one of her previous exclusives has come even close, she says. That was a September, 2006 report on Terrell Owens' drug overdose, which the former Cowboys receiver later denied was an attempted suicide.
"That got huge media attention, and I got a lot of emails from angry Dallas Cowboys fans," Lopez says. "But nothing like this. It's pretty amazing. And once there's an appetite for the story, people want to hear more. Trying to stay ahead on it and finding new angles -- that's difficult."
Thousands of emails have poured into WFAA.com and other Web sites, the great majority of them demanding that Powell be fired after detaining the Moatses outside Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, where Tamishia's mother was dying.
Lopez was in New York City Monday, where she did the only local TV interview with the Moatses after they first spoke exclusively to ABC's Good Morning America and co-anchor Robin Roberts.
"We've worked really closely together on this," Lopez says of GMA, which landed the Moatses after the CBS Early Show belatedly lost out on an announced Friday morning interview with the couple. Tamishia was still grieving her mother's loss and wasn't yet ready to talk about it on national television, CBS was told.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that GMA has far higher ratings than the perennial basement-dwelling Early Show. Or that WFAA8 is an ABC affiliate station.
"I talked to them when they canceled, and they just didn't feel ready to do an interview at that time," Lopez says. "Once they thought about it, they've always promised me an interview since day one. Then there also was an attorney that got involved. They realized they wanted to stick with ABC for both interviews. And Robin Roberts also called them personally after they initially backed out."
Portions of Lopez's interview with the Moatses are scheduled to air Monday on WFAA8's 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts.
"I asked them more specific questions involving possible lawsuits and the community reaction," she says. "They've been just inundated with flowers and cards."
Beat reporting is dying out at many local stations, although D-FW police departments are still of interest.
"Almost everyone still dedicates some resources there," Lopez says. "The reason I was able to break these stories is because of my relationship with the Dallas police department. They have to be able to trust you, know that you're going to be fair, and that you won't exploit them in any way."
The Moats-Powell story is drawing to a close, but "I think it probably will branch off into different things in terms of training and how to handle situations like this better," Lopez says. "But at some point, the next big story comes along and it's time to move on."
She hopes to decompress a bit by spending Monday night in Manhattan before returning to the daily grind. It's been quite a high.
"I'd never met Diane Sawyer before or been at GMA," Lopez says. "It was just a really different experience being at that level."
Ryan/Tamishia Moats tell their story exclusively on GMA while WFAA8 bides its time (updated)
03/30/09 10:20 AM
By ED BARK
Ryan Moats and his wife, Tamishia, making their first television appearance Monday, said they're willing to accept the apology of Dallas police officer Robert Powell, who detained them for a traffic violation while her mother was dying at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano.
"It would be comforting, you know, if we heard an apology directly from him," Tamishia told GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts during the 7:30 a.m. half hour of the ABC program. "But up until this point, we have not received a personal call from him directly . . . We definitely would accept his apology, because, you know, he's a human being."
Powell's attorney has issued a written apology for the officer's actions on the night of March 17th. Captured on a dash-cam police video, the incident since has become a major national story. Moats, a running back with the NFL's Houston Texans, is a graduate of Dallas' Bishop Lynch High School. His mother-in-law died before he was able to see her.
Moats said that Powell initially "was pointing a gun" at his wife before she decided to defy his orders and rush to the bedside of her mother.
"Honestly, he could have shot me . . . At that point in time, I was ready for anything he was going to do," Tamishia said.
Ryan said he "wasn't reckless at all" in driving to the hospital, and ran a red light only after other motorists gave him the go-ahead. His vehicle's emergency lights were flashing throughout.
"I didn't have a problem with paying the ticket," he said, but had hoped that Powell first would let him say goodbye to his mother-in-law.
WFAA8 reporter Rebecca Lopez, who broke the story last Wednesday, also was in New York to interview the Moatses for what she said would be their only on-camera comments to a local TV station. On WFAA8's Sunday 10 p.m. newscast, anchor Shelly Slater gave the impression that Lopez's interview with the Moatses would air during the station's ratings-challenged Daybreak before the couple appeared on GMA.
"Hear what Ryan Moats and his wife have to say first tomorrow morning on News8's Daybreak . . . And then following Daybreak, Moats will talk with Good Morning America," Slater told viewers.
But only a small excerpt from the previously taped GMA interview aired on Daybreak. And that didn't happen until 6:54 a.m. after the program teased it throughout the early morning.
WFAA8 news director Michael Valentine said the station had hoped to get a portion of Lopez's interview live on Daybreak, but there were delays in GMA's production schedule. The program's opening hour usually is pre-taped for central time zone feeds.
"Rebecca was following GMA. We thought they'd be done in time," Valentine said Monday morning. "Otherwise there were no problems with anything. GMA was very accommodating." WFAA8 is an affiliate of ABC.
Portions of Lopez's interview with the Moatses will begin airing on WFAA8's 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts Monday. Viewers initially were told that the station's Midday news program would carry excerpts, but they likely won't be ready in time for that broadcast, Lopez said by telephone from New York.
As previously reported on unclebarky.com, CBS' low-rated Early Show had said that it would have an exclusive interview with the Moatses on Friday's program. But the couple belatedly backed out, because Tamishia was still grieving the loss of her mother, according to a CBS11 spokesperson.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., March 27-29) -- Woods' 18th hole win paces big sports Sunday
03/30/09 10:18 AM
By ED BARK
NBC had a Tiger in its tank for the climactic 15 minutes of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Sunday.
Tiger Woods' winning birdie putt on the 18th hole drew 239,148 D-FW viewers between 6:45 and 7 p.m. Sunday. That outpointed all competing programming before NBC's following episode of Kings plummeted to just 73,073 viewers to run fourth from 7 to 8 p.m.
CBS's concluding Sweet 16 game Sunday, a marquee matchup between Oklahoma and North Carolina (and respective star players Blake Griffin and Taylor Hansbrough), averaged 205,933 viewers from late afternoon to 6:10 p.m. The potential viewer haul was hurt by North Carolina's dominance from start to finish in a game that wasn't as close as its 72-60 score.
Also on Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks had their usual fainting spell on ABC's national stage, losing lopsidedly at Cleveland while 119,574 viewers either watched or covered their eyes. Fox's latest Sunday afternoon NASCAR Sprint Cup race averaged 112,931 viewers, but outdrew the Mavs during the time the two events overlapped.
In Friday's local news derby, WFAA8 again controlled the 10 p.m. ratings in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11's newscast was pushed well past its starting time by NCAA basketball coverage.
The 6 a.m. golds were split between Fox4, on top in total viewers, and NBC5, first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock ran the table at 5 p.m. while the 6 p.m. spoils went to WFAA8 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
NBC had a Tiger in its tank for the climactic 15 minutes of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Sunday.
Tiger Woods' winning birdie putt on the 18th hole drew 239,148 D-FW viewers between 6:45 and 7 p.m. Sunday. That outpointed all competing programming before NBC's following episode of Kings plummeted to just 73,073 viewers to run fourth from 7 to 8 p.m.
CBS's concluding Sweet 16 game Sunday, a marquee matchup between Oklahoma and North Carolina (and respective star players Blake Griffin and Taylor Hansbrough), averaged 205,933 viewers from late afternoon to 6:10 p.m. The potential viewer haul was hurt by North Carolina's dominance from start to finish in a game that wasn't as close as its 72-60 score.
Also on Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks had their usual fainting spell on ABC's national stage, losing lopsidedly at Cleveland while 119,574 viewers either watched or covered their eyes. Fox's latest Sunday afternoon NASCAR Sprint Cup race averaged 112,931 viewers, but outdrew the Mavs during the time the two events overlapped.
In Friday's local news derby, WFAA8 again controlled the 10 p.m. ratings in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11's newscast was pushed well past its starting time by NCAA basketball coverage.
The 6 a.m. golds were split between Fox4, on top in total viewers, and NBC5, first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock ran the table at 5 p.m. while the 6 p.m. spoils went to WFAA8 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 investigators win National Headliner Award
03/28/09 11:56 AM
CBS11's Bennett Cunningham
By ED BARK
A CBS11 investigative team headed by reporter Bennett Cunningham has won a National Headliner Award for "The Gravy Train," a series of reports on DART spending.
The reports won a Texas AP award earlier this year. A complete list of Headliner winners is supposed to be posted on Monday. CBS11 news staffers Aaron Wische, Josh Brown, Stuart Boslow and Manuel Villela share in the Headliner award.
Meanwhile, Cunningham says he has signed a new contract with CBS11, but for a "very short term." As previously reported on unclebarky.com, Cunningham and his partner, Michael Spann, are parents of a baby boy and girl born last October via gestational surgery at a Hartford, Conn. hospital. Cunningham passed the Texas State Bar exam in 2007.
***Belo-mandated layoffs at the company's 20 television stations won't affect any on-camera personnel at Dallas-based WFAA8, according to sources. Instead, the already largely gutted TXCN cable network has been downsized by another 11 employees.
TXCN was launched in January, 1999 on property shared by WFAA8 and The Dallas Morning News. It was housed in a new building stocked with state-of-the-art equipment. Management envisioned making it the CNN of Texas.
But distribution problems persisted before the all-news network was drastically scaled down in January, 2005. Forty-five of its 75 staffers were let go, including the on-air anchor talent. TXCN basically has been a largely invisible non-entity ever since.
Updating the whereabouts of . . .
03/27/09 03:12 PM
By ED BARK
Several readers who have viewed the vintage WFAA8 promotional film below on this page have wondered about the current whereabouts of Doug Fox, Jane Jayroe (pictured in the film as one of the station's competitors) and Bill Ratliff. So here are some updates:
Doug Fox -- He worked at WFAA8 for 29 years, in large part as a political reporter, before leaving the station in 2003. He's now a contributing producer/reporter for World Vision Update, which airs on various radio stations. Former WFAA8 religion reporter Peggy Wehmeyer also works for WVU as a host and managing editor.
The parent company, World Vision, Inc., is based in Washington state. It's described as a "Christian relief and development organization."
Jane Jayroe -- The former Miss America 1967 co-anchored at KXAS-TV (Channel 5) from 1980-84. She now lives in Oklahoma City with her husband, Gerald Gamble. Jayroe was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2007.
Bill Ratliff -- The former PM Magazine co-host left WFAA8 in 1982 to join NBC station WFLA-TV in Tampa. He's been there ever since and currently anchors News Channel 8 Today and The News Channel 8 Midday Report.
Lopez scoop proves value of beat reporting (updated)
03/27/09 10:08 AM
By ED BARK
It's become one of the biggest talkers in recent memory, both nationally and locally.
Media of all forms continue to pounce on the story of pro football running back Ryan Moats being detained from seeing his dying mother-in-law by Dallas Police office Robert Powell, who ticketed him for running a red light enroute to Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano.
While everyone strives to make the story their own, let's not forget to give credit to the veteran reporter who broke it. WFAA8's Rebecca Lopez joined the station in 1998. Her primary responsibility at WFAA8 is the police beat. And this is a prime example of where beat reporting, an endangered species in local TV news, paid off with an important story.
There's still no substitute for developing sources and knowing your terrain. But that's all being seriously jeopardized in this market and many others by continued downsizing of news staffs amid "content sharing" among stations that used to be arch rivals. Gradually you pay a price for that.
Lopez's story, which first ran on Wednesday's 10 p.m. newscast, now is driving web traffic on all four of D-FW's major TV news providers. But WFAA8 is getting the lion's share of viewer comments.
As of this Friday a.m. writing, 1,761 comments have been logged on WFAA.com.
NBCdfw.com has 377 comments so far, and cbs11tv.com has a poll asking, "What do you think about the DPD officer who kept the NFL player from seeing his dying relative?" So far 80 percent have responded, "Outrageous -- He Should Be Fired." But CBS11 has no information on how many people have voted.
Myfoxdfw.com doesn't have a comments option attached to its coverage.
Moats and his wife, Tamishia, supposedly were going to appear exclusively on Friday's CBS Early Show to talk about the incident. At least that's what CBS11 anchor Karen Borta told viewers during Thursday's late night newscast, which was delayed by NCAA basketball.
The interview never happened, though. CBS11 spokesperson Lori Conrad, responding to an inquiry, said that the Early Show interview "was a lock until this (Friday) morning, when the broadcast executive producer got an email saying that they couldn't do the interview because Ryan's wife was still grieving."
In D-FW and nationally, Early Show long has been the least-watched of the three competing network morning programs.
Local Nielsen ratings snaphot (Thurs., March 26) -- basketball routed by Idol, ABC meds
03/27/09 09:18 AM
By ED BARK
The games were mostly one-sided and none of the remaining teams are from Texas. That spelled ratings doom in D-FW for the "Sweet 16" portion of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Thursday's 7 to 8 p.m. hour went to Fox's American Idol, with 438,438 viewers watching Jasper, TX oil rigger Michael Sarver take the gas. Hoops ran fourth in that slot with 99,645 viewers, edging only ABC's comedy combo of the new In the Motherhood (93,002 viewers) and the returning Samantha Who? (86,359 viewers). The CW's Smallville took second with 119,574 viewers, just a smidgen ahead of NBC's My Name Is Earl and The Office (both with 112,931 viewers).
Basketball also finished fourth in the 7 p.m. hour among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, again beating only ABC's sitcoms.
ABC's Grey's Anatomy won from 8 to 9 p.m. with 318,864 total viewers. Basketball inched up to third place with 192,647 viewers; Fox's Hell's Kitchen simmered in second with 225,862 viewers. The three of 'em ranked in the same order with 18-to-49-year-olds.
The 9 p.m. hour went to ABC's Private Practice (285,649 total viewers). Basketball dribbled back down to fourth place (166,075 viewers), trailing Fox4's runnerup 9 p.m. local newscast (225,862 viewers) and NBC's second-to-last episode of ER (159,432 viewers). Hoops moved up a notch to third place -- ahead of ER -- in the 18-to-49 age range.
In the daily local news derby, a downsized three-way race at 10 p.m. went to WFAA8 in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8's 398,580 viewers made it Thursday's second most-watched program, behind only Idol.
Fox4 nipped NBC5 at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements, with WFAA8 and CBS11 again well back.
WFAA8 retained its strong grip at 6 p.m. with twin wins. The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
The games were mostly one-sided and none of the remaining teams are from Texas. That spelled ratings doom in D-FW for the "Sweet 16" portion of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Thursday's 7 to 8 p.m. hour went to Fox's American Idol, with 438,438 viewers watching Jasper, TX oil rigger Michael Sarver take the gas. Hoops ran fourth in that slot with 99,645 viewers, edging only ABC's comedy combo of the new In the Motherhood (93,002 viewers) and the returning Samantha Who? (86,359 viewers). The CW's Smallville took second with 119,574 viewers, just a smidgen ahead of NBC's My Name Is Earl and The Office (both with 112,931 viewers).
Basketball also finished fourth in the 7 p.m. hour among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, again beating only ABC's sitcoms.
ABC's Grey's Anatomy won from 8 to 9 p.m. with 318,864 total viewers. Basketball inched up to third place with 192,647 viewers; Fox's Hell's Kitchen simmered in second with 225,862 viewers. The three of 'em ranked in the same order with 18-to-49-year-olds.
The 9 p.m. hour went to ABC's Private Practice (285,649 total viewers). Basketball dribbled back down to fourth place (166,075 viewers), trailing Fox4's runnerup 9 p.m. local newscast (225,862 viewers) and NBC's second-to-last episode of ER (159,432 viewers). Hoops moved up a notch to third place -- ahead of ER -- in the 18-to-49 age range.
In the daily local news derby, a downsized three-way race at 10 p.m. went to WFAA8 in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8's 398,580 viewers made it Thursday's second most-watched program, behind only Idol.
Fox4 nipped NBC5 at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements, with WFAA8 and CBS11 again well back.
WFAA8 retained its strong grip at 6 p.m. with twin wins. The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
Ch. 8: "First with live news coverage capabilities"
03/26/09 11:21 AM
By ED BARK
Leeza Gibbons, former co-host of WFAA8's long defunct PM Magazine, turns 52 today.
She can be glimpsed, with short-shorted colleague Bill Ratliff, in this full-blown (scroll down) 1980 station presentation for advertisers. It runs for nearly seven-and-a-half minutes, but you won't find a better look at the way it was when local stations went to war each fall with grand pronouncements and big, pre-cable budgets. Among the sights and sounds:
***An announcer proclaiming of PM: "What a team! What a staff! What a program!" (Note: it aired at 6:30 p.m. weekdays and was celebrating its second anniversary.)
***A gaggle of writhing, twirling, high-kicking, black-clad Ch. 8 dancers weaving their way through the station's lobby and into the control room.
***Sports reporter George Riba and former news anchor Iola Johnson shaking and clapping to the tune of "We're one big family, in perfect harmony."
***Weatherman Troy Dungan, swaggering in an impossibly loud shirt through White Rock Lake park.
***Shots at the competition, with video of Ch. 4 anchors Chip Moody and Clarice Tinsley, and Ch. 5's Jane Jayroe and Dave Layman dismissed by a country twanger who sings, "Sometimes the newer something seems to be, the quicker it seems to grow old."
***Sports anchor Verne Lundquist hugging a beaming Tracy Rowlett in the newsroom; Iola Johnson having an equally great time proclaiming the station No. 1 through an open window.
***A paunchy John Criswell swatting a tennis ball.
***Legendary assignments editor Bert Shipp, father of investigative reporter Brett, playfully sticking his tongue out.
I've covered 'em all. So hokey as it might seem, this video made me kinda misty. Enjoy the show, and see who you recognize. And happy birthday, Leeza.
Leeza Gibbons, former co-host of WFAA8's long defunct PM Magazine, turns 52 today.
She can be glimpsed, with short-shorted colleague Bill Ratliff, in this full-blown (scroll down) 1980 station presentation for advertisers. It runs for nearly seven-and-a-half minutes, but you won't find a better look at the way it was when local stations went to war each fall with grand pronouncements and big, pre-cable budgets. Among the sights and sounds:
***An announcer proclaiming of PM: "What a team! What a staff! What a program!" (Note: it aired at 6:30 p.m. weekdays and was celebrating its second anniversary.)
***A gaggle of writhing, twirling, high-kicking, black-clad Ch. 8 dancers weaving their way through the station's lobby and into the control room.
***Sports reporter George Riba and former news anchor Iola Johnson shaking and clapping to the tune of "We're one big family, in perfect harmony."
***Weatherman Troy Dungan, swaggering in an impossibly loud shirt through White Rock Lake park.
***Shots at the competition, with video of Ch. 4 anchors Chip Moody and Clarice Tinsley, and Ch. 5's Jane Jayroe and Dave Layman dismissed by a country twanger who sings, "Sometimes the newer something seems to be, the quicker it seems to grow old."
***Sports anchor Verne Lundquist hugging a beaming Tracy Rowlett in the newsroom; Iola Johnson having an equally great time proclaiming the station No. 1 through an open window.
***A paunchy John Criswell swatting a tennis ball.
***Legendary assignments editor Bert Shipp, father of investigative reporter Brett, playfully sticking his tongue out.
I've covered 'em all. So hokey as it might seem, this video made me kinda misty. Enjoy the show, and see who you recognize. And happy birthday, Leeza.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., March 25) -- big day for Fox and Fox4
03/26/09 09:51 AM
By ED BARK
American Idol restored order to Fox's prime-time ratings Wednesday before Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast capitalized on its bounteous lead-in to beat all competing entertainment programming.
Idol's two-hour performance show, delayed a day by President Obama's prime-time news conference, amassed 471,653 D-FW viewers in blowing out everything sent against it. Fox's gold standard also cruised among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 210,678 against closest competitor Criminal Minds (113,442) on CBS.
Meanwhile, NBC's Chopping Block continued to play dead with just 53,144 total viewers in the 7 p.m. hour while the second episode of ABC's Better Off Ted showed at least some vital signs at 7:30 p.m. with 126,217 viewers. CBS' Survivor: Tocantins took second place from 7 to 8 p.m., but with a less than imposing 146,146 viewers.
ABC's new episode of Lost ran third in both ratings measurements at 8 p.m., with NBC's fourth place Life showing little.
The 9 p.m. competition went to Fox4's newscast, with a robust 332,150 total viewers opposite CBS' runnerup CSI: NY (298,935). Fox4 also ran first among 18-to-49-year-olds, with CSI: NY second ahead of NBC's Law & Order and the penultimate episode of ABC's Life on Mars
Over on TXA21, the Dallas Mavericks' easy-does-it home win against Golden State drew 93,002 total viewers, 35,653 of them in the 18-to-49 age range.
In local news derby results, CBS11 took the top spot in total viewers at 10 p.m. while Fox4 had the gold among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Spoils were also split at 6 a.m., with Fox4 running first in total viewers and NBC5 winning with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock also had the 5 p.m. gold in total viewers, but yielded to Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4 likewise won at 6 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demographic; WFAA8 had the most total viewers at that hour.
American Idol restored order to Fox's prime-time ratings Wednesday before Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast capitalized on its bounteous lead-in to beat all competing entertainment programming.
Idol's two-hour performance show, delayed a day by President Obama's prime-time news conference, amassed 471,653 D-FW viewers in blowing out everything sent against it. Fox's gold standard also cruised among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 210,678 against closest competitor Criminal Minds (113,442) on CBS.
Meanwhile, NBC's Chopping Block continued to play dead with just 53,144 total viewers in the 7 p.m. hour while the second episode of ABC's Better Off Ted showed at least some vital signs at 7:30 p.m. with 126,217 viewers. CBS' Survivor: Tocantins took second place from 7 to 8 p.m., but with a less than imposing 146,146 viewers.
ABC's new episode of Lost ran third in both ratings measurements at 8 p.m., with NBC's fourth place Life showing little.
The 9 p.m. competition went to Fox4's newscast, with a robust 332,150 total viewers opposite CBS' runnerup CSI: NY (298,935). Fox4 also ran first among 18-to-49-year-olds, with CSI: NY second ahead of NBC's Law & Order and the penultimate episode of ABC's Life on Mars
Over on TXA21, the Dallas Mavericks' easy-does-it home win against Golden State drew 93,002 total viewers, 35,653 of them in the 18-to-49 age range.
In local news derby results, CBS11 took the top spot in total viewers at 10 p.m. while Fox4 had the gold among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Spoils were also split at 6 a.m., with Fox4 running first in total viewers and NBC5 winning with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock also had the 5 p.m. gold in total viewers, but yielded to Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4 likewise won at 6 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demographic; WFAA8 had the most total viewers at that hour.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., March 24) -- Obama press conference leaves Idol-less Fox in ratings ditch
03/25/09 11:07 AM
By ED BARK
President Obama's second prime-time press conference left Fox without its planned two-hour American Idol and with a House rerun Tuesday. The ratings results weren't pretty.
House had just 53,144 D-FW viewers in the 8 p.m. hour, distancing itself from CBS' competing new episode of NCIS (411,866 viewers) and ABC's runnerup Dancing with the Stars results show (338,793 viewers), in which Denise Richards got booted. The first hour of NBC's The Biggest Loser ran third, but still more than tripled House's audience with 172,718 viewers.
CBS also cleaned up at 9 p.m. with a new episode of The Mentalist, Tuesday's top draw with an imposing 478,296 viewers.
Mentalist likewise beat all competing program in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 demographic, but NCIS slipped to second at 8 p.m. behind Dancing.
Here's the total viewers breakdown for the president's 7 to 8 p.m. press conference.
CBS -- 159,432
Fox -- 146,146
ABC -- 126,217
NBC -- 112,931
Univision -- 99,645
Fox News Channel -- 86,359
CNN -- 33,215
MSNBC -- 19,929
In local news derby results, WFAA8 overcame a sizable lead-in disadvantage to edge runnerup CBS11 at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 ran the table at 6 a.m. for the second straight weekday in another tight fight with Fox4. In the battle for a distant third place, WFAA8 won in total viewers, but CBS11 prevailed with 25-to-54-year-olds. Fox4's Good Day remained in charge from 7 to 9 a.m., again whipping the three network morning shows in both ratings measurements.
WFAA8 swept the 6 p.m. news skirmishes and also had the 5 p.m. gold in total viewers. NBC5 won at the earlier hour with 25-to-54-year-olds.
President Obama's second prime-time press conference left Fox without its planned two-hour American Idol and with a House rerun Tuesday. The ratings results weren't pretty.
House had just 53,144 D-FW viewers in the 8 p.m. hour, distancing itself from CBS' competing new episode of NCIS (411,866 viewers) and ABC's runnerup Dancing with the Stars results show (338,793 viewers), in which Denise Richards got booted. The first hour of NBC's The Biggest Loser ran third, but still more than tripled House's audience with 172,718 viewers.
CBS also cleaned up at 9 p.m. with a new episode of The Mentalist, Tuesday's top draw with an imposing 478,296 viewers.
Mentalist likewise beat all competing program in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 demographic, but NCIS slipped to second at 8 p.m. behind Dancing.
Here's the total viewers breakdown for the president's 7 to 8 p.m. press conference.
CBS -- 159,432
Fox -- 146,146
ABC -- 126,217
NBC -- 112,931
Univision -- 99,645
Fox News Channel -- 86,359
CNN -- 33,215
MSNBC -- 19,929
In local news derby results, WFAA8 overcame a sizable lead-in disadvantage to edge runnerup CBS11 at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 ran the table at 6 a.m. for the second straight weekday in another tight fight with Fox4. In the battle for a distant third place, WFAA8 won in total viewers, but CBS11 prevailed with 25-to-54-year-olds. Fox4's Good Day remained in charge from 7 to 9 a.m., again whipping the three network morning shows in both ratings measurements.
WFAA8 swept the 6 p.m. news skirmishes and also had the 5 p.m. gold in total viewers. NBC5 won at the earlier hour with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Anchor/reporter Gina Miller still a player in D-FW television's man-centric sports scene
03/24/09 12:14 PM
By ED BARK
At 5 foot 11 inches, Gina Miller is long accustomed to walking tall. Now she stands alone, too.
Through happenstance and circumstance, Miller has become the last woman sportscaster on the six North Texas TV stations with daily local newscasts.
The Dallas native, who went as far as Guam to learn her trade, anchors the weeknight sports segments on TXA21's prime-time newscasts and also teams with Derek Harper on the station's pre-game, halftime and post-game shows. In football season, she shifts to sister station CBS11 to co-host Dallas Cowboys pre-game shows.
"I tease her all the time that she should be on ESPN or TNT, says Harper, the former Mavericks guard whom Miller, 34, used to watch as a gangly student at Lakehill Preparatory School. "She's a natural and she's paid her dues . . . Gina's a rock star. When I go places, everybody's like 'How tall is Gina Miller? Is she really as pretty in person as she is on TV? Is she married?' "
For the record, she's divorced and has a boyfriend who wanted to take her out on Valentine's Day. But Miller says she balked because the NBA All-Star game was having its slam dunk and three-point shooting competitions that night.
"It's very tough to have a social life. Work definitely dominates my life right now," she says.
On this mid-Friday afternoon, Miller is a few hours away from joining Harper for in-studio commentary and analysis on what will be a dispiriting Mavericks road loss to the Houston Rockets.
"I hadn't realized I was the only woman doing this," she says. "I really don't think it's a concerted effort on the part of stations. It's just happened sort of naturally that I'm the only woman left."
That's been the case since early January, when Fox4 declined to renew the contract of sports anchor/reporter Nita Wiggins. Last year, WFAA8 sports reporter Erin Hawksworth left the station to take a general assignment reporter's job at WFXT-TV in Boston. Neither position has been filled by management, leaving WFAA8 with a four-man sports staff and Fox4 with just a two-man crew.
"The economy is to blame as much as anything," Miller says. "They're not replacing these women. They're not replacing the guys either."
Miller rode and showed Arabian horses as a kid, but otherwise had no particular interest in competitive sports. That changed when a "hugh growth spurt" shot her up from 5 foot 2 inches to 5 foot 9 inches as a 13-year-old.
"I was told, 'You are playing basketball whether you like it or not," she recalls. "I was the tallest girl in the state of Texas. But I was terrible. I mean, I was a horrible basketball player."
She got better in the summer between her 9th and 10th grade years, doggedly playing basketball with her grandfather "every single night." But she rebuffed subsequent scholarship offers from the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Dallas.
"I didn't want to stay in Dallas and I really didn't want to play basketball in college," says Miller.
Instead, "I wanted to be Bob Ortegel -- bad," she says, referring to the former college basketball coach who's now in his 20th season as the Mavericks' television/radio analyst. "I was obsessed. I really was."
Enrolling at the University of Houston, Miller quickly scored an internship with the Houston Rockets. Her duties included handing out game notes and media passes, helping write press releases and FAXing newspaper stories to the team's owner.
"It was a tactical move," she says. "I knew that working in PR I would meet a bunch of media people. So any grunt work, I did it. I did it with style."
There were other perks. Miller still has an official ring from the Rockets' 1994-'95 NBA championship season.
"Everybody asks me, 'Is it your boyfriend's ring?' " she says, laughing. "And I get so upset, because it says 'Miller' right there on the side. We earned those rings."
Her media contacts paid off after graduation, when Miller landed a job as an assistant sports producer at Houston's CBS affiliate, KHOU-TV. But she never got on the air, which is where she dearly wanted to be. So Miller answered a trade magazine advertisement -- "Come Work in a Tropical Paradise" -- for KUAM-TV in Guam. She got the job and finally got on camera for the first time in July 1996.
"I was in a little over my head," Miller says. As KUAM's sports director, she was expected to shoot, produce, edit and anchor stories on Guam's reigning sports -- fishing, scuba diving, paddling and volleyball.
After six months she returned to Dallas and lived at home for a short time. Then came an "out of the blue" call from WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tenn., where she'd sent a video resume a year earlier.
"They decided they wanted to take the leap and have a woman in the market," says Miller, who became the station's weekend sports anchor, producer of its Sunday night sports show and "what ever else they needed" as WBIR's promotable new "Sports Girl." Her beat included the University of Tennessee's Lady Vols basketball team, coached then and now by the legendary Pat Summitt.
"She's awesome. I mean, she can be a booger bear, but she was great to me," Miller says.
She stayed with WBIR for two-and-a-half years, but was getting homesick. Shortly after her grandfather died, she moved back to Dallas and hasn't left since.
Miller first landed a job with the Dallas Cowboys SilverStar Network, where for three years she produced the weekly Special Edition with Jerry Jones show while also doing sideline reporting for the team's pre-season games. She then moved to WFAA8 in July 2002 as a sports reporter and occasional fill-in anchor. That lasted until October 2005.
"I'd been without a contract for a year, and I think I just kind of got lost in the shuffle at Channel 8," Miller says. "I didn't see any room for growth there."
Sports anchor Dale Hansen, who hired her, "was very candid with me," she adds. "He said I'd pretty much maxed out my limit."
Hansen says he'd very much like to have Miller on Channel 8's team again.
"To me she has the classic look for a female sportscaster," he says. "Very attractive but not in a fashion model sense. She was a great reporter and a very good friend, and I hated to see her go. But it was a move she had to make, and I told her so. And if we ever pay more than minimum wage for a reporter again, I'd like to get her back."
CBS11 sports anchor Babe Laufenberg says he "initially tried to hire Gina when she went to Channel 8. We didn't have a full-time position at the time, but we got her the second time around.
"Her strength is her versatility," he adds. "She wears many hats. We do more with our sports department than any station in the market. So you're not just Super-Glued to an anchor chair reading a TelePrompTer."
Miller joined CBS11 and TXA21 just in time for the Mavericks' ill-fated 2005-06 season, which ended with a stunning loss to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
"I think they blew an opportunity they may never get back," says Miller, who first teamed with Harper in that season. She can be blunt-spoken when the occasion demands, recently telling viewers from her TXA21 anchor chair that the Mavericks "smelled bad" in a road loss to the cellar-dwelling Oklahoma Thunder.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who publicly ripped the team after that loss, says Miller is "smart, professional and obviously knows her stuff."
She has a few non-sports interests, too. Miller wouldn't mind being a travel journalist some day. She's also a big fan of Peter Sellers movies and an avid reader of Agatha Christie mystery novels.
Christie and athletic pursuits can mix, though. Miller listens to audio readings of her novels while training to complete her first marathon. She warmed up by running the Feb. 28th Cowtown Half-Marathon, which she completed in a time of one hour, 47 minutes and 52 seconds.
Miller says she hopes to run the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in April, but there could be a catch.
"It all depends on Mavericks playoffs scenarios," she says. "Story of of my life, huh?"
Dinner at eight, weather at 10
03/24/09 10:51 AM
By ED BARK
His predecessor, Troy Dungan, wore hundreds if not thousands of his trademark bow ties during a long career as WFAA8's featured forecaster.
Pete Delkus upped that ante on Monday's 10 p.m. newscast by doing the weather in formal wear. So why'd he play dress-up?
A. Pete was jealous of sports anchor Dale Hansen's wide-striped tommy gun suit and decided to fire back.
B. Pete was celebrating Tuesday's DVD release of the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.
C. Pete had just posed atop a giant wedding cake for the June issue of Modern Bride magazine.
D. Pete was the celebrity maitre d' at Denny's annual Grand Slam A Jamma.
E. Pete thought that Monday was "National Dress Up In A Tuxedo Day."
F. Pete hoped to get lucky upon returning home after another long day of highs and lows.
Actually, Delkus had just returned from Dallas Baptist University, where he was co-chair with Alicia Landry of the Tom Landry Leadership Awards dinner. Apparently there wasn't enough time to change in a nearby phone booth.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., March 23) -- more merriness for ABC, CBS
03/24/09 09:21 AM
By ED BARK
ABC's Dancing with the Stars again hoofed and puffed to a commanding Monday night win in total D-FW viewers before CBS' CSI: Miami left rivals for dead in the 9 p.m. hour.
Dancing amassed 385,294 viewers from 7 to 9 p.m., with only CBS' Two and a Half Men rerun (298,935) and a new Rules of Engagement (272,363) offering more than token resistance.
But the two comedies, plus a special 7 p.m. new episode of How I Met Your Mother, edged Dancing among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds. CSI: Miami then took over at 9 p.m. with 338,793 total viewers and also a commanding win in the 18-to-49 demographic.
ABC's new Castle hung in with second place finishes at 9 p.m. in both ratings measurements, but lost roughly 40 percent of the viewers inherited from Dancing. Still, its chances for a second season renewal look pretty good right now. ABC desperately wants a hit "procedural" crime show, and the semi-breezy Castle may be as good as it gets.
NBC had another tough Monday night, with Heroes and Medium both placing fourth in total viewers while Chuck managed a bronze at 7 p.m. ahead of Fox's House repeat.
Heroes inched up to third among 18-to-49-year-olds, leaving Fox's 24 in fifth place at 8 p.m. behind even an episode of The CW's One Tree Hill. Maybe most viewers are satiated with Jack Bauer's breathless, save-the-world exploits, but I'm still with him.
The local news derby results put WFAA8 in its usual top spot at 10 p.m. with 325,507 total viewers. WFAA8 also ran first among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 had the No. 2 spot in both measurements.
NBC5 and Fox4 continued to jockey for position at 6 a.m. The Peacock ran the table this time after Fox4 had twin wins on Friday.
WFAA8 swept the 6 p.m. news Nielsens and Fox4 did likewise at 5 p.m.
Also of note: In the late late night network numbers, CBS' Craig Ferguson topped runnerup Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds. But Fox4's competing Law & Order: Criminal Intent repeat outdrew all three talkers in total viewers while TXA21's pair of That '70s Show reruns ran first with 18-to-49-year-olds.
ABC's Dancing with the Stars again hoofed and puffed to a commanding Monday night win in total D-FW viewers before CBS' CSI: Miami left rivals for dead in the 9 p.m. hour.
Dancing amassed 385,294 viewers from 7 to 9 p.m., with only CBS' Two and a Half Men rerun (298,935) and a new Rules of Engagement (272,363) offering more than token resistance.
But the two comedies, plus a special 7 p.m. new episode of How I Met Your Mother, edged Dancing among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds. CSI: Miami then took over at 9 p.m. with 338,793 total viewers and also a commanding win in the 18-to-49 demographic.
ABC's new Castle hung in with second place finishes at 9 p.m. in both ratings measurements, but lost roughly 40 percent of the viewers inherited from Dancing. Still, its chances for a second season renewal look pretty good right now. ABC desperately wants a hit "procedural" crime show, and the semi-breezy Castle may be as good as it gets.
NBC had another tough Monday night, with Heroes and Medium both placing fourth in total viewers while Chuck managed a bronze at 7 p.m. ahead of Fox's House repeat.
Heroes inched up to third among 18-to-49-year-olds, leaving Fox's 24 in fifth place at 8 p.m. behind even an episode of The CW's One Tree Hill. Maybe most viewers are satiated with Jack Bauer's breathless, save-the-world exploits, but I'm still with him.
The local news derby results put WFAA8 in its usual top spot at 10 p.m. with 325,507 total viewers. WFAA8 also ran first among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 had the No. 2 spot in both measurements.
NBC5 and Fox4 continued to jockey for position at 6 a.m. The Peacock ran the table this time after Fox4 had twin wins on Friday.
WFAA8 swept the 6 p.m. news Nielsens and Fox4 did likewise at 5 p.m.
Also of note: In the late late night network numbers, CBS' Craig Ferguson topped runnerup Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel in both total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds. But Fox4's competing Law & Order: Criminal Intent repeat outdrew all three talkers in total viewers while TXA21's pair of That '70s Show reruns ran first with 18-to-49-year-olds.
Henderson quietly makes KTLA debut
03/23/09 05:37 PM
Megan Henderson in last Fox4 photo
By ED BARK
Her new station hasn't posted her picture and bio on its Web site yet. But former Fox4 Good Day co-anchor Megan Henderson is on the air at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.
She began work Tuesday, March 17th on the 5 to 7 a.m. shift, Henderson said by telephone Monday. "It's kind of an under-the-radar debut, which is fine with me."
The opposite was true on Good Day, which had a "Meet Megan Monday" when she joined Fox4 in August, 2003.
Henderson, who left Dallas-based Fox4 on Feb. 27th, is teaming with holdover anchor Asha Blake.
"It's kind of a chick show so far," Henderson says. "She's such a pro and has been around for a while. Everyone's been really, really kind to me -- beyond wonderful."
She's already found accommodations, staying in a "friend of a friend's high rise" for a year. It's near the station, and her 10th floor view includes the famed HOLLYWOOD sign.
"It's awesome," Henderson says. "I really lucked out with it."
Henderson was raised in nearby San Clemente, which makes her new job at KTLA a homecoming as well.
"I miss my friends in Dallas and I miss Good Day," she says. "But I've been so blessed because it's been a really smooth transition. I'm kind of waiting for the bottom to fall out from under me, but I'm happy to be home. I went to a funeral the other day for an old family friend that I never would have been able to go to otherwise."
Henderson said she'll also do some reporting "here and there" for KTLA, whose daily morning programming currently stretches from 5 to 10 a.m.
"There's a good chance we may go even earlier," she said, still sounding happy at the prospect.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (March 20-22) -- Obama, basketball put bounce in CBS' ratings
03/23/09 11:05 AM
By ED BARK
CBS' late-starting 60 Minutes, featuring correspondent Steve Kroft's interview with Barack Obama, gave the prez his second big score in three days.
Delayed until 6:52 p.m. by NCAA basketball overruns and a huge bloc of commercials, 60 Minutes averaged 292,292 D-FW viewers to outpoint ABC's competing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (252,434 viewers).
60 Minutes also almost won the hour among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, finishing a close second to Fox's cartoon combo of The Simpsons and King of the Hill.
On Thursday, Obama's appearance on NBC's The Tonight Show tripled its usual ratings both nationally and in D-FW.
CBS likewise fared well with basketball coverage, winning in total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds throughout Sunday's afternoon and early evening hours.
The NCAA tournament also perked up CBS' Saturday Nielsens, sweeping the competition from noon all the way through prime-time. Friday's basketball coverage topped the prime-time ratings in both measurements while running either first or second during afternoon hours.
Meanwhile, Sunday's second episode of NBC's Kings took a pounding from 7 to 8 p.m., drawing just 79,716 total viewers to run a distant fourth across the board. The ambitious modern-day fable is scheduled to run for 13 episodes, but could be dethroned earlier than that if this keeps up.
NBC's latest two-hour dollop of Celebrity Apprentice likewise ran fourth from 8 to 10 p.m. Sunday, although it almost doubled Kings' audience.
In Friday's local news derby, WFAA8 remained solid at 10 p.m. in a three-way race that dealt out CBS11 in favor of basketball. The ABC station won in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 took first at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements, with NBC5 sliding to second after topping Thursday's early morning competitions. Third-place WFAA8 likewise traded places with CBS11, which had the bronze on Friday.
WFAA8 won at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in total viewers, but Fox4 had the golds among 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11's 6 p.m. news again was preempted by basketball coverage.
CBS' late-starting 60 Minutes, featuring correspondent Steve Kroft's interview with Barack Obama, gave the prez his second big score in three days.
Delayed until 6:52 p.m. by NCAA basketball overruns and a huge bloc of commercials, 60 Minutes averaged 292,292 D-FW viewers to outpoint ABC's competing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (252,434 viewers).
60 Minutes also almost won the hour among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, finishing a close second to Fox's cartoon combo of The Simpsons and King of the Hill.
On Thursday, Obama's appearance on NBC's The Tonight Show tripled its usual ratings both nationally and in D-FW.
CBS likewise fared well with basketball coverage, winning in total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds throughout Sunday's afternoon and early evening hours.
The NCAA tournament also perked up CBS' Saturday Nielsens, sweeping the competition from noon all the way through prime-time. Friday's basketball coverage topped the prime-time ratings in both measurements while running either first or second during afternoon hours.
Meanwhile, Sunday's second episode of NBC's Kings took a pounding from 7 to 8 p.m., drawing just 79,716 total viewers to run a distant fourth across the board. The ambitious modern-day fable is scheduled to run for 13 episodes, but could be dethroned earlier than that if this keeps up.
NBC's latest two-hour dollop of Celebrity Apprentice likewise ran fourth from 8 to 10 p.m. Sunday, although it almost doubled Kings' audience.
In Friday's local news derby, WFAA8 remained solid at 10 p.m. in a three-way race that dealt out CBS11 in favor of basketball. The ABC station won in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 took first at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements, with NBC5 sliding to second after topping Thursday's early morning competitions. Third-place WFAA8 likewise traded places with CBS11, which had the bronze on Friday.
WFAA8 won at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in total viewers, but Fox4 had the golds among 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11's 6 p.m. news again was preempted by basketball coverage.
Briefings continue to litter neighborhoods. But hey, try delivering them
03/20/09 10:38 AM
By ED BARK
Another big round of layoffs is scheduled to hit The Dallas Morning News within the next month or so. Meanwhile, the newspaper's free mini-me, known as Briefing, continues to litter streets, gutters, sidewalks and parkways.
Something's not right with this picture -- as you can see from the snapshot above. But Robin E. Chapa, wife of a DMN carrier, says that complainers should know what it's like to be a cog in The Dallas Morning News delivery system.
"There are some facts that need to be stated," she said in an impassioned email sent to unclebarky.com.
First, though, a brief back story.
Briefing debuted in late August as a four-days-a-week product aimed at "upscale" households earning at least $75,000 annually.
"What we're giving advertisers are 200,000 more readers who have disposable income," DMN vice president of niche products Cyndy Carr was quoted as saying in the mothership's Aug. 26th edition.
As noted previously in these spaces and in a December article for D CEO magazine, many of the 12-to-16-page Briefings are landing everywhere except potential readers' doorsteps. And there they rot, blighting various neighborhoods rather than putting a hop in the step of "people on the go" who simply "are not able to fit the traditional newspaper into their busy lifestyle."
That brings us to Robin E. Chapa's side of the story. Her husband, a realtor, began working part-time as a carrier for The DMN to help make ends meet in a still shipwrecked economy. She has authorized the use of her name.
"He just received the extra job of delivering Briefing", Chapa said in a March 13th email. "I see a lot of complaints from neighborhoods, but I have not read anything from the carriers. The Dallas Morning News has 'dumped' this extra job on carriers and is paying them only $60 more a week.
"Carriers are expected to throw over 200-250 extra papers four days a week. That means rolling and bagging them also. That is another route. That is adding an extra two hours at least to their route. This is a part-time job and now they are working full-time hours for $15 extra for the days the Briefings are thrown.
"Carriers use their money for gas. Also, there are deadlines that all papers must be delivered by. Try throwing a Briefing during a high wind and watch where that Briefing goes. There is no weight to it, and Briefings blow everywhere.
"So before people complain about the circumstances, think of the carriers that have to roll each Briefing individually, throw them and still have all their paying subscribers receive their papers within the deadline."
Chapa notes that carriers work seven days a week with no vacation time, holidays or benefits. (This is very true. My son briefly worked as a DMN carrier during his college years before quickly tiring of the grind and the daily pre-dawn hours. I went out with him once. Don't know how he did it.)
"Even though this is a part-time job -- or used to be -- my husband puts 100 percent into it," Chapa says. "He does a great job."
Whatever her husband's dedication to duty, "people are not going to subscribe to The Dallas Morning News because of Briefing," Chapa contends. "They are either going to throw them away or glance at them and then throw them away."
Actually, that's assuming a lot. Judging from the evidence in our neighborhood and others, many Briefings are still never picked up at all. Instead they form an all-too-visible paper trail in times when more layoffs loom and boondoggles inevitably land straight at the feet of the peons.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., March 19) -- Obama a smash on Tonight
03/20/09 09:42 AM
By ED BARK
Downtrodden NBC got a big boost Thursday from President Obama's history-making appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.
No sitting president had ever guested on a late night talk show before. And D-FW responded in a big way, with 305,578 total viewers staying up late to catch the Obama-Leno sitdown.
That tied WFAA8's 10 p.m. newscast as Thursday's most-watched program. In contrast, Wednesday's Tonight Show had a comparatively paltry 106,288 viewers.
CBS' opening day of the NCAA basketball tournament had its biggest audience for the late night matchup between victorious Oklahoma and Morgan State (179,361 viewers), which gave way to other games after becoming a blowout. Texas' win over Minnesota earlier Thursday night averaged 126,217 viewers.
Basketball was beaten all night by rival entertainment programming.
At 7 p.m., Fox's Bones had the most total viewers (199,290), but NBC's combo of My Name Is Earl and The Office won among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
ABC's doctor dramas, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, ruled the 8 to 10 p.m. hours in both ratings measurements.
In the daily local news derby, WFAA8 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. in a downsized three-way competition. But NBC5 won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The Peacock swept the 6 a.m. competitions, handily beating runnerup Fox4. The pitched battle for third place went to CBS11, which knocked WFAA8 back into the fourth spot after the two stations ran in the reverse order on Wednesday.
WFAA8 ran the table at 6 p.m., and also had the most total viewers at 5 p.m. Fox4 was tops at the earlier hour among 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11's 6 p.m. newscast was preempted by basketball.
Former CBS11 news director Regent Ducas becomes media coach for North Texas firm whose clients include his old station
03/19/09 11:28 AM
By ED BARK
Controversial former CBS11 news director Regent Ducas has re-booted a second time in North Texas after being dropped by the station in August, 2007.
Ducas, whose self-stated "run and gun" newsgathering approach caused widespread unrest at the station, is now director of business development/sports for Irving-based Talent Dynamics. The company says he's "charged with growing our coaching and media training for professional athletes."
Talent Dynamics also notes that Ducas has produced "award-winning newscasts" in addition to player/coach shows for Dan Marino and Jimmy Johnson. "He has personally conducted countless interviews in and out of locker rooms with athletes and personalities from every sport and has been the first mentor for athletes who have entered the television world."
Oddly enough, CBS11 is one of Talent Dynamics' client stations. So Ducas could be in the position of coaching athletes in the art of deflecting questions from the likes of CBS11 sports anchor Babe Laufenberg among others.
Post-CBS11, Ducas became interim news director at WLNE-TV in Providence, R.I. before leaving the station last April. He then returned to North Texas in August as an adjunct instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington, where Ducas taught a broadcast course titled "Current Issues." The university's Web site no longer lists him as a member of its faculty.
Ducas joined CBS11 in March 2007 from Kansas City's KCTV-5, where his fast-paced crime and tragedy strategy helped take the station to No. 1 in the newscast ratings during his five-year reign. But he lasted less than six months at CBS11 before being replaced by current news director Scott Diener, who had been Ducas' second in command.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., March 18) -- Fox, CBS split prime-time spoils
03/19/09 10:51 AM
By ED BARK
Fox's one-two punch of American Idol and Lie to Me were tops in total viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. before CBS' CSI: NY closed out prime-time with a 9 p.m. win.
Save for Idol, though, the results were reversed among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
Idol, which booted Alexis Grace to reduce its field to 10, led all prime-time programming with 358,722 total D-FW viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. It also cruised to an easy win in the 18-to-49 demographic.
Lie to Me carried the 7 p.m. slot in total viewers (205,933), but ran second among 18-to-49-year-olds behind CBS' comedy duo of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried.
CSI: NY had 279,006 total viewers to lead the way as usual at 9 p.m. Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast was tops with 18-to-49-year-olds, though.
The debut of ABC's promising Better Off Ted sitcom lured 99,645 total viewers at 7:30 p.m., good enough to outpoint the second episode of NBC's competing The Chopping Block (73,073 viewers). But the Peacock's cooking show doubled Ted's audience among 18-to-49-year-olds. CW's America's Next Top Model also ran ahead of Ted on that scorecard.
In local news derby results, WFAA8 prevailed at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the favored advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 nipped Fox4 in total viewers at 6 a.m., with the two stations tying for first with 25-to-54-year-olds. After showing signs of third-place life earlier in the week, CBS11 barely registered with just 19,929 total viewers, 3,053 of them in the 25-to-54 range. WFAA8 again ran third, drawing less than half the audiences for Fox4 and NBC5 in both ratings measurements.
The Peacock won at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in total viewers, with WFAA8 taking both golds among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox's one-two punch of American Idol and Lie to Me were tops in total viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. before CBS' CSI: NY closed out prime-time with a 9 p.m. win.
Save for Idol, though, the results were reversed among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
Idol, which booted Alexis Grace to reduce its field to 10, led all prime-time programming with 358,722 total D-FW viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. It also cruised to an easy win in the 18-to-49 demographic.
Lie to Me carried the 7 p.m. slot in total viewers (205,933), but ran second among 18-to-49-year-olds behind CBS' comedy duo of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried.
CSI: NY had 279,006 total viewers to lead the way as usual at 9 p.m. Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast was tops with 18-to-49-year-olds, though.
The debut of ABC's promising Better Off Ted sitcom lured 99,645 total viewers at 7:30 p.m., good enough to outpoint the second episode of NBC's competing The Chopping Block (73,073 viewers). But the Peacock's cooking show doubled Ted's audience among 18-to-49-year-olds. CW's America's Next Top Model also ran ahead of Ted on that scorecard.
In local news derby results, WFAA8 prevailed at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the favored advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 nipped Fox4 in total viewers at 6 a.m., with the two stations tying for first with 25-to-54-year-olds. After showing signs of third-place life earlier in the week, CBS11 barely registered with just 19,929 total viewers, 3,053 of them in the 25-to-54 range. WFAA8 again ran third, drawing less than half the audiences for Fox4 and NBC5 in both ratings measurements.
The Peacock won at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in total viewers, with WFAA8 taking both golds among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., March 17) -- CBS outdraws Idol with NCIS
03/18/09 10:14 AM
By ED BARK
Chalk this up as a first in D-FW. A competing program has outdrawn Fox's American Idol.
It happened between 7 and 8 p.m. on St. Paddy's night, when a new episode of CBS' NCIS had 338,793 total viewers opposite the first hour of Idol's 11-way performance show (285,649 viewers).
CBS' The Mentalist then had an even larger audience -- 358,722 viewers -- but Idol narrowly bested it from 8 to 9 p.m. by upping its viewership to 372,008.
That left ABC's Dancing with the Stars in third place from 8 to 9 p.m. with 199,290 viewers for its first results show (Belinda Carlisle got booted).
Idol still had its way among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 142,613 viewers in that age range to crunch NCIS (93,995) and The Mentalist (100,477).
At 9 p.m., CBS' Without A Trace topped the field with 285,649 total viewers, but slipped to second with 18-to-49-year-olds behind NBC's Law & Order: SVU (119,924).
In the local news derby, CBS11 capitalized at 10 p.m. with a win in total viewers (252,434) and a first-place tie with WFAA8 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. by edging NBC5 in both ratings measurements. The station's Good Day so far has fared better this week with Krystle Gutierrez replacing Dan Godwin as Tim Ryan's substitute running mate. WFAA8 held off CBS11 for third place after a dismal basement finish on Monday.
WFAA8 perked up in the early evening newscast ratings, running the table at 5 and 6 p.m. for the first time since Jan. 21st. The ABC station won both time periods in the November "sweeps" competition, but since has seen its 5 p.m. ratings crumble and its 6 p.m. margins lessen.
Chalk this up as a first in D-FW. A competing program has outdrawn Fox's American Idol.
It happened between 7 and 8 p.m. on St. Paddy's night, when a new episode of CBS' NCIS had 338,793 total viewers opposite the first hour of Idol's 11-way performance show (285,649 viewers).
CBS' The Mentalist then had an even larger audience -- 358,722 viewers -- but Idol narrowly bested it from 8 to 9 p.m. by upping its viewership to 372,008.
That left ABC's Dancing with the Stars in third place from 8 to 9 p.m. with 199,290 viewers for its first results show (Belinda Carlisle got booted).
Idol still had its way among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 142,613 viewers in that age range to crunch NCIS (93,995) and The Mentalist (100,477).
At 9 p.m., CBS' Without A Trace topped the field with 285,649 total viewers, but slipped to second with 18-to-49-year-olds behind NBC's Law & Order: SVU (119,924).
In the local news derby, CBS11 capitalized at 10 p.m. with a win in total viewers (252,434) and a first-place tie with WFAA8 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. by edging NBC5 in both ratings measurements. The station's Good Day so far has fared better this week with Krystle Gutierrez replacing Dan Godwin as Tim Ryan's substitute running mate. WFAA8 held off CBS11 for third place after a dismal basement finish on Monday.
WFAA8 perked up in the early evening newscast ratings, running the table at 5 and 6 p.m. for the first time since Jan. 21st. The ABC station won both time periods in the November "sweeps" competition, but since has seen its 5 p.m. ratings crumble and its 6 p.m. margins lessen.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., March 16) -- still sundown in early mornings for WFAA8's Daybreak
03/17/09 10:55 AM
By ED BARK
WFAA8's latest Daybreak pairing of incumbent Cynthia Izaguirre and newcomer Chris Flanagan so far is turning the lights out on the station's early morning ratings.
Monday's showing was particularly abysmal. So much so that CBS11 may have a legitimate shot at out-kicking WFAA8 for third place in the less than pulsating March "sweeps" rating period, which began on March 5th and ends on April 1st. Here's the way the 6 to 7 a.m. numbers looked Monday in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming:
TOTAL VIEWERS
Fox4 -- 106,288
NBC5 -- 99,645
CBS11 -- 59,787
WFAA8 -- 39,858
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC5 -- 75,883
Fox4 -- 54,635
CBS11 -- 45,530
WFAA8 -- 21,247
In the total viewer Nielsens, the 6 to 7 a.m. portion of Monday's Daybreak ranked as WFAA8's least-watched program all the way until shortly past 1 a.m., when an infomercial drew an audience of 33,215, many of them likely asleep on their couches or in their beds.
In contrast, the 6 to 7 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day was the station's most-watched program (along with the 7 to 9 a.m. portion) all the way until 5:30 p.m. Monday, when the station's local newscast had 126,217 viewers.
This is only the third week together for Izaguirre/Flanagan. Still, WFAA8 clearly would be blindsided by a two-by-four if CBS11 vaults into third place at 6 a.m. Worse yet, CBS11's waker-upper is co-anchored by former Daybreak personality Scott Sams, who was banished and later sued his old station. After a stint at KTEN-TV in Sherman, Sams joined CBS11 in April 2007.
Elsewhere in Monday's Nielsens, ABC's latest two-hour edition of Dancing with the Stars controlled the 7 to 9 p.m. slot with 478,296 total viewers in D-FW. CBS' CSI: Miami then took over at 10 p.m., drawing 325,507 viewers opposite ABC's runnerup Castle (272,363).
NBC's Heroes continued to perform abysmally, ranking as prime-time's least-watched program on the big 4 broadcast networks with a puny 46,501 viewers.
In other local news derby results, WFAA8 scored twin wins at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
WFAA8 also won at 6 p.m. in total viewers, but dropped to third with 25-to-54-year-olds behind NBC5 and Fox4.
The Peacock and WFAA8 shared the gold at 5 p.m. in total viewers; NBC5 had first place to itself among 25-to-54-year-olds.
WFAA8's latest Daybreak pairing of incumbent Cynthia Izaguirre and newcomer Chris Flanagan so far is turning the lights out on the station's early morning ratings.
Monday's showing was particularly abysmal. So much so that CBS11 may have a legitimate shot at out-kicking WFAA8 for third place in the less than pulsating March "sweeps" rating period, which began on March 5th and ends on April 1st. Here's the way the 6 to 7 a.m. numbers looked Monday in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming:
TOTAL VIEWERS
Fox4 -- 106,288
NBC5 -- 99,645
CBS11 -- 59,787
WFAA8 -- 39,858
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC5 -- 75,883
Fox4 -- 54,635
CBS11 -- 45,530
WFAA8 -- 21,247
In the total viewer Nielsens, the 6 to 7 a.m. portion of Monday's Daybreak ranked as WFAA8's least-watched program all the way until shortly past 1 a.m., when an infomercial drew an audience of 33,215, many of them likely asleep on their couches or in their beds.
In contrast, the 6 to 7 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day was the station's most-watched program (along with the 7 to 9 a.m. portion) all the way until 5:30 p.m. Monday, when the station's local newscast had 126,217 viewers.
This is only the third week together for Izaguirre/Flanagan. Still, WFAA8 clearly would be blindsided by a two-by-four if CBS11 vaults into third place at 6 a.m. Worse yet, CBS11's waker-upper is co-anchored by former Daybreak personality Scott Sams, who was banished and later sued his old station. After a stint at KTEN-TV in Sherman, Sams joined CBS11 in April 2007.
Elsewhere in Monday's Nielsens, ABC's latest two-hour edition of Dancing with the Stars controlled the 7 to 9 p.m. slot with 478,296 total viewers in D-FW. CBS' CSI: Miami then took over at 10 p.m., drawing 325,507 viewers opposite ABC's runnerup Castle (272,363).
NBC's Heroes continued to perform abysmally, ranking as prime-time's least-watched program on the big 4 broadcast networks with a puny 46,501 viewers.
In other local news derby results, WFAA8 scored twin wins at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
WFAA8 also won at 6 p.m. in total viewers, but dropped to third with 25-to-54-year-olds behind NBC5 and Fox4.
The Peacock and WFAA8 shared the gold at 5 p.m. in total viewers; NBC5 had first place to itself among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun, March 13-15) -- NBC's Kings opens with commoner ratings
03/17/09 08:22 AM
By ED BARK
The two-hour premiere of NBC's lavish Kings wore its crown unsteadily Sunday night, drawing 119,574 D-FW viewers
That put it fourth from 7 to 9 p.m. behind ABC's leading contingent of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (179,361 viewers) and Desperate Housewives (232,505 viewers).
Kings fared a bit better among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, beating CBS' The Amazing Race in the 7 p.m. hour while losing to Extreme Makeover by just a smidgen. It then ran fourth from 8 to 9 p.m., where Fox's Family Guy had the biggest 18-to-49-year-old haul of the night (113,442 viewers in that age range).
Earlier Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks' hang-tough road loss to the Lakers averaged 93,002 total viewers on ABC. The Mavs were beaten overall from 2:30 to 5 p.m. by NBC's Doral Open golf tournament.
In the Friday Nielsens, Fox's Dollhouse continued to flop in these parts, running fifth with just 73,073 viewers from 8 to 9 p.m. CBS' competing Flashpoint led the way with more than double that crowd (205,933 viewers). It was no better for Dollhouse among 18-to-49-year-olds.
In Friday's local newscast derby, WFAA8 swept the 10 p.m. ratings in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 did likewise at 6 a.m., knocking NBC5 into second place for at least a day. CBS11 continued to battle WFAA8 for a distant third place, edging the ABC station in total viewers but falling to fourth among 25-to-54-year-olds.
WFAA8 won at 6 p.m. in total viewers while sharing the gold with Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic. At 5 p.m., NBC5 took first place in total viewers and tied WFAA8 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds.
"News 8 now: Closer to the community. Closer to the stories that matter the most to you."
03/13/09 05:37 PM
By ED BARK
This promo is now a decade old. But it still does a sterling job of positioning WFAA8 as D-FW television's one-stop news shop of record.
Some of the featured anchors and reporters are still on board, including Byron Harris, Brett Shipp, Gary Reaves, Janet St. James, John McCaa and Gloria Campos.
Others have either left the station -- Tracy Rowlett, Troy Dungan, Dave Evans, Doug Wilson, Anna Martinez -- or are no longer with us (the late Chip Moody).
The majestic music seems just right, and the visuals flow seamlessly. Mount Rushmore could use this kind of buildup. But see what you think.
This promo is now a decade old. But it still does a sterling job of positioning WFAA8 as D-FW television's one-stop news shop of record.
Some of the featured anchors and reporters are still on board, including Byron Harris, Brett Shipp, Gary Reaves, Janet St. James, John McCaa and Gloria Campos.
Others have either left the station -- Tracy Rowlett, Troy Dungan, Dave Evans, Doug Wilson, Anna Martinez -- or are no longer with us (the late Chip Moody).
The majestic music seems just right, and the visuals flow seamlessly. Mount Rushmore could use this kind of buildup. But see what you think.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., March 12) -- scantly promoted ER Clooney episode falls short in 9 p.m. numbers
03/13/09 09:57 AM
By ED BARK
Thursday's ER, with George Clooney making a largely un-promoted return, fell short in D-FW as the long-running NBC medical drama neared its April 2nd expiration date.
ER drew just 146,146 total viewers with an episode that also included charter cast members Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle and Erik LaSalle. That's less than half the viewership for CBS' competing Eleventh Hour, which had an audience of 305,578. ER also trailed Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast (179,361 viewers) and ABC's Private Practice (172,718 viewers).
Among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, ER shared a third-place tie with Fox4's newscast on a night when NBC's four regularly scheduled comedies all ran fourth across the board among the Big 4 broadcast networks.
Fox's Bones edged CBS' Survivor: Tocantins for the top spot in total viewers at 7 p.m., with the two series tying for first among 18-to-49-year-olds. The 8 p.m. slot again was ruled by CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which had Thursday's biggest crowd with 405,223 total viewers.
In the daily local news derby, WFAA8 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 again swept the 6 a.m. ratings, with Fox4 in the runnerup spot and WFAA8 holding off an encroaching CBS11 for third place. But the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day continued to win in both measurements against the three network morning shows.
The golds were split at both 5 and 6 p.m.
In the later hour, WFAA8 prevailed in total viewers, but NBC5 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds in a very close three-way race with Fox4 and WFAA8.
The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
Thursday's ER, with George Clooney making a largely un-promoted return, fell short in D-FW as the long-running NBC medical drama neared its April 2nd expiration date.
ER drew just 146,146 total viewers with an episode that also included charter cast members Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle and Erik LaSalle. That's less than half the viewership for CBS' competing Eleventh Hour, which had an audience of 305,578. ER also trailed Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast (179,361 viewers) and ABC's Private Practice (172,718 viewers).
Among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, ER shared a third-place tie with Fox4's newscast on a night when NBC's four regularly scheduled comedies all ran fourth across the board among the Big 4 broadcast networks.
Fox's Bones edged CBS' Survivor: Tocantins for the top spot in total viewers at 7 p.m., with the two series tying for first among 18-to-49-year-olds. The 8 p.m. slot again was ruled by CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which had Thursday's biggest crowd with 405,223 total viewers.
In the daily local news derby, WFAA8 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 again swept the 6 a.m. ratings, with Fox4 in the runnerup spot and WFAA8 holding off an encroaching CBS11 for third place. But the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day continued to win in both measurements against the three network morning shows.
The golds were split at both 5 and 6 p.m.
In the later hour, WFAA8 prevailed in total viewers, but NBC5 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds in a very close three-way race with Fox4 and WFAA8.
The 5 p.m. golds went to NBC5 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
This just in: a repeat of the same informercial that aired five weeks earlier on "The 33" news
03/12/09 12:16 PM
By ED BARK
Little if anything is expected of "The 33's" 9 p.m. local newscasts. They're stitched together on a relatively dinky budget and seem to mainly exist as a nightly one-hour link to the Dallas-based station's remodeled website.
Attention should be paid on occasion, though, since this is, after all, the country's 5th-largest TV market. And we don't want to be completely embarrassed -- or do we? -- when strangers come to town.
Wednesday's one-hour newscast as usual included a segment by lifestyles/entertainment "reporter" Roni Proter, who joined the station in January as part of news director David Duitch's numerous additions and subtractions.
"Tonight we revisit Madison Avenue," Proter said, introducing her weekly "Up All Night" tie-in with Quick newspaper, a weekend freebie and satellite publication of The Dallas Morning News.
Apparently one infomercial wasn't enough for Madison Avenue. On Feb. 4th's 9 p.m. newscast, Proter cooed in exactly the same fashion over the McKinney St. bar. Everybody said it was a wonderful place, and Proter of course readily agreed. She ended her piece from the bar's "huge patio."
Because it was the "dead of winter," no one else joined her outside, Proter said. "But I bet when summertime comes around, this place is going to be packed!" she enthused.
The "dead of winter" reference was repeated Wednesday night, even though spring is just a week-and-a-half away. In fact, the entire piece was a word-for-word, video-for-video repeat of Feb. 4th's wet kiss. We all know about prime-time reruns, but this seems to be charting new territory. Gooey, uncritical infomercials within local newscasts are bad enough. But on The 33, they compound the original sin by repeating it in full.
Wednesday's 9 p.m. edition had a total of 33,215 D-FW viewers, a relative pittance in a market of more than six million people. So I'm probably just wasting my time being an occasional watchdog. The 33 "newscast" is going to do what it's going to do. And until the bottom inevitably drops out, no one's going to shame them into doing otherwise.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., March 11) -- suddenly tough Mavs win second big one on road, but ratings love still on hold
03/12/09 09:19 AM
By ED BARK
The Dallas Mavericks are playing great of late, edging potent Portland on their home floor late Wednesday in what play-by-play dude Mark Folowill rightly called "one helluva basketball game."
Fans remain skeptical, though. The Mavs' win, on the second end of a back-to-back backbreaker, averaged just 93,002 D-FW viewers on TXA21, peaking at 126,217 from 11:15 to 11:30 p.m.
In days of old -- a couple of seasons ago -- the Mavs routinely would have beaten one or more of the 10 p.m. local newscasts in games scheduled against them. Not so on Wednesday, when each of the four late-nighters easily outpointed Dallas-Portland. Playoff collapses obviously take their toll.
Elsewhere in prime-time, Fox ran the table from 7 to 9 p.m. with Lie to Me (285,649 viewers) and American Idol (538,083). Idol also crunched all comers in the advertiser-craved 18-to-49 demographic, but Lie to Me was nipped in its first half-hour by CBS' New Adventures of Old Christine.
The 7 p.m. premiere of NBC's The Chopping Block ran third with 93,002 total viewers, beating only ABC's pair of Scrubs repeats. ABC also ran a distant fourth for the rest of the night with a give-up lineup of a Lost rerun and a lame duck new episode of the canceled Life on Mars.
At 9 p.m., Fox4's local newscast capitalized on the Idol lead-in by winning in total viewers (411,866) for the second straight night. Fox4 also ran first with 18-to-49-year-olds.
In the four-way local news competitions, CBS11 took charge of the 10 p.m. ratings with wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 ran the table at 6 a.m., with WFAA8 falling to fourth in total viewers and tying CBS11 for third among 25-to-54-year-olds. That's been happening regularly of late, with CBS11 seemingly in serious competition for the early morning bronze after years and years of last place numbers.
WFAA8 maintained its leadership at 6 p.m. with wins in both ratings measurements. Fox4 had the golds at 5 p.m.
The Dallas Mavericks are playing great of late, edging potent Portland on their home floor late Wednesday in what play-by-play dude Mark Folowill rightly called "one helluva basketball game."
Fans remain skeptical, though. The Mavs' win, on the second end of a back-to-back backbreaker, averaged just 93,002 D-FW viewers on TXA21, peaking at 126,217 from 11:15 to 11:30 p.m.
In days of old -- a couple of seasons ago -- the Mavs routinely would have beaten one or more of the 10 p.m. local newscasts in games scheduled against them. Not so on Wednesday, when each of the four late-nighters easily outpointed Dallas-Portland. Playoff collapses obviously take their toll.
Elsewhere in prime-time, Fox ran the table from 7 to 9 p.m. with Lie to Me (285,649 viewers) and American Idol (538,083). Idol also crunched all comers in the advertiser-craved 18-to-49 demographic, but Lie to Me was nipped in its first half-hour by CBS' New Adventures of Old Christine.
The 7 p.m. premiere of NBC's The Chopping Block ran third with 93,002 total viewers, beating only ABC's pair of Scrubs repeats. ABC also ran a distant fourth for the rest of the night with a give-up lineup of a Lost rerun and a lame duck new episode of the canceled Life on Mars.
At 9 p.m., Fox4's local newscast capitalized on the Idol lead-in by winning in total viewers (411,866) for the second straight night. Fox4 also ran first with 18-to-49-year-olds.
In the four-way local news competitions, CBS11 took charge of the 10 p.m. ratings with wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 ran the table at 6 a.m., with WFAA8 falling to fourth in total viewers and tying CBS11 for third among 25-to-54-year-olds. That's been happening regularly of late, with CBS11 seemingly in serious competition for the early morning bronze after years and years of last place numbers.
WFAA8 maintained its leadership at 6 p.m. with wins in both ratings measurements. Fox4 had the golds at 5 p.m.
Grubs and grackle poop mix -- and yes, that's a compliment
03/11/09 01:35 PM
By ED BARK
The newsroom at Dallas-based Fox4 has sustained many voluntary and involuntary departures in the past year-and-a-half. Some very good reporters have left the building, but at least one standout arrival is helping to fill those voids.
He's Matt Grubs from KOAT-TV in Albuquerque, NM, who arrived at Fox4 last fall and has shown himself to be both a solid street reporter and an easy-on-the-ears stylist. His storytelling tends to be breezy without being overblown. And his decibel level is bracingly low-key and conversational. Kind of NPR-ish, which is nice.
On Tuesday's 9 p.m. newscast, Grubs deftly tiptoed through the John Wiley Price/Kenneth Mayfield grackle poop spat in a story that also was covered by NBC5 and WFAA8.
In short, the two oft-at-odds Dallas County Commissioners have been arguing over the Tuesday morning power-washing of the sidewalks in front of their weekly meeting place. Mayfield wants it re-scheduled because he recently got sprayed as well. Price, ever the showman, took over for the regular maintenance city crew Tuesday morning, and vowed to keep doing so until further notice.
"This is the seat of county government. We ought to at least have it clean," Price reasoned.
NBC5's Ken Kalthoff and WFAA8's Cynthia Vega recounted this little drama matter-of-factly, and without any puns intended. But Grubs got away with saying that Price "had what you might call an excrement idea."
Then came came the clincher. Grubs first noted that The Sixth Floor Museum is located adjacent to the offices where the commissioners meet on Tuesday mornings. Then he told viewers, "Price argues that the effort to de-turd doesn't seem to have deterred anyone from showing up at the museum."
OK, maybe you have to hear him say it. And you can go here for that. But trust me, Grubs pulled it off. Besides, word plays of that caliber are seldom heard anywhere at any level of TV news reporting.
It should be noted that WFAA8's Gary Reaves had a story on the previous Tuesday about the initial Price/ Mayfield argument on when to power-spray the pathway to their meeting place. And Reaves had his moments, too, informing viewers that "we did some digging and we got the scoop. And it turns out that the scoop is full of bird poop."
Reaves also spoke of how grackles "darken the skies and lighten the sidewalks with their sticky, stinky droppings." Not bad. But he ended by inviting viewers to "make your own pun."
Grubs left little to viewers' imaginations, instead using his own. And his de-turd/deterred line laid waste to grackle poop-dom's previous grand champion, NBC5 reporter Randy McIlwain. In his November, 2007 story from Frisco, the resourceful McIlwain said from a grackle-pocked parking lot: "Experts say if you think those droppings are just a nuisance, you really don't know crap."
That was the yardstick until Grubs took charge. You have to pick your spots with this stuff, but so far so good. Grubs looks like a natural, whatever assignment he's given.
To learn more about his origins, read his official myfoxdfw bio, which begins, "My life began like most do: dropped in a basket and floated off down the Nile until I came ashore in some reeds. I frolicked in the jungle with the bear who adopted me, keeping a wary eye out for the tiger that ruled our tiny patch of earth . . . "
Let's put out the welcome -- Matt.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., March 10) -- Idol, Fox4 news flatten prime-time foes
03/11/09 11:38 AM
By ED BARK
Fox's American Idol and Fox4's 9 p.m. newscast feasted on easy pickings Tuesday night, with CBS in wall-to-wall reruns and ABC and NBC as usual offering token resistance.
Idol's first two-hour sing-off among the show's Final 13 amassed 531,440 D-FW viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. opposite CBS' repeat pairing of NCIS (a still respectable 325,507 viewers) and The Mentalist (338,793 viewers).
The gap was more decisive among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, with Idol drawing 236,608 viewers in this age range to thump NCIS (106,960) and Mentalist (123,166).
Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast also reigned with 405,223 total viewers, beating CBS' runnerup rerun of Without A Trace (298,935). The newscast likewise romped among 18-to-49-year-olds.
ABC trailed badly all night with a lineup of Homeland Security, two Scrubs repeats and Prime Time: What Would You Do?. Third place NBC also had problems drawing a crowd with its two-hour Biggest Loser and a new episode of Law & Order: SVU.
Over on TXA21, the Dallas Mavericks' man-up road win against the nearly eclipsed Phoenix Suns averaged 106,288 total viewers from 9 to 11:30 p.m.
In the daily local news derby, WFAA8 overcame a skimpy lead-in from Prime Time to win the 10 p.m. Nielsens in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 ran second at that hour in total viewers, but slipped to third place with 25-to-54-year-olds, behind Fox4.
At 6 a.m., Fox4 and NBC5 tied for first in total viewers, with the Peacock taking the gold among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8's early morning woes continued with a pair of fourth place finishes behind CBS11.
WFAA8 narrowly won at 6 p.m. in both ratings measurements; NBC5 ran the table at 5 p.m.
Fox's American Idol and Fox4's 9 p.m. newscast feasted on easy pickings Tuesday night, with CBS in wall-to-wall reruns and ABC and NBC as usual offering token resistance.
Idol's first two-hour sing-off among the show's Final 13 amassed 531,440 D-FW viewers from 7 to 9 p.m. opposite CBS' repeat pairing of NCIS (a still respectable 325,507 viewers) and The Mentalist (338,793 viewers).
The gap was more decisive among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, with Idol drawing 236,608 viewers in this age range to thump NCIS (106,960) and Mentalist (123,166).
Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast also reigned with 405,223 total viewers, beating CBS' runnerup rerun of Without A Trace (298,935). The newscast likewise romped among 18-to-49-year-olds.
ABC trailed badly all night with a lineup of Homeland Security, two Scrubs repeats and Prime Time: What Would You Do?. Third place NBC also had problems drawing a crowd with its two-hour Biggest Loser and a new episode of Law & Order: SVU.
Over on TXA21, the Dallas Mavericks' man-up road win against the nearly eclipsed Phoenix Suns averaged 106,288 total viewers from 9 to 11:30 p.m.
In the daily local news derby, WFAA8 overcame a skimpy lead-in from Prime Time to win the 10 p.m. Nielsens in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 ran second at that hour in total viewers, but slipped to third place with 25-to-54-year-olds, behind Fox4.
At 6 a.m., Fox4 and NBC5 tied for first in total viewers, with the Peacock taking the gold among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8's early morning woes continued with a pair of fourth place finishes behind CBS11.
WFAA8 narrowly won at 6 p.m. in both ratings measurements; NBC5 ran the table at 5 p.m.
More layoffs coming at Belo-owned TV stations
03/11/09 09:02 AM
By ED BARK
"Cost-saving measures" announced Tuesday by Belo Corp. will include a total of 150 layoffs at the company's 20 television stations, including Dallas-based WFAA8.
The cuts will become effective in mid-April, Belo announced.
Belo Corp. also is cutting station managers' and executives' salaries by 5 percent and ending its matching contributions for 401K retirement funds.
"As a result of these actions, and other measures previously implemented, we expect 2009 cash operating expenses to be approximately 10 percent lower than 2008, excluding severance costs," Belo Corp. president and CEO Dunia A. Shive said in a statement.
WFAA8 currently is leading the local newscast ratings at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., but has fallen to third place in recent months at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m.
This will be the third job-trimming at the station in the past seven months. In August, WFAA8 laid off anchor Macie Jepson as part of eliminating 14 positions at the station, 10 of which had been vacant. And in January, WFAA8 canceled both The Gordon Keith Show and Young Street, laying off 12 people while leaving six vacant positions unfilled.
"Cost-saving measures" announced Tuesday by Belo Corp. will include a total of 150 layoffs at the company's 20 television stations, including Dallas-based WFAA8.
The cuts will become effective in mid-April, Belo announced.
Belo Corp. also is cutting station managers' and executives' salaries by 5 percent and ending its matching contributions for 401K retirement funds.
"As a result of these actions, and other measures previously implemented, we expect 2009 cash operating expenses to be approximately 10 percent lower than 2008, excluding severance costs," Belo Corp. president and CEO Dunia A. Shive said in a statement.
WFAA8 currently is leading the local newscast ratings at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., but has fallen to third place in recent months at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m.
This will be the third job-trimming at the station in the past seven months. In August, WFAA8 laid off anchor Macie Jepson as part of eliminating 14 positions at the station, 10 of which had been vacant. And in January, WFAA8 canceled both The Gordon Keith Show and Young Street, laying off 12 people while leaving six vacant positions unfilled.
Mob rules -- suitwise -- at Fox4
03/10/09 12:59 PM
By ED BARK
OK, we're mostly just havin' fun with 'em now. And that's only because we can.
Still, was it just coincidental that news anchors Steve Eagar and Baron James, and sports anchor Mike Doocy all wore their racketeer gear on Monday's 9 p.m. newscast?
Their show of solidarity -- or maybe frivolity -- came just a few nights after Eagar called attention to his wide-striped Navy blue suitcoat and said he was "kind of bucking the boss" by wearing it after being ordered to stop. The intrepid anchor instead asked viewers to decide, but then backed off on Wednesday's 9 p.m. edition after getting word from his "boss's boss" to, in Eagar's words, "Ditch the suit." So he said he would, citing its pinstripes as the prime offender.
That seemed to be the end of it until Eagar and James, filling in for anchor Heather Hays, joined forces in a dazzling display of Frank "The Enforcer" Nitty vs. George "Machine Gun" Kelly. Later came Doocy doing his level best to imitate George "Bugsy" Moran.
Maybe it's better to view them as a modern-day James gang. Because The Baron long has been Fox4's loudest proudest dresser. On Monday night he clearly outclassed Eagar and Doocy in a punched-up Pee-wee Herman-meets-Austin Powers suitcoat that damn near made my eyes water.
The Baron apparently is exempt from any male fashion edicts by Fox4 management. But one wonders sometimes whether his attire occasionally clashes just a bit with some of the more serious news of the day.
Oh well. Former WFAA8 weather-meister Troy Dungan brought D-FW severe weather warnings for years while sporting his trademark bow ties and coats that sometimes looked as though they'd been worn by Willy Wonka. And the station's current sports anchor, Dale Hansen, occasionally appears in attire that makes him look like a pizza supreme.
Ah, but we kid all of them. And now we're done with this particular thread of conversation. Save to dare Eagar to wear Uncle Barky's old orange corduroy, wide-lapeled sportcoat one night. That'd show The Baron.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., March 9) -- Dancing puts its foot down
03/10/09 10:50 AM
By ED BARK
ABC's Dancing with the Stars came back strong Monday night, dominating the 7 to 9 p.m. hours against first-run episodes of Fox's House and CBS' Two and a Half Men.
The eighth edition of DWTS averaged an American Idol-ish 418,509 D-FW viewers, routing runnerup House (172,718 viewers) in the first hour and stomping Two and a Half Men (265,720 viewers) and Rules of Engagement (232,505 viewer) from 8 to 9 p.m.
DWTS also ran first among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds, with CBS' four sitcoms taking second.
The pendulum then swung at 9 p.m., where CBS' CSI: Miami drew more total viewers (438,438) than DWTS while the premiere of ABC's Castle dipped to a second place 245,791 viewers. Castle ran third, however, among 18-to-49-year-olds, behind NBC's Medium.
Past prime-time, from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m., CBS' Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson had 66,430 total viewers to top ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and NBC's fledgling Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (46,501 viewers apiece). But all three talkers were topped in that hour by Fox4's syndicated repeat of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (73,073 viewers).
In the local news derby, CBS11 cruised to comfortable wins at 10 p.m. in both total viewers (358,722) and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8 ran second in both measurements.
Fox4 topped the 6 a.m. Nielsens in total viewers, edging NBC5. But the Peacock rebounded with a narrow win among 25-to-54-year-olds. The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day then rebounded to run the table against the three network morning shows.
WFAA8 took both golds at 6 p.m. and NBC5 did likewise in the 5 p.m. competition.
ABC's Dancing with the Stars came back strong Monday night, dominating the 7 to 9 p.m. hours against first-run episodes of Fox's House and CBS' Two and a Half Men.
The eighth edition of DWTS averaged an American Idol-ish 418,509 D-FW viewers, routing runnerup House (172,718 viewers) in the first hour and stomping Two and a Half Men (265,720 viewers) and Rules of Engagement (232,505 viewer) from 8 to 9 p.m.
DWTS also ran first among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds, with CBS' four sitcoms taking second.
The pendulum then swung at 9 p.m., where CBS' CSI: Miami drew more total viewers (438,438) than DWTS while the premiere of ABC's Castle dipped to a second place 245,791 viewers. Castle ran third, however, among 18-to-49-year-olds, behind NBC's Medium.
Past prime-time, from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m., CBS' Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson had 66,430 total viewers to top ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and NBC's fledgling Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (46,501 viewers apiece). But all three talkers were topped in that hour by Fox4's syndicated repeat of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (73,073 viewers).
In the local news derby, CBS11 cruised to comfortable wins at 10 p.m. in both total viewers (358,722) and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8 ran second in both measurements.
Fox4 topped the 6 a.m. Nielsens in total viewers, edging NBC5. But the Peacock rebounded with a narrow win among 25-to-54-year-olds. The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day then rebounded to run the table against the three network morning shows.
WFAA8 took both golds at 6 p.m. and NBC5 did likewise in the 5 p.m. competition.
WFAA8 adds a third Good Morning Texas host
03/09/09 03:02 PM
By ED BARK
Dallas-based WFAA8 is making it a threesome again on Good Morning Texas by naming Kristin Mitchell (above) to co-host with incumbents Gary Cogill and Amy Vanderoef.
Mitchell, a married mother of four, will make her GMT debut on Tuesday, the station announced. She previously worked at KMOV-TV in St. Louis as a morning news co-anchor and also co-hosted the weekly At the Zoo program while at that station. KMOV and WFAA8 both are owned by Belo Corp.
Dave Muscari, vice president of product development for WFAA8, described Mitchell as a "warm, friendly personality, and we believe she will connect well with Good Morning Texas viewers."
Mitchell, a University of Kansas graduate, also has anchored evening newscasts for WOLO-TV in Columbus, S.C. She fills a vacancy left by Brenda Teele, who quit WFAA8 and GMT last December to spend more time at her husband's Dallas-based law firm.
GMT, which is produced by WFAA8, airs at 9 a.m. weekdays.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun, March 6-8) -- Celebrity Apprentice hardly on fire
03/09/09 02:54 PM
By ED BARK
NBC's Celebrity Apprentice continues to show how far the franchise has fallen since Donald Trump first swaggered in with big-time ratings for the 2004 premiere of The Apprentice.
Sunday night's two-hour chapter drew just 132,860 D-FW viewers to run fourth overall from 8 to 10 p.m. Celebrity Apprentice also ran well out of the money with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
The biggest overall draw in prime-time, CBS' Cold Case, had 265,720 total viewers. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, ABC's Brothers & Sisters led the Sunday night pack with 116,683 viewers in that age range.
In Friday's prime-time competition, Fox's new Dollhouse again fell flat, with only 73,073 viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. That put it in fifth place opposite CBS' top-drawing Flashpoint, with 199,290 viewers. Dollhouse climbed to a still-deflating fourth place finish with 18-to-49-year-olds, with a special edition of ABC's 20/20 leading in that key measurement.
NBC's Austin-made Friday Night Lights, also at 8 p.m., ran fourth in total viewers, but tied Flashpoint for second in the 18-to-49 demographic.
In Friday's local news derby results, WFAA8 topped the field at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 resumed its winning ways at 6 a.m. with twin wins at that hour while Fox4 took both golds at 5 p.m.
The 6 p.m. news ratings, usually won by WFAA8, went polar opposite Friday. NBC5 ran first in both ratings measurements while WFAA8 fell to fourth place across the board.
NBC's Celebrity Apprentice continues to show how far the franchise has fallen since Donald Trump first swaggered in with big-time ratings for the 2004 premiere of The Apprentice.
Sunday night's two-hour chapter drew just 132,860 D-FW viewers to run fourth overall from 8 to 10 p.m. Celebrity Apprentice also ran well out of the money with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
The biggest overall draw in prime-time, CBS' Cold Case, had 265,720 total viewers. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, ABC's Brothers & Sisters led the Sunday night pack with 116,683 viewers in that age range.
In Friday's prime-time competition, Fox's new Dollhouse again fell flat, with only 73,073 viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. That put it in fifth place opposite CBS' top-drawing Flashpoint, with 199,290 viewers. Dollhouse climbed to a still-deflating fourth place finish with 18-to-49-year-olds, with a special edition of ABC's 20/20 leading in that key measurement.
NBC's Austin-made Friday Night Lights, also at 8 p.m., ran fourth in total viewers, but tied Flashpoint for second in the 18-to-49 demographic.
In Friday's local news derby results, WFAA8 topped the field at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 resumed its winning ways at 6 a.m. with twin wins at that hour while Fox4 took both golds at 5 p.m.
The 6 p.m. news ratings, usually won by WFAA8, went polar opposite Friday. NBC5 ran first in both ratings measurements while WFAA8 fell to fourth place across the board.
Dad gummit: Houston's NBC station finds lots to like about WFAA8's promos
03/09/09 08:42 AM
By ED BARK
Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA8 is a little irked at Houston's KPRC-TV, which carries NBC programming.
The latter station's latest promotional spots look like mirror images of WFAA8's. So much so that WFAA8 vice president of product development Dave Muscari fired off a sharply worded comment to IDOPROMOZ,com, which collects and displays TV pitches.
"These are direct rip-offs of WFAA's 2008 image campaign," Muscari said of the KPRC spots, "right down to the style of chairs and the dad gum knick knacks on the shelving behind the anchors."
Muscari later elaborated a bit to unclebarky.com. "You get stations all over the country ripping us off all the time," he contended.
We'll let you be the judge, although Muscari obviously has a point. Here are four videos:
Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA8 is a little irked at Houston's KPRC-TV, which carries NBC programming.
The latter station's latest promotional spots look like mirror images of WFAA8's. So much so that WFAA8 vice president of product development Dave Muscari fired off a sharply worded comment to IDOPROMOZ,com, which collects and displays TV pitches.
"These are direct rip-offs of WFAA's 2008 image campaign," Muscari said of the KPRC spots, "right down to the style of chairs and the dad gum knick knacks on the shelving behind the anchors."
Muscari later elaborated a bit to unclebarky.com. "You get stations all over the country ripping us off all the time," he contended.
We'll let you be the judge, although Muscari obviously has a point. Here are four videos:
It's a girl for NBC5 reporter Lindsay Wilcox
03/09/09 07:51 AM
NBC5 reporter Lindsay Wilcox and her husband, Raymond, are the first-time parents of a daughter named Bella Reese.
Wilcox plans to return to the Fort Worth-based station after maternity leave, but no date is set yet, says vice president of content development Susan Tully.
Wilcox, a Dallas native and graduate of the University of North Texas, joined NBC5 in August 2007.
Ed Bark
No cause for alarm: But a false one turned WFAA8's 6 p.m. newscast into improv theater
03/06/09 10:09 AM
By ED BARK
It's never conducive to good TelePrompTer reading when a fire alarm goes off in the middle of your newscast.
That's what happened to WFAA8 anchor John McCaa during Thursday's 6 p.m. edition from Victory Park.
After briefly trying to talk over it, McCaa told viewers, "We're gonna take a short break. We'll be right back."
But McCaa and co-anchor Gloria Campos weren't to be seen again. WFAA8 instead went to anchor/reporter Brad Watson at a makeshift anchor desk in the station's Young Street mothership. Watson anchored the rest of the newscast while weathercaster Pete Delkus and sports anchor Dale Hansen did their segments from an outdoor location adjacent to the alarm-infested Victory Park studio.
Hansen also was left to sign off the newscast before viewers got a brief look at him trudging back to where he originally was supposed to be.
It turned out to be a false alarm, Dave Muscari, WFAA8's vice president of product development, said Friday. He said this had happened just once before, several years ago while Good Morning Texas was in progress.
WFAA8's 10 p.m. Thursday newscast originated from the Young Street studios instead of the usual Victory Park locale. But Muscari said it wasn't due to fear of another fire alarm malfunction.
"There wasn't an event there (at nearby American Airlines Center), so there was no burning reason to be there," he said.
We'll leave you with the last, lingering image of lone gun Hansen striding off into the sunset after closing down Thursday's 6 p.m. newscast.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., March 5) -- first day of the March "sweeps"
03/06/09 10:09 AM
By ED BARK
Yeah, that's right, the March sweeps.
That's because Feb. 17th originally was supposed to be D-Day for digital conversion until Congress pushed it back to June 12th. But Nielsen Media Research, anticipating widespread ratings meter unrest, already had put the February sweeps out of business for this year only.
So March is the month (March 5 to April Fool's Day to be exact), even though CBS stations in particular won't be paying all that much attention. That's because the network's annual "March Madness" march through the NCAA basketball tournament will be blotting out or delaying local newscasts on at least four weeknights.
That said, here are Thursday's D-FW news derby results on opening day of the less than hair-raising March sweeps.
CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers (265,720), with WFAA8 close behind (239,148 viewers). WFAA8 in turn nipped CBS11 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
At 6 a.m., Fox4 picked as good a time as any to end NBC5's double-pronged, nine-weekday winning streak. The two stations tied for first place in total viewers (119,574 apiece), but Fox4 had the edge among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 climbed out of an unaccustomed last place for two days running, knocking CBS11 back into that spot.
WFAA8 ran the table at 6 p.m., despite a false fire alarm at Victory Park that turned its newscast into improv theater. NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for first place in total viewers at 5 p.m., with the Peacock tops among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The prime-time Nielsens again put Fox's American Idol on top at 7 p.m., with 338,793 total viewers. CBS then took over from 8 to 10 p.m., with both CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (391,937 viewers) and Eleventh Hour (345,436 viewers) drawing larger audiences than Idol.
Over on TNT, the Dallas Mavericks' run-out-of-gas road loss to the New Orleans Hornets drew 73,073 viewers. During halftime, analyst Charles Barkley again expressed his long-held disdain for the Mavs, who will go nowhere in the playoffs if they get there, he says.
It's hard to muster the enthusiasm to argue with him. By the way, Josh Howard is injured again.
Yeah, that's right, the March sweeps.
That's because Feb. 17th originally was supposed to be D-Day for digital conversion until Congress pushed it back to June 12th. But Nielsen Media Research, anticipating widespread ratings meter unrest, already had put the February sweeps out of business for this year only.
So March is the month (March 5 to April Fool's Day to be exact), even though CBS stations in particular won't be paying all that much attention. That's because the network's annual "March Madness" march through the NCAA basketball tournament will be blotting out or delaying local newscasts on at least four weeknights.
That said, here are Thursday's D-FW news derby results on opening day of the less than hair-raising March sweeps.
CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers (265,720), with WFAA8 close behind (239,148 viewers). WFAA8 in turn nipped CBS11 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
At 6 a.m., Fox4 picked as good a time as any to end NBC5's double-pronged, nine-weekday winning streak. The two stations tied for first place in total viewers (119,574 apiece), but Fox4 had the edge among 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 climbed out of an unaccustomed last place for two days running, knocking CBS11 back into that spot.
WFAA8 ran the table at 6 p.m., despite a false fire alarm at Victory Park that turned its newscast into improv theater. NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for first place in total viewers at 5 p.m., with the Peacock tops among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The prime-time Nielsens again put Fox's American Idol on top at 7 p.m., with 338,793 total viewers. CBS then took over from 8 to 10 p.m., with both CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (391,937 viewers) and Eleventh Hour (345,436 viewers) drawing larger audiences than Idol.
Over on TNT, the Dallas Mavericks' run-out-of-gas road loss to the New Orleans Hornets drew 73,073 viewers. During halftime, analyst Charles Barkley again expressed his long-held disdain for the Mavs, who will go nowhere in the playoffs if they get there, he says.
It's hard to muster the enthusiasm to argue with him. By the way, Josh Howard is injured again.
Say Gracie three times for KERA's Nowhere But Texas 2
03/05/09 04:07 PM
North Texas filmmakers Linda Stogner and Therese Powell deservedly have won a combined three national Gracie Awards for their KERA-TV (Ch. 13) special Nowhere But Texas 2, which was originally telecast last September.
The awards are presented yearly by the American Women in Radio and Television.
Stogner, producer/director/editor of the program, and Powell, a co-producer, share Gracies for outstanding achievement in the Portrait/Biography and Outstanding Special categories. Stogner also was cited separately for her direction.
They'll receive their Gracies on June 4th during a ceremony at New York City's Tavern on the Green. For unclebarky.com's original review of Nowhere But Texas 2, go here.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., March 4) -- Fox rocks prime-time, WFAA8's Daybreak again sleeps in
03/05/09 11:54 AM
By ED BARK
Fox's American Idol and Lie to Me crunched their 7 to 9 p.m. competition Wednesday while WFAA8's Daybreak spent a second straight early morning in last place.
Idol's latest results show drew 385,292 D-FW viewers and also dominated the 7 p.m. hour among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
The new Lie to Me then held serve in both ratings measuremens, with its 298,935 total viewers besting CBS' Criminal Minds (245,791 viewers) and ABC's Lost (205,933 viewers). Lost moved up to second in the time period in the 18-to-49 demographic.
At 9 p.m., CBS' CSI: NY won in total viewers with 298,935, but Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast ran first with 18-to-49-year-olds.
The Dallas Mavericks' home win against the arch rival San Antonio Spurs drew 126,217 total viewers on TXA21 and added another 59,787 on ESPN. That was good enough to beat both NBC's Law & Order and ABC's Life on Mars in the 9 p.m. hour.
In the daily local news derby, CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. But the station likely was happier with its second straight third place finish at 6 a.m., where it's long been a doormat.
Meanwhile, WFAA8 has finished last at 6 a.m. for its first two Daybreak telecasts with new co-anchor Chris Flanagan. At the other end of the teeter totter, NBC5 won at that hour for the ninth straight weekday, with Fox4 again second.
The 6 p.m. golds went to WFAA8 in total viewers and NBC5 with 25-to-54-year-olds. Fox4 swept the 5 p.m. competition.
Also of note: Ratings for The Oprah Winfrey Show continue to tank. In Wednesday's Nielsens, the onetime empress of daytime TV ran an overall fourth with just 46,501 D-FW viewers from 4 to 5 p.m. Fox4's double dose of the competing Judge Judy led the way with 126,217 viewers and 119,574 viewers.
WFAA8, whose early evening newscast used to feast off Oprah lead-ins, is now on a virtual starvation diet. Worse yet for WFAA8, the station is stuck contractually with Oprah for two more seasons beyond this one. Any takers? Didn't think so.
Fox's American Idol and Lie to Me crunched their 7 to 9 p.m. competition Wednesday while WFAA8's Daybreak spent a second straight early morning in last place.
Idol's latest results show drew 385,292 D-FW viewers and also dominated the 7 p.m. hour among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
The new Lie to Me then held serve in both ratings measuremens, with its 298,935 total viewers besting CBS' Criminal Minds (245,791 viewers) and ABC's Lost (205,933 viewers). Lost moved up to second in the time period in the 18-to-49 demographic.
At 9 p.m., CBS' CSI: NY won in total viewers with 298,935, but Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast ran first with 18-to-49-year-olds.
The Dallas Mavericks' home win against the arch rival San Antonio Spurs drew 126,217 total viewers on TXA21 and added another 59,787 on ESPN. That was good enough to beat both NBC's Law & Order and ABC's Life on Mars in the 9 p.m. hour.
In the daily local news derby, CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. But the station likely was happier with its second straight third place finish at 6 a.m., where it's long been a doormat.
Meanwhile, WFAA8 has finished last at 6 a.m. for its first two Daybreak telecasts with new co-anchor Chris Flanagan. At the other end of the teeter totter, NBC5 won at that hour for the ninth straight weekday, with Fox4 again second.
The 6 p.m. golds went to WFAA8 in total viewers and NBC5 with 25-to-54-year-olds. Fox4 swept the 5 p.m. competition.
Also of note: Ratings for The Oprah Winfrey Show continue to tank. In Wednesday's Nielsens, the onetime empress of daytime TV ran an overall fourth with just 46,501 D-FW viewers from 4 to 5 p.m. Fox4's double dose of the competing Judge Judy led the way with 126,217 viewers and 119,574 viewers.
WFAA8, whose early evening newscast used to feast off Oprah lead-ins, is now on a virtual starvation diet. Worse yet for WFAA8, the station is stuck contractually with Oprah for two more seasons beyond this one. Any takers? Didn't think so.
Stripes skunked at Fox4
03/05/09 06:12 AM
By ED BARK
Fox4 anchor Steve Eagar says he'll be closeting his many-striped suitcoat even though viewers voted otherwise.
In one of the odder storylines of late in D-FW television newsrooms, Eagar said on Wednesday's 9 p.m. newscast that "one call carried a lot of weight" in his decision-making.
"Yeah, that one call was from my boss's boss," he told viewers. "Her vote: Ditch the suit. S-o-o-o here's your last look at it (via video of Tuesday's newscast). Take a good look. I'm not stupid."
Co-anchor Heather Hays then added, "It looks great in person. So wear it 'out.' Just not here."
This all started on Tuesday's 9 p.m. show, when Eagar wore the same kind of wide-striped, jailbird coat favored by Fox4 anchor Baron James and Dallas mayor Tom Leppert among others.
"I'm kind of bucking the boss," who told him "never to wear this suit again," Eagar said. He then asked viewers to vote it in or out, adding, "If you never see it again, you'll know what the vote was."
Opinions were "strong" on both sides, but "by far most said it was fine, I should keep wearing it," Eagar told viewers Wednesday. (Sentiment ran the opposite in 21 comments logged on unclebarky.com as of this early Thursday morning writing.)
The edict from Eagar's boss's boss also presumably reins in James, who's (in)famous for his many-splendored on-air wardrobes.
But whatever and whoever they're wearing in the future isn't necessarily the final chapter in this story. Eagar basically told viewers that he was willing to disregard the orders of his immediate boss, news director Maria Barrs, but not those of station manager Kathy Saunders, whose "ditch the suit" dictum obviously was taken much more seriously. That might not wear very well down the road, even if this whole issue basically is pretty silly.
Fox4 management has an ironclad policy of not commenting publicly on personnel matters. But anchors sometimes can go public in ways that speak volumes.
Fox4 anchor Steve Eagar shows his stripes, twits management, asks viewers to decide
03/04/09 10:15 AM
By ED BARK
It's always something at your friendly neighborhood TV news outlets. This time it's the wide-striped Dick Tracy cartoon suits occasionally worn by Fox4 news anchor Steve Eagar.
He called attention to Tuesday night's ensemble -- and also called out management -- at the close of the 9 p.m. newscast.
"I'm kind of bucking the boss with this latest thing," Eagar told viewers. "I was told never to wear this suit again. Seriously. I'm not kidding. I want to know what you think. Like it? Hate it? Should I put it out to pasture? I think it was conveyed to me it's the pinstripes that are problematic. I like it. But you decide."
Eagar then told viewers to expect quick results: "If you never see it again, you'll know what the vote was. After this, there's a chance you'll never see me again, but let's see how it plays out."
Co-anchor Heather Hays then noted that 10 p.m. anchor Baron James had just walked through the newsroom. James' oft-overstated ensembles regularly make Eagar seem like a plain paper sack.
"I'm just wondering . . . if Baron gets those comments from the boss," Hays said. "He might. He gets them from the viewers. Even though we love Baron, sometimes his suits . . ."
She reined herself in at that point. Meanwhile, Eagar says you can register your like or dislike of his Bugsy Moran coat by calling the station's "Viewers' Voice" line at 214-720-3103. Or you can send an email via the myfoxdfw Web site.
Or, of course, you can register your thoughts in the handy comments section on unclebarky.com, where lots of people will see them.
Suit yourself.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., March 3) -- early morning news blues for WFAA8
03/04/09 10:15 AM
By ED BARK
WFAA8's Daybreak debut of co-anchor Chris Flanagan laid an egg in the early morning ratings Tuesday.
The key 6 to 7 a.m. portion of the program drew just 53,144 D-FW viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That put it fourth behind NBC5, which won for the eighth straight weekday with 119,574 viewers, Fox4 (93,002 viewers) and the usually cellar-dwelling CBS11 (66,430 viewers).
NBC5 also won at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8 ran last in that measurement, too.
WFAA8 remained strong at 10 p.m., where it again ran the table. The 6 p.m. golds were split between WFAA8 in total viewers and NBC5, which won among 25-to-54-year-olds. At 5 p.m., NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for first in total viewers, with the ABC station prevailing in the 25-to-54 age range.
In prime-time, Fox's latest two-hour American Idol performance edition cake-walked from 7 to 9 p.m. with 431,179 viewers, beating CBS' competing crime combo of NCIS (312,221 viewers) and The Mentalist (272,363 viewers). Idol had an even easier time among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
CBS' Without A Trace took the 9 p.m. hour in total viewers but another of ABC's Bachelor post mortems won in the 18-to-49 demographic, where Trace slid to fourth behind Fox4's 9 p.m. newscast and NBC's Law & Order: SVU.
WFAA8's Daybreak debut of co-anchor Chris Flanagan laid an egg in the early morning ratings Tuesday.
The key 6 to 7 a.m. portion of the program drew just 53,144 D-FW viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That put it fourth behind NBC5, which won for the eighth straight weekday with 119,574 viewers, Fox4 (93,002 viewers) and the usually cellar-dwelling CBS11 (66,430 viewers).
NBC5 also won at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. WFAA8 ran last in that measurement, too.
WFAA8 remained strong at 10 p.m., where it again ran the table. The 6 p.m. golds were split between WFAA8 in total viewers and NBC5, which won among 25-to-54-year-olds. At 5 p.m., NBC5 and WFAA8 tied for first in total viewers, with the ABC station prevailing in the 25-to-54 age range.
In prime-time, Fox's latest two-hour American Idol performance edition cake-walked from 7 to 9 p.m. with 431,179 viewers, beating CBS' competing crime combo of NCIS (312,221 viewers) and The Mentalist (272,363 viewers). Idol had an even easier time among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
CBS' Without A Trace took the 9 p.m. hour in total viewers but another of ABC's Bachelor post mortems won in the 18-to-49 demographic, where Trace slid to fourth behind Fox4's 9 p.m. newscast and NBC's Law & Order: SVU.
Daybreak's latest leading man hopes to stay for a spell
03/03/09 10:12 AM
By ED BARK
WFAA8's Daybreak and Cynthia Izaguirre welcomed the show's fourth leading man in eight months Tuesday, with newcomer Chris Flanagan pledging allegiance throughout his first shift.
"Will you make me a promise? That you're not going to leave?" Izaguirre asked/begged him halfway through the 5 to 6 a.m. portion.
"You can't run me off," said Flanagan, who arrives from ABC affiliate WOI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa.
They tried this again in the 6 to 7 a.m. hour, with Izaguirre telling viewers, "And yes, I have a new co-anchor."
"And you're not gonna run me off," Flanagan rejoined.
Both laughed heartily each time, although it's no laughing matter. Daybreak currently is running third in the key early morning rating race behind NBC5 and Fox4. And part of the reason may be the merry-go-round of males sitting next to Izaguirre, who herself is only two months into her second year with the program.
Her first partner, Justin Farmer, left in early August after six months as a lame duck enroute to WSB-TV in Atlanta. Interim Daybreak co-anchor Brad Hawkins, who was promoted from within, quit the TV news game in December to take a PR job with Dallas-based Southwest Airlines. Then Jeff Brady kept the seat warm for Flanagan while also announcing that he'd be leaving WFAA8 (at the end of this week) to start his own consulting firm.
Flanagan, who's here just in time for St. Paddy's Day, has short-cut reddish hair, a wife, two kids and apparently the essential amiable demeanor for the punishing early morning shift, which he's never worked before.
"I am thrilled to be here, Cynthia. I am so thrilled," he told Izaguirre in the opening minute of Daybreak's 5 a.m. start time. "I slept like a baby. I'm gonna beat the kids to bed."
Weatherman Greg Fields then immediately reminded viewers that Flanagan is only the latest jaunty male to wake up and smell the (Irish) coffee.
"Glad to have you," Fields told him. "Hopefully Cynthia will keep you around for a while."
They matched for starters -- Flanagan in a bright red tie and Izaguirre in a bright red top. He might want to unbutton his suit jacket when sitting down, though. It splayed out all day Tuesday, showing the bottom of his tie as well as its knot. Gentlemen's Quarterly no doubt would sniff at this semi-bumpkin-ish fashion faux pas. Or am I being way too picky?
Flanagan otherwise got through his first program in pretty good shape, using the "thrill" word on six occasions. That almost matched the grand total of seven foundation repair and hearing aid ads fronted by former WFAA8 weatherman Troy Dungan during the two-hour program. No one can accuse Dungan of not giving back. The station once paid him handsomely. Now he's fronting companies that put money in WFAA8's pocket during the ongoing economic death spiral.
WFAA8's morning team also gifted Flanagan -- with a wood-framed Texas flag made of tiles.
"You guys are incredible," said the new guy, who failed to bring a hostess gift. "I may not be lucky enough to be born here, but I'm smart enough to move here to North Texas."
They all say that, of course. Flanagan also renounced the Midwest's cold weather and proclaimed himself a Dallas Cowboys fan before it was time to say goodbye.
"Hey, you can take a deep breath now," Izaguirre told him. "You got your first show under your belt."
Flanagan instead exhaled before exchanging a fist-bump with her.
"We're so glad you're here. Let's this do this thousands of more times," Izaguirre said hopefully.
"Yes, awesome," he rejoined. "I had a lot of fun."
Dungan's fourth hearing aid ad then popped up before Daybreak gave way to ABC's Good Morning America. In the end, the old dog may have logged almost as much face time as the new pup. Some things never seem to change.
Staying alive: a Judy Jordan update
03/03/09 10:12 AM
By ED BARK
Former KDFW-TV (Channel 4) anchor Judy Jordan is doing far better than initially feared after being diagnosed with colon cancer last year.
"Rumors of my imminent demise are somewhat exaggerated, or a tad premature," Jordan said in an email sent Monday to unclebarky.com.
Jordan, who became D-FW's first woman news anchor in 1966 while at KDFW-TV (Channel 4), says she "emerged from my dance with cancer last October slightly used but in better-than-good condition. I may well be the luckiest of all the lucky people with survivor keychains.
"I wouldn't wish cancer on anybody, but the whole whammo experience was somehow enriching. According to my latest test, if some stealth tumor is poised for attack it is imperceptible to the most modern diagnostic devices around."
Jordan remained at Channel 4 until 1980; she also recently anchored at Tyler's KYXT-TV from 2005-'07.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., March 2) -- rosy ratings for The Bachelor
03/03/09 09:42 AM
By ED BARK
ABC's tear-stained finale of The Bachelor and a followup "After the Rose" hour drew prime-time's biggest overall audiences Monday.
But CBS won the first 90-minutes among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds with its usual trio of sitcoms.
The Bachelor, in which weepy Jason Mesnick initially gave his final rose to North Texan Melissa Rycroft, amassed 279,006 D-FW viewers from 8 to 10 p.m., losing only to CBS' Two and a Half Men (332,150 viewers).
The after-show, in which an even weepier Mesnick sacked Rycroft in favor of the previously jilted Molly Malaney, upped ABC's haul to 385,294 viewers, beating a new episode of CBS' usually dominant CSI: Miami (332,150 viewers).
In the 18-to-49-year-old demographic, Two and a Half Men, plus fellow CBS comedies The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, outdrew Bachelor from 7 to 8:30 p.m. But the return of CBS' Rules of Engagement and CSI: Miami slipped to second for the rest of the night.
Fox's two-hour 24, in which terrorists overran the White House and captured both the president and Jack Bauer, ran fourth in total viewers in the 7 p.m. hour (with NBC's Chuck finishing third) and third at 8 p.m. (ahead of NBC's Heroes). It was the same order of finish among 18-to-49-year-olds.
In local news derby results, WFAA8 held most of its Bachelor lead-in audience to whip runnerup CBS11 in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 continued its winning ways at 6 a.m. with comfortable margins over Fox4 and its new interim Good Day team of Tim Ryan and Dan Godwin.
The Peacock also swept the 5 p.m. ratings while the 6 p.m. golds went to WFAA8 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
ABC's tear-stained finale of The Bachelor and a followup "After the Rose" hour drew prime-time's biggest overall audiences Monday.
But CBS won the first 90-minutes among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds with its usual trio of sitcoms.
The Bachelor, in which weepy Jason Mesnick initially gave his final rose to North Texan Melissa Rycroft, amassed 279,006 D-FW viewers from 8 to 10 p.m., losing only to CBS' Two and a Half Men (332,150 viewers).
The after-show, in which an even weepier Mesnick sacked Rycroft in favor of the previously jilted Molly Malaney, upped ABC's haul to 385,294 viewers, beating a new episode of CBS' usually dominant CSI: Miami (332,150 viewers).
In the 18-to-49-year-old demographic, Two and a Half Men, plus fellow CBS comedies The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, outdrew Bachelor from 7 to 8:30 p.m. But the return of CBS' Rules of Engagement and CSI: Miami slipped to second for the rest of the night.
Fox's two-hour 24, in which terrorists overran the White House and captured both the president and Jack Bauer, ran fourth in total viewers in the 7 p.m. hour (with NBC's Chuck finishing third) and third at 8 p.m. (ahead of NBC's Heroes). It was the same order of finish among 18-to-49-year-olds.
In local news derby results, WFAA8 held most of its Bachelor lead-in audience to whip runnerup CBS11 in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 continued its winning ways at 6 a.m. with comfortable margins over Fox4 and its new interim Good Day team of Tim Ryan and Dan Godwin.
The Peacock also swept the 5 p.m. ratings while the 6 p.m. golds went to WFAA8 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Feb. 27-March 1) -- split decision for Good Day on Henderson's last day
03/02/09 11:05 AM
By ED BARK
Fox4 lost and then won Friday with a four-hour "Mega Megan Celebration" feting departing Good Day anchor Megan Henderson.
NBC5 topped both the 5 to 6 a.m. and 6 to 7 a.m. matchups among four D-FW waker uppers, averaging 126,217 D-FW viewers in the first hour and 159,432 viewers in the second. Fox4 ran second for the sixth straight weekday with 66,430 viewers in the 5 a.m. hour and 139,503 from 6 to 7 a.m.
NBC5 won more comfortably at those hours among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Good Day then prevailed as usual from 7 to 9 a.m. against the three network morning shows, drawing 139,503 total viewers to runnerup Good Morning America's 86,359 on ABC.
On the previous Friday, before Henderson announced her departure to KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, Good Day drew 126,217 viewers from 7 to 9 a.m. compared to GMA's 93,002. It was the same day that NBC5 began its ongoing six-weekday winning streak in the 6 a.m. hour.
On Sunday night, CBS's Jesse Stone: Thin Ice, the fifth movie in the Tom Selleck series, easily won the 8 to 10 p.m. slot with 365,365 total viewers. A competing two-hour Brothers & Sisters "event" on ABC ran second with 259,0777 viewers while NBC's two-hour launch of Celebrity Apprentice fired up just 139,503 viewers.
Selleck's audience is mostly older now, which gave Brothers & Sisters a big lift among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds. B & S drew 139,372 viewers in that age range while Jesse Stone and Celebrity Apprentice tied for second with 81,030 viewers apiece.
Sunday's night's battle of the local sports specials was topped by WFAA8's Dale Hansen with 166,075 total viewers at 10:30 p.m. CBS11's Babe Laufenberg ran second in that slot with 106,288 viewers and NBC5's Newy Scruggs/Matt Barrie lagged in third (79,716).
On Fox4, Mike Doocy's earlier starting 10 p.m. sports show had just 53,144 viewers opposite local newscasts on CBS11 (305,578 viewers), WFAA8 (272,363) and NBC5 (239,148). But the newscast order of finish was reversed among 25-to-54-year-olds; NBC5's 10 p.m. news won on that scorecard, followed by WFAA8 and CBS11.
In Friday's other local news derby results, WFAA8 had twin wins at 10 p.m. and also ran the table at 6 p.m. NBC5 ran first at 5 p.m. in total viewers but fell to third behind WFAA8 and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
Fox4 lost and then won Friday with a four-hour "Mega Megan Celebration" feting departing Good Day anchor Megan Henderson.
NBC5 topped both the 5 to 6 a.m. and 6 to 7 a.m. matchups among four D-FW waker uppers, averaging 126,217 D-FW viewers in the first hour and 159,432 viewers in the second. Fox4 ran second for the sixth straight weekday with 66,430 viewers in the 5 a.m. hour and 139,503 from 6 to 7 a.m.
NBC5 won more comfortably at those hours among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Good Day then prevailed as usual from 7 to 9 a.m. against the three network morning shows, drawing 139,503 total viewers to runnerup Good Morning America's 86,359 on ABC.
On the previous Friday, before Henderson announced her departure to KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, Good Day drew 126,217 viewers from 7 to 9 a.m. compared to GMA's 93,002. It was the same day that NBC5 began its ongoing six-weekday winning streak in the 6 a.m. hour.
On Sunday night, CBS's Jesse Stone: Thin Ice, the fifth movie in the Tom Selleck series, easily won the 8 to 10 p.m. slot with 365,365 total viewers. A competing two-hour Brothers & Sisters "event" on ABC ran second with 259,0777 viewers while NBC's two-hour launch of Celebrity Apprentice fired up just 139,503 viewers.
Selleck's audience is mostly older now, which gave Brothers & Sisters a big lift among advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds. B & S drew 139,372 viewers in that age range while Jesse Stone and Celebrity Apprentice tied for second with 81,030 viewers apiece.
Sunday's night's battle of the local sports specials was topped by WFAA8's Dale Hansen with 166,075 total viewers at 10:30 p.m. CBS11's Babe Laufenberg ran second in that slot with 106,288 viewers and NBC5's Newy Scruggs/Matt Barrie lagged in third (79,716).
On Fox4, Mike Doocy's earlier starting 10 p.m. sports show had just 53,144 viewers opposite local newscasts on CBS11 (305,578 viewers), WFAA8 (272,363) and NBC5 (239,148). But the newscast order of finish was reversed among 25-to-54-year-olds; NBC5's 10 p.m. news won on that scorecard, followed by WFAA8 and CBS11.
In Friday's other local news derby results, WFAA8 had twin wins at 10 p.m. and also ran the table at 6 p.m. NBC5 ran first at 5 p.m. in total viewers but fell to third behind WFAA8 and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic.
Former local TV news anchors Judy Jordan, Bob Gooding could use your good words
03/01/09 09:48 PM
By ED BARK
Judy Jordan and Bob Gooding, two stalwart D-FW news anchors from decades past, are battling cancer in their later years.
Jordan made history in the mid-1960s when she became D-FW's first female news anchor. Dubbed the "First Lady" of local TV news, she anchored at KDFW-TV (Channel 4) from 1966 to 1980. Jordan has been diagnosed with colon cancer, confirmed former Ch. 4 news director Eddie Barker, who both hired and promoted her during his long career at the station.
Jordan most recently anchored at Tyler's KYTX-TV from 2005-'07. While there she endured the brief but attention-grabbing tenure of former wrestling "uber vixen" Lauren Jones, star of the 2007 Fox series Anchorwoman, which was canceled after just one episode.
In May 2007 comments to unclebarky.com, Jordan seemed to be at least a bit bemused by the idea of her station being hit by a blonde bombshell.
"I just hope our pin-up lady turned noveau news anchor is ready to fight for truth, justice and the American way, and willing to throw off any excessive pizzazz, which doesn't have much of a track record in journalism," Jordan said. "But then again, it is picking up speed, isn't it?"
Gooding anchored at WFAA-TV (Channel 8) from 1961 to 1979. For part of that time he teamed with Murphy Martin, who died last July.
Gooding, 76, is in the most extreme stage of the sarcomatoid carcinoma strain of cancer, his son, also named Bob, said in a letter forwarded by former WFAA anchor Tracy Rowlett. "This cancer has infected his lymph nodes and his adrenal gland. It is sure to spread from there."
Gooding said that his father has decided against further treatment or tests: "Dad said that since his dad had died at 68 and he is now 76, he feels as if he's on borrowed time anyway . . . He said there's a difference between life and living. Instead of trying to prolong his life for an extra month or two, he was ready to live the rest of his life."
Your kind thoughts and prayers for Judy Jordan and Bob Gooding no doubt would be greatly appreciated.