Sep 2007
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 27)
09/28/07 12:05 PM
By ED BARK
Most of us at one time or another have felt the terror of walls closing in on us, or the bottom dropping out.
That's what NBC5 and its once high-rated 10 p.m. newscasts are feeling right now. The station used to coast to big late night news wins after inheriting monster lead-ins from the Peacock network's ER. Sometimes it was enough to offset second place finishes for most of the rest of the week during hotly contested ratings "sweeps" periods.
No more. Saddled with a third-place finish from ER in both total homes and advertiser-favored 25-to-54-year-olds, NBC5 again ran third at 10 p.m. on Thursday night. The new deputy in town -- Belo8's undoubtedly the sheriff -- is CBS11. Its late nighter was a solid runnerup in both measurements for the second straight night after inheriting a big hunka hunka audience for CBS' Without A Trace
Belo8, getting decent support from ABC's new Big Shots, controlled the 10 p.m. terrain with 280,094 total homes and 189,420 viewers in the 25-to-54 demo.
CBS11 had 224,075 total homes and 129,150 viewers of the 25-54 persuasion. NBC5 dragged in at 175,363 homes and 117,670 in the demo. Belo8 was the only station to increase its audience over the 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in.
Fox4 remained king of the early mornings, scoring twin wins at 6 a.m. while NBC5 sagged back to third place behind Belo8. The ABC station at least temporarily righted its listing ship at 5 and 6 p.m. with first place finishes across the board.
Thursday's heavyweight prime-time fight, between the season premieres of ABC's Grey's Anatomy and CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, ended with the sleep-around docs handily beating the forensics experts in both total homes and among 18-to-49-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for non-news programming.
Neither show was a slouch, though. Grey's had the night's most total homes (345,855) and CSI ranked as the No. 2 draw (302,014).
ABC's season debut of Ugly Betty comfortably won the 7 to 8 p.m. hour in both ratings measurements over CBS' Survivor: China.
It was a split decision from 9 to 10 p.m., with Without A Trace dominating in total homes but being nipped by Big Shots among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Most of us at one time or another have felt the terror of walls closing in on us, or the bottom dropping out.
That's what NBC5 and its once high-rated 10 p.m. newscasts are feeling right now. The station used to coast to big late night news wins after inheriting monster lead-ins from the Peacock network's ER. Sometimes it was enough to offset second place finishes for most of the rest of the week during hotly contested ratings "sweeps" periods.
No more. Saddled with a third-place finish from ER in both total homes and advertiser-favored 25-to-54-year-olds, NBC5 again ran third at 10 p.m. on Thursday night. The new deputy in town -- Belo8's undoubtedly the sheriff -- is CBS11. Its late nighter was a solid runnerup in both measurements for the second straight night after inheriting a big hunka hunka audience for CBS' Without A Trace
Belo8, getting decent support from ABC's new Big Shots, controlled the 10 p.m. terrain with 280,094 total homes and 189,420 viewers in the 25-to-54 demo.
CBS11 had 224,075 total homes and 129,150 viewers of the 25-54 persuasion. NBC5 dragged in at 175,363 homes and 117,670 in the demo. Belo8 was the only station to increase its audience over the 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in.
Fox4 remained king of the early mornings, scoring twin wins at 6 a.m. while NBC5 sagged back to third place behind Belo8. The ABC station at least temporarily righted its listing ship at 5 and 6 p.m. with first place finishes across the board.
Thursday's heavyweight prime-time fight, between the season premieres of ABC's Grey's Anatomy and CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, ended with the sleep-around docs handily beating the forensics experts in both total homes and among 18-to-49-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for non-news programming.
Neither show was a slouch, though. Grey's had the night's most total homes (345,855) and CSI ranked as the No. 2 draw (302,014).
ABC's season debut of Ugly Betty comfortably won the 7 to 8 p.m. hour in both ratings measurements over CBS' Survivor: China.
It was a split decision from 9 to 10 p.m., with Without A Trace dominating in total homes but being nipped by Big Shots among 18-to-49-year-olds.
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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 26)
09/27/07 10:48 AM
By ED BARK
ABC's Dancing with the Stars again swept the floor clean of competition Wednesday night. Then the real action began from 8 to 10 p.m., when four new ABC and NBC drama series squared off. Here's how it looked in D-FW as the night progressed on the two networks:
TOTAL HOMES
Dancing with the Stars results show (ABC) -- 314,192
Private Practice (ABC) -- 228,946
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) --185,106
Deal or No Deal (NBC) -- 119,344
Bionic Woman (NBC) -- 204,590
Life (NBC) -- 155,878
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Dancing with the Stars -- 155,000
Private Practice -- 102,300
Dirty Sexy Money -- 102,300
Deal or No Deal -- 86,800
Bionic Woman -- 124,000
Life -- 86,8000
That makes Bionic Woman the night's big winner in terms of both improving on its lead-in and winning the 8 to 9 p.m. slot among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
Other series fared well, too. The season premiere of CBS' CSI: NY won from 9 to 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. Its 245,996 total homes made it the night's second most-watched program in that measurement, behind only Dancing.
The second episode of Fox's new and funny Back to You also hung in there, running second in both ratings measurements from 7 to 7:30 p.m.
CBS' Kid Nation slumped with its second episode, ranking fourth overall from 7 to 8 p.m. in total homes and the key 18-to-49 demo.
The local newscast ratings are getting more intriguing, too. Is it possible that a reinvigorated CBS11 might slip into second place in the 10 p.m. November "sweeps," ahead of the once dominant NBC5? The local Peacock could be in a world of hurt during a season that likely will be marked by mostly mediocre lead-in audiences from its network.
On Wednesday, NBC5's late night newscast upped its lead-in from Life but couldn't surmount the sizable advantage inherited by CBS11. Belo8, with a decent lead-in from Dirty Sexy Money, again topped the 10 p.m. field in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the key target audience for news programming. Here's how it looked:
TOTAL HOMES
ABC lead-in (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 170,492
Belo8's 10 p.m. news -- 221,640
CBS lead-in -- 265,480
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 192,412
NBC lead-in -- 143,700
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 170,492
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
ABC lead-in -- 117,670
Belo8's 10 p.m. news -- 143,500
CBS lead-in -- 169,330
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 140,630
NBC lead-in -- 111,930
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 111,930
Fox4 again dominated at 6 a.m., winning in both ratings measurements while NBC5 slipped ahead of Belo8 into second place.
Belo8 lately is no longer a juggernaut at 5 and 6 p.m., where it won handily in the May sweeps. On Wednesday, the ABC station won at 6 p.m. in total homes and tied with NBC5 at 5 p.m.
But in the 25-to-54-year-old demo, the Peacock prevailed at 5 p.m. and Fox4 won at 6 p.m. for the second straight day.
Also of note: Ken Burns' PBS series The War, on Ch. 13 locally, has averaged a decent-sized 68,197 total homes in D-FW for its first four chapters. It resumes this Sunday.
unclebarky@verizon.net
ABC's Dancing with the Stars again swept the floor clean of competition Wednesday night. Then the real action began from 8 to 10 p.m., when four new ABC and NBC drama series squared off. Here's how it looked in D-FW as the night progressed on the two networks:
TOTAL HOMES
Dancing with the Stars results show (ABC) -- 314,192
Private Practice (ABC) -- 228,946
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) --185,106
Deal or No Deal (NBC) -- 119,344
Bionic Woman (NBC) -- 204,590
Life (NBC) -- 155,878
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Dancing with the Stars -- 155,000
Private Practice -- 102,300
Dirty Sexy Money -- 102,300
Deal or No Deal -- 86,800
Bionic Woman -- 124,000
Life -- 86,8000
That makes Bionic Woman the night's big winner in terms of both improving on its lead-in and winning the 8 to 9 p.m. slot among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
Other series fared well, too. The season premiere of CBS' CSI: NY won from 9 to 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. Its 245,996 total homes made it the night's second most-watched program in that measurement, behind only Dancing.
The second episode of Fox's new and funny Back to You also hung in there, running second in both ratings measurements from 7 to 7:30 p.m.
CBS' Kid Nation slumped with its second episode, ranking fourth overall from 7 to 8 p.m. in total homes and the key 18-to-49 demo.
The local newscast ratings are getting more intriguing, too. Is it possible that a reinvigorated CBS11 might slip into second place in the 10 p.m. November "sweeps," ahead of the once dominant NBC5? The local Peacock could be in a world of hurt during a season that likely will be marked by mostly mediocre lead-in audiences from its network.
On Wednesday, NBC5's late night newscast upped its lead-in from Life but couldn't surmount the sizable advantage inherited by CBS11. Belo8, with a decent lead-in from Dirty Sexy Money, again topped the 10 p.m. field in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the key target audience for news programming. Here's how it looked:
TOTAL HOMES
ABC lead-in (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 170,492
Belo8's 10 p.m. news -- 221,640
CBS lead-in -- 265,480
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 192,412
NBC lead-in -- 143,700
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 170,492
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
ABC lead-in -- 117,670
Belo8's 10 p.m. news -- 143,500
CBS lead-in -- 169,330
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 140,630
NBC lead-in -- 111,930
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 111,930
Fox4 again dominated at 6 a.m., winning in both ratings measurements while NBC5 slipped ahead of Belo8 into second place.
Belo8 lately is no longer a juggernaut at 5 and 6 p.m., where it won handily in the May sweeps. On Wednesday, the ABC station won at 6 p.m. in total homes and tied with NBC5 at 5 p.m.
But in the 25-to-54-year-old demo, the Peacock prevailed at 5 p.m. and Fox4 won at 6 p.m. for the second straight day.
Also of note: Ken Burns' PBS series The War, on Ch. 13 locally, has averaged a decent-sized 68,197 total homes in D-FW for its first four chapters. It resumes this Sunday.
unclebarky@verizon.net
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 25)
09/26/07 09:47 AM
By ED BARK
ABC's Dancing with the Stars continues to prance on the freshly dug graves of competing programs.
Tuesday night's Mark Cuban-infused edition fell a bit short of Monday's season premiere in total D-FW homes, but drew more advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds. Here's the breakdown:
TOTAL HOMES
Tuesday -- 340,984
Monday -- 353,162
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Tuesday -- 189,100
Monday -- 170,500
The 8 p.m. season premiere of Fox's House ran a game second in both total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, respectively drawing 175,363 and 99,200.
At 9 p.m., the heavily promoted premiere of CBS' Cane ran a respectable second in homes (187,541) behind ABC's relaunch of Boston Legal. Cane slipped to third in the 18-to-49 demo, trailing both Legal and NBC's Law & Order: SVU season premiere.
Tuesday night's other freshman series debut, The CW's Reaper, managed just 36,534 homes from 8 to 9 p.m. And it had a piddling 6,200 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo. CW33's 9 p.m. local newscast upped that number to 31,000. So despite mostly favorable reviews, Reaper already looks like a dead issue in D-FW.
The local news derby is showing some interesting swings as the fall season heats up. Belo8 again thumped the once-vaunted NBC5 at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The Peacock's inept high-definition launch and CBS11's very polished start-up this week may pay dividends in time. CBS11 also has stopped mimicking NBC5's rapid-fire crime-and-pestilence approach after sacking controversial news director Regent Ducas last month.
Whatever the reasons, CBS11 is starting to sniff NBC5's behind at 10 p.m., where lead-ins also can be a big factor. Here's the way it shook out Tuesday night in the fight for second place. (Note that NBC5 both inherited more viewers and lost more than CBS11.)
TOTAL HOMES
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from NBC's Law & Order: SVU -- 216,768
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 163,185
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from CBS' Cane -- 185,106
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 143,700
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC lead-in -- 123,410
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 100,450
CBS lead-in -- 111,930
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 94,710
The picture remains pretty constant at 6 a.m., where Fox4 logged comfortable wins in both ratings measurements. NBC5 ran a poor third in total homes and tied with Belo8 for second place with 25-to-54-year-olds after taking a sound whipping the previous morning.
Belo8 continues to do well at 5 and 6 p.m. in total homes, where it again had twin wins Tuesday. But its longheld advantage with 25-to-54-year-olds is crumbling of late. The Peacock took that crown at 5 p.m. while Fox4 hit the winner's circle at 6 p.m.
ABC's Dancing with the Stars continues to prance on the freshly dug graves of competing programs.
Tuesday night's Mark Cuban-infused edition fell a bit short of Monday's season premiere in total D-FW homes, but drew more advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds. Here's the breakdown:
TOTAL HOMES
Tuesday -- 340,984
Monday -- 353,162
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Tuesday -- 189,100
Monday -- 170,500
The 8 p.m. season premiere of Fox's House ran a game second in both total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, respectively drawing 175,363 and 99,200.
At 9 p.m., the heavily promoted premiere of CBS' Cane ran a respectable second in homes (187,541) behind ABC's relaunch of Boston Legal. Cane slipped to third in the 18-to-49 demo, trailing both Legal and NBC's Law & Order: SVU season premiere.
Tuesday night's other freshman series debut, The CW's Reaper, managed just 36,534 homes from 8 to 9 p.m. And it had a piddling 6,200 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo. CW33's 9 p.m. local newscast upped that number to 31,000. So despite mostly favorable reviews, Reaper already looks like a dead issue in D-FW.
The local news derby is showing some interesting swings as the fall season heats up. Belo8 again thumped the once-vaunted NBC5 at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The Peacock's inept high-definition launch and CBS11's very polished start-up this week may pay dividends in time. CBS11 also has stopped mimicking NBC5's rapid-fire crime-and-pestilence approach after sacking controversial news director Regent Ducas last month.
Whatever the reasons, CBS11 is starting to sniff NBC5's behind at 10 p.m., where lead-ins also can be a big factor. Here's the way it shook out Tuesday night in the fight for second place. (Note that NBC5 both inherited more viewers and lost more than CBS11.)
TOTAL HOMES
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from NBC's Law & Order: SVU -- 216,768
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 163,185
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from CBS' Cane -- 185,106
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 143,700
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC lead-in -- 123,410
NBC5's 10 p.m. news -- 100,450
CBS lead-in -- 111,930
CBS11's 10 p.m. news -- 94,710
The picture remains pretty constant at 6 a.m., where Fox4 logged comfortable wins in both ratings measurements. NBC5 ran a poor third in total homes and tied with Belo8 for second place with 25-to-54-year-olds after taking a sound whipping the previous morning.
Belo8 continues to do well at 5 and 6 p.m. in total homes, where it again had twin wins Tuesday. But its longheld advantage with 25-to-54-year-olds is crumbling of late. The Peacock took that crown at 5 p.m. while Fox4 hit the winner's circle at 6 p.m.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Sept. 24)
09/25/07 11:06 AM
By ED BARK
Put on your high-heeled ratings.
Even with local boy Mark Cuban still waiting in the wings, ABC's season premiere of Dancing with the Stars tore though the opposition on the official Night 1 of the fall season.
Dancing drew 353,162 D-FW homes from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, with new episodes of three CBS comedy series running a distant second and NBC's combination of Chuck and the first half-hour of Heroes finishing third. That expectedly left Fox's Prison Break and the new K-Ville in a fourth-place ditch among the broadcast networks in both total homes and among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
In the cable arena, though, ESPN's Monday Night Football (Titans vs. Saints) scored big with 265,480 D-FW homes to rank as Monday's third most-watched program behind Dancing and the season premiere of CBS' CSI: Miami (316,628 homes).
From 8:30 to 10 p.m., ABC's relaunch of The Bachelor, starring Austin hunk Brad Womack, nosedived to 170,492 homes to run second in that slot behind CBS.
In order of drawing power, here's a breakdown of how Monday's new series and season premieres fared in both total D-FW homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. (Hey, where else are you gonna get this kind of service?)
TOTAL HOMES
Dancing with the Stars (ABC) -- 353,162
CSI: Miami (CBS) -- 316,628
Monday Night Football (ESPN) -- 265,480
Two and a Half Men (CBS) -- 214,333
Rules of Engagement (CBS) -- 197,284
Heroes (NBC) -- 189,977
The Bachelor (ABC) -- 170,492
Journeyman (NBC) -- 153,443
The Big Bang Theory (CBS) -- 146,136
How I Met Your Mother (CBS) -- 141,265
Chuck (NBC) -- 131,522
K-Ville (Fox) -- 97,424
Prison Break (Fox) -- 87,682
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Monday Night Football -- 204,600
Dancing with the Stars -- 170,500
Heroes -- 147,250
CSI: Miami -- 146,940
Rules of Engagement -- 120,900
The Bachelor -- 117,800
Two and a Half Men -- 114,700
The Big Bang Theory -- 96,100
How I Met Your Mother -- 93,620
Chuck -- 92,380
Journeyman -- 83,700
Prison Break -- 65,100
K-Ville -- 43,400
Pant-pant, there's also the daily local news derby. CBS11's 4 p.m. newscast, its first in high-definition, drew 82,810 total homes to tie Fox4's Judge Judy for second place behind the first half-hour of Belo8's Oprah (88,899 homes).
In the four-way newscast battles, Belo8 cruised to comfortable wins at 10 p.m. in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 again couldn't make a substantial lead-in advantage from CSI: Miami pay off, finishing second and third respectively.
Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m., each time in tight fights with Belo8.
The ABC station ran first in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m. In the 25-to-54 demo, NBC5 tied Belo8 at 5 p.m. and won outright at 6 p.m.
Put on your high-heeled ratings.
Even with local boy Mark Cuban still waiting in the wings, ABC's season premiere of Dancing with the Stars tore though the opposition on the official Night 1 of the fall season.
Dancing drew 353,162 D-FW homes from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, with new episodes of three CBS comedy series running a distant second and NBC's combination of Chuck and the first half-hour of Heroes finishing third. That expectedly left Fox's Prison Break and the new K-Ville in a fourth-place ditch among the broadcast networks in both total homes and among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
In the cable arena, though, ESPN's Monday Night Football (Titans vs. Saints) scored big with 265,480 D-FW homes to rank as Monday's third most-watched program behind Dancing and the season premiere of CBS' CSI: Miami (316,628 homes).
From 8:30 to 10 p.m., ABC's relaunch of The Bachelor, starring Austin hunk Brad Womack, nosedived to 170,492 homes to run second in that slot behind CBS.
In order of drawing power, here's a breakdown of how Monday's new series and season premieres fared in both total D-FW homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. (Hey, where else are you gonna get this kind of service?)
TOTAL HOMES
Dancing with the Stars (ABC) -- 353,162
CSI: Miami (CBS) -- 316,628
Monday Night Football (ESPN) -- 265,480
Two and a Half Men (CBS) -- 214,333
Rules of Engagement (CBS) -- 197,284
Heroes (NBC) -- 189,977
The Bachelor (ABC) -- 170,492
Journeyman (NBC) -- 153,443
The Big Bang Theory (CBS) -- 146,136
How I Met Your Mother (CBS) -- 141,265
Chuck (NBC) -- 131,522
K-Ville (Fox) -- 97,424
Prison Break (Fox) -- 87,682
18-to-49-YEAR-OLDS
Monday Night Football -- 204,600
Dancing with the Stars -- 170,500
Heroes -- 147,250
CSI: Miami -- 146,940
Rules of Engagement -- 120,900
The Bachelor -- 117,800
Two and a Half Men -- 114,700
The Big Bang Theory -- 96,100
How I Met Your Mother -- 93,620
Chuck -- 92,380
Journeyman -- 83,700
Prison Break -- 65,100
K-Ville -- 43,400
Pant-pant, there's also the daily local news derby. CBS11's 4 p.m. newscast, its first in high-definition, drew 82,810 total homes to tie Fox4's Judge Judy for second place behind the first half-hour of Belo8's Oprah (88,899 homes).
In the four-way newscast battles, Belo8 cruised to comfortable wins at 10 p.m. in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 again couldn't make a substantial lead-in advantage from CSI: Miami pay off, finishing second and third respectively.
Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m., each time in tight fights with Belo8.
The ABC station ran first in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m. In the 25-to-54 demo, NBC5 tied Belo8 at 5 p.m. and won outright at 6 p.m.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Sept. 21-23)
09/24/07 09:48 AM
By ED BARK
The Cowboys rocked to a season ratings high Sunday night, with an average of 854,896 D-FW homes tuned to the team's Bear trap on NBC's Sunday Night Football.
That beat the Dallas-New York Giants season opener, also on NBC's prime-time showcase. It drew 803,748 homes.
Sunday night's latest win peaked at close to a million homes (954,755) between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. The night's most-watched competing attraction, the 9 p.m. second season premiere of CBS' Shark, managed 165,621 homes.
The Cowboys also were a Colossus among among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 644,800 of 'em. Fox's 7 p.m. season premiere of The Simpsons and ABC's Desperate Housewives clip show tied for second place with 18-to-49-year-olds, totaling 111,600 apiece.
D-FW also warmed to Fox's Giants-Redskins game , which dominated the late afternoon/early evening Nielsens with 323,935 total homes. CBS' earlier Colts-Texans game had a nice-sized 253,302 homes.
The day's three NFL games were the only TV attractions to draw double-digit Nielsen ratings under their own power, with each point equaling 24,356 homes. NBC5's late night local newscast/post-game show, pushed past 10:30 p.m., happily splashed along with the massive Cowboys lead-in, drawing 299,579 homes.
In Friday's local newscast battles, Belo8 rode to wins at 10 p.m. in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 took first place in both rating measurements at 6 a.m., and Belo8 did likewise at 5 p.m. The ABC station also won at 6 p.m. in total homes and tied with NBC5 at that hour among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Cowboys rocked to a season ratings high Sunday night, with an average of 854,896 D-FW homes tuned to the team's Bear trap on NBC's Sunday Night Football.
That beat the Dallas-New York Giants season opener, also on NBC's prime-time showcase. It drew 803,748 homes.
Sunday night's latest win peaked at close to a million homes (954,755) between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. The night's most-watched competing attraction, the 9 p.m. second season premiere of CBS' Shark, managed 165,621 homes.
The Cowboys also were a Colossus among among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, drawing 644,800 of 'em. Fox's 7 p.m. season premiere of The Simpsons and ABC's Desperate Housewives clip show tied for second place with 18-to-49-year-olds, totaling 111,600 apiece.
D-FW also warmed to Fox's Giants-Redskins game , which dominated the late afternoon/early evening Nielsens with 323,935 total homes. CBS' earlier Colts-Texans game had a nice-sized 253,302 homes.
The day's three NFL games were the only TV attractions to draw double-digit Nielsen ratings under their own power, with each point equaling 24,356 homes. NBC5's late night local newscast/post-game show, pushed past 10:30 p.m., happily splashed along with the massive Cowboys lead-in, drawing 299,579 homes.
In Friday's local newscast battles, Belo8 rode to wins at 10 p.m. in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 took first place in both rating measurements at 6 a.m., and Belo8 did likewise at 5 p.m. The ABC station also won at 6 p.m. in total homes and tied with NBC5 at that hour among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 20)
09/21/07 10:24 AM
By ED BARK
What's up with Oprah's ratings?
They've mostly been down in the early stages of her new season, with the second half-hour of Fox4's competing Judge Judy more than holding its own in the total homes Nielsens.
Oprah 4:30 to 5 p.m. segment drew just 76,721 homes Thursday, narrowly losing to Judy (82,810).
The tart-talking judge has been closing in on Oprah in September's early returns after being blown out in the May "sweeps" by an average of more than 50,000 homes per show. The Oprah downturn has loosened Belo8's grip on the 5 p.m. news ratings, with Fox4 creeping into contention of late, particularly among sought-after 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 won at 5 p.m. in both measurements Thursday, but in each case by less than a rating point. Fox4 had beaten or tied Belo8 in the 25-to-54 demo on the previous three weekdays.
In prime-time, the premiere of CBS' Survivor: China drew a less than impressive 158,314 total homes to hold off Fox's competing Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (131,522 homes). But the onetime juggernaut attracted fewer homes than CBS' following repeats of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Without a Trace.
The long-running reality competition also won among 18-to-49-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for entertainment programming. 5th Grader again wasn't far behind.
Fox's 8 p.m. attraction, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, made a strong showing, taking the time slot among 18-to-49-year-olds and running second to CSI in total homes.
In the three other local news derby results, Belo8 fought off a puny lead-in from ABC's Men In Trees to edge NBC5 at 10p.m. in total homes. But the Peacock won handily with 25-to-54-year-olds while Belo8 sagged to last place among the four English language local newscasts.
Fox4 logged comfortable twin wins at 6 a.m. Belo ran first at 6 p.m. in total homes and tied with Fox4 for the top spot among 25-to-54-year-olds.
What's up with Oprah's ratings?
They've mostly been down in the early stages of her new season, with the second half-hour of Fox4's competing Judge Judy more than holding its own in the total homes Nielsens.
Oprah 4:30 to 5 p.m. segment drew just 76,721 homes Thursday, narrowly losing to Judy (82,810).
The tart-talking judge has been closing in on Oprah in September's early returns after being blown out in the May "sweeps" by an average of more than 50,000 homes per show. The Oprah downturn has loosened Belo8's grip on the 5 p.m. news ratings, with Fox4 creeping into contention of late, particularly among sought-after 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 won at 5 p.m. in both measurements Thursday, but in each case by less than a rating point. Fox4 had beaten or tied Belo8 in the 25-to-54 demo on the previous three weekdays.
In prime-time, the premiere of CBS' Survivor: China drew a less than impressive 158,314 total homes to hold off Fox's competing Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (131,522 homes). But the onetime juggernaut attracted fewer homes than CBS' following repeats of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Without a Trace.
The long-running reality competition also won among 18-to-49-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for entertainment programming. 5th Grader again wasn't far behind.
Fox's 8 p.m. attraction, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, made a strong showing, taking the time slot among 18-to-49-year-olds and running second to CSI in total homes.
In the three other local news derby results, Belo8 fought off a puny lead-in from ABC's Men In Trees to edge NBC5 at 10p.m. in total homes. But the Peacock won handily with 25-to-54-year-olds while Belo8 sagged to last place among the four English language local newscasts.
Fox4 logged comfortable twin wins at 6 a.m. Belo ran first at 6 p.m. in total homes and tied with Fox4 for the top spot among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local TV notes: GMA spotlights Belo8's Janet St. James
09/20/07 10:30 AM
By ED BARK
Ace Belo8 medical reporter Janet St. James got a big dose of national exposure Wednesday morning on ABC's Good Morning America.
St. James reprised her locally televised look into possible side effects from the drug Chantix, which Dallas musician/singer Carter Albrecht was taking in an effort to stop smoking. Albrecht, 34, died of a gunshot wound early Labor Day morning. He had been yelling and pounding on a neighbor's door when an intended warning shot hit him instead.
St. James joined GMA's Diane Sawyer at the show's anchor desk after the program replayed her story, which is well worth a look. It included the first TV interview with Albrecht's girlfriend, Ryann Rathbone, who also had been taking the drug.
Earlier in September, CBS11 reporter Jay Gormley had the first TV interview with Albrecht's parents.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 19)
09/20/07 08:57 AM
By ED BARK
Fox's Back to You, marking the prime-time returns of Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, fought off CBS' competing and controversial Kid Nation Wednesday on the fall season's first big night of new series premieres.
NBC's returning Deal or No Deal also played tough, though, particularly with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. Here are the 7 to 7:30 p.m. D-FW stats, when all three shows were fighting for audience:
TOTAL HOMES
Back to You -- 138,829
Kid Nation -- 136,394
Deal or No Deal -- 127,869
18-to-49
Deal or No Deal -- 97,650
Back to You -- 83,700
Kid Nation -- 60,450
At 8 p.m., Fox's new Kitchen Nightmares, starring combustible chef Gordon Ramsay, fell to 87,682 total homes and 55,800 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo. That put it in fourth and third place respectively.
The CW's 8 p.m. premiere of Gossip Girl drew 43,841 total homes and had 27,900 viewers in the 18-to-49-year-old measurement. GG fared better with 18-to-34-year-olds, though, drawing 14,459 of 'em to finish in a virtual three-way first place tie with CBS' Criminal Minds repeat and ABC's Come Rain or Come Shine: From Grey's Anatomy to Private Practice.
In the local news derby, Belo8 had another big night at 10 p.m., crunching runnerup NBC5 in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser audience for news programming.
Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m. and tied Belo8 at 5 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds. The ABC station otherwise ran the table, winning at 5 p.m. in total homes and in both ratings measurements at 6 p.m.
Fox's Back to You, marking the prime-time returns of Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, fought off CBS' competing and controversial Kid Nation Wednesday on the fall season's first big night of new series premieres.
NBC's returning Deal or No Deal also played tough, though, particularly with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. Here are the 7 to 7:30 p.m. D-FW stats, when all three shows were fighting for audience:
TOTAL HOMES
Back to You -- 138,829
Kid Nation -- 136,394
Deal or No Deal -- 127,869
18-to-49
Deal or No Deal -- 97,650
Back to You -- 83,700
Kid Nation -- 60,450
At 8 p.m., Fox's new Kitchen Nightmares, starring combustible chef Gordon Ramsay, fell to 87,682 total homes and 55,800 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo. That put it in fourth and third place respectively.
The CW's 8 p.m. premiere of Gossip Girl drew 43,841 total homes and had 27,900 viewers in the 18-to-49-year-old measurement. GG fared better with 18-to-34-year-olds, though, drawing 14,459 of 'em to finish in a virtual three-way first place tie with CBS' Criminal Minds repeat and ABC's Come Rain or Come Shine: From Grey's Anatomy to Private Practice.
In the local news derby, Belo8 had another big night at 10 p.m., crunching runnerup NBC5 in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser audience for news programming.
Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m. and tied Belo8 at 5 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds. The ABC station otherwise ran the table, winning at 5 p.m. in total homes and in both ratings measurements at 6 p.m.
Local TV notes: Tarnation (who says that anymore?)
09/19/07 12:02 PM
By ED BARK
Belo8 isn't quite on the cutting edge with its newest feature on infomercial-infused Good Morning Texas.
It's called "Where in Tarnation is Troy Dungan?" The semi-retired weatherman drops a daily clue and then will reveal his locale on Friday. Wednesday's hint: He's in the bluebird capital of Texas, otherwise known as a very easy place to find if you google "bluebird capital of Texas."
What's up with "tarnation," though? You've got to be pretty grizzled to still be using that word. Roy Rogers' talkative old comic sidekick, Gabby Hayes, was at home on the range with it. But how many people know who he is anymore? Drop that name on anyone under 30 and they'll look at you as though you're Eddie Cantor.
There are many more outmoded words and expressions for Belo8 to choose from if it wants to go after the Horace/Gertrude demographic.
How about "Land sakes alive, what's Dale gonna palaver about tonight?"
Or "Dagnabbit, you dasn't miss Pete's forecast tonight."
Or maybe, "Jumpin' Jehosophat, wait'll ya feast yer eyes on Gloria's getup tonight."
Just trying to help.
PROGRAM NOTE
Wednesday night's American Masters presentation, Orozco: Man of Fire, is a co-production of Berkeley, CA-based Paradigm Productions and KERA-TV (Channel 13) of Dallas.
The one-hour documentary (8 p.m. on Ch. 13), recounts the artistry of painter Jose Clemente Orozco, who died in 1949 after spearheading the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Oscar-winner Anjelica Huston narrates, with Orozco voiced by actor Damian Alcazar.
TEXAS ORIGINAL
One-of-a-kind TV reporter Jack Brown died earlier this month at the age of 73. His television career began at KXAS-TV (Channel 5) in 1958 and continued from 1980 to 1998 at KDFW-TV (Channel 4). He retired on Oct. 1 of that year after becoming known primarily for his longrunning series of "Jack Brown's Texas" reports.
"I've been doing this for 40 years, and that's 10 years too long in this business," Brown told the Dallas Business Journal in a 1998 story. "I don't think a person was meant to have 40 years of deadlines. That does something to you."
Brown's farewell story for Ch. 4 closed with him walking toward an Exit sign while Willie Nelson's "The Party's Over" played taps.
Longtime friend and TV colleague Jorge Villarreal said in an email that Brown met his surviving wife, Marilyn, while doing a story on a supposed haunted house near the Fort Worth Zoo. Brown, a short-talker on the telephone, uncharacteristically spent 90 minutes pre-interviewing Marilyn, who previously had lived at the house.
"The next day she started telling us where to put the lights and what to ask her and what should be in the background," Villarreal recalls. "When we got to the car, Jack shook his head and said emphatically, 'How would you like to be married to that?' But the long phone calls continued and they were married about a year later. She had bewitched him."
Brown and Villarreal rode the TV range from Alpine to Orange, from Barton Springs to Hamilton Pool, etc. etc.
"It was work -- sometimes real hard work," Villarreal says. "But it was always a great time being with Jack."
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 18)
09/19/07 10:49 AM
By ED BARK
This very rarely happens, but a repeat of Fox's new K-Ville series had appreciably better ratings in D-FW than the previous night's premiere.
The set-in-New Orleans cop show drew 138,829 total homes Tuesday night, up from Monday's 119,344 in the same 8 to 9 p.m. slot. Even more impressively, K-Ville upped its haul of advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds from 31,000 to 74,400.
That was good enough to edge competing firstrun programming on two of the three other major broadcast networks. K-Ville drew more 18-to-49-year-olds than CBS' finale of Big Brother 8 and the first hour of ABC's Elvis Presley in Vegas special. NBC's second hour of The Biggest Loser led the way with 86,800 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo.
Tuesday's other big news came at 10 p.m., where Belo8's newscast climbed to a double-digit Nielsen rating (10.2) in total homes. That's a rarity these days for any late night local newscast. But Belo8 upped its 9:45 to 10 p.m. Elvis lead-in (180,234 homes) to 248,431 homes at 10 p.m.
Belo8 also comfortably won the late night news competition among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 returned to the 6 a.m. winner's circle in total homes, and tied for first with Belo8 in the 25-to-54 demo.
Belo8 had twin wins at 6 p.m. and also ran first at 5 p.m. in total homes. Fox4 prevailed at the earlier hour with 25-to-54-year-olds.
This very rarely happens, but a repeat of Fox's new K-Ville series had appreciably better ratings in D-FW than the previous night's premiere.
The set-in-New Orleans cop show drew 138,829 total homes Tuesday night, up from Monday's 119,344 in the same 8 to 9 p.m. slot. Even more impressively, K-Ville upped its haul of advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds from 31,000 to 74,400.
That was good enough to edge competing firstrun programming on two of the three other major broadcast networks. K-Ville drew more 18-to-49-year-olds than CBS' finale of Big Brother 8 and the first hour of ABC's Elvis Presley in Vegas special. NBC's second hour of The Biggest Loser led the way with 86,800 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo.
Tuesday's other big news came at 10 p.m., where Belo8's newscast climbed to a double-digit Nielsen rating (10.2) in total homes. That's a rarity these days for any late night local newscast. But Belo8 upped its 9:45 to 10 p.m. Elvis lead-in (180,234 homes) to 248,431 homes at 10 p.m.
Belo8 also comfortably won the late night news competition among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 returned to the 6 a.m. winner's circle in total homes, and tied for first with Belo8 in the 25-to-54 demo.
Belo8 had twin wins at 6 p.m. and also ran first at 5 p.m. in total homes. Fox4 prevailed at the earlier hour with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Sept. 17)
09/18/07 10:28 AM
By ED BARK
Prison Break can't escape the obvious. Although filmed entirely in North Texas, it's been rejected by D-FW viewers.
Fox's third season premiere of PB replicated the mostly dismal local ratings for last season. It drew just 70,632 total homes to run fourth from 7 to 8 p.m. behind NBC's season premiere of Deal or No Deal (155,878 homes), ABC's Wife Swap repeat (104,731) and CBS's reruns of How I Met Your Mother (102,295) and Old Christine (112,038).
PB also failed to register with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, tying for fourth with the CW network's back-to-back reprises of Everybody Hates Chris. (In contrast, PB won its time slot nationally in the 18-to-49 demo.)
The debut of Fox's set-in-New Orleans K-Ville made a stronger showing in total homes (119,344), running second overall behind reruns of Two and a Half Men and Rules of Engagement on CBS. But K-Ville drooped to fourth place with 18-to-49-year-olds.
The night's biggest audience draw came from the cable firmament, where ESPN's Monday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins averaged a big-time 248,431 homes. The next closest attraction, a CSI: Miami rerun on CBS, drew 238,689 homes from 9 to 10 p.m.
CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast ran second at 10 p.m. in total homes despite inheriting more than double the 9:45 to 10 p.m. audience of any rival station. Belo8 instead took that crown and also easily won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The ABC station likewise prevailed at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements, knocking formidable Fox4 into second place.
Belo8 also placed first in total homes at both 5 and 6 p.m. But the 25-to-54 wins respectively went to Fox4 and NBC5.
Prison Break can't escape the obvious. Although filmed entirely in North Texas, it's been rejected by D-FW viewers.
Fox's third season premiere of PB replicated the mostly dismal local ratings for last season. It drew just 70,632 total homes to run fourth from 7 to 8 p.m. behind NBC's season premiere of Deal or No Deal (155,878 homes), ABC's Wife Swap repeat (104,731) and CBS's reruns of How I Met Your Mother (102,295) and Old Christine (112,038).
PB also failed to register with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, tying for fourth with the CW network's back-to-back reprises of Everybody Hates Chris. (In contrast, PB won its time slot nationally in the 18-to-49 demo.)
The debut of Fox's set-in-New Orleans K-Ville made a stronger showing in total homes (119,344), running second overall behind reruns of Two and a Half Men and Rules of Engagement on CBS. But K-Ville drooped to fourth place with 18-to-49-year-olds.
The night's biggest audience draw came from the cable firmament, where ESPN's Monday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins averaged a big-time 248,431 homes. The next closest attraction, a CSI: Miami rerun on CBS, drew 238,689 homes from 9 to 10 p.m.
CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast ran second at 10 p.m. in total homes despite inheriting more than double the 9:45 to 10 p.m. audience of any rival station. Belo8 instead took that crown and also easily won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The ABC station likewise prevailed at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements, knocking formidable Fox4 into second place.
Belo8 also placed first in total homes at both 5 and 6 p.m. But the 25-to-54 wins respectively went to Fox4 and NBC5.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Sept. 14-16)
09/17/07 10:16 AM
By ED BARK
Fox's prime-time Emmy telecast ran virtually even Sunday night with NBC's marquee Patriots-Chargers game.
Neither, of course, was a match for the preceding Cowboys-Dolphins game on Fox. The Dallas win averaged 625,949 D-FW homes to dominate Sunday's TV landscape. Still, that's a substantial dropoff from the 803,748 homes that watched the Cowboys beat New York the previous Sunday on NBC's prime-time NFL season kickoff.
The Emmys then dipped to 282,530 homes while the competing Patriots-Chargers matchup had 289,836.
D-FW's other pro sports team in action, the Texas Rangers, played to a virtually empty house directly opposite the Cowboys. The Rangers victory over Oakland mustered 21,920 homes on MY27 while drawing just 6,200 advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The Cowboys did a bit beter than that, with 362,700 of 'em.
Rewinding to Friday, the first fall premiere of the season, Fox's Nashville, played like an old country song titled "She Got the Ring, I Got the Finger." It drew just 53,582 total homes and a measly 18,600 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo.
Still, the country cute reality series managed more total homes than NBC's competing Las Vegas repeat and Belo8's locally produced and very well done The Cost of War: The Texas Toll. The 8 to 9 p.m. slot was "won" by a rerun of CBS' Jericho in total homes and Las Vegas among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Friday's local news derby had just two winners in the four major combat zones.
Belo8 swept the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Fox4 won in both measurements at 6 a.m., and the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of its Good Day also whipped the three network morning shows.
Fox's prime-time Emmy telecast ran virtually even Sunday night with NBC's marquee Patriots-Chargers game.
Neither, of course, was a match for the preceding Cowboys-Dolphins game on Fox. The Dallas win averaged 625,949 D-FW homes to dominate Sunday's TV landscape. Still, that's a substantial dropoff from the 803,748 homes that watched the Cowboys beat New York the previous Sunday on NBC's prime-time NFL season kickoff.
The Emmys then dipped to 282,530 homes while the competing Patriots-Chargers matchup had 289,836.
D-FW's other pro sports team in action, the Texas Rangers, played to a virtually empty house directly opposite the Cowboys. The Rangers victory over Oakland mustered 21,920 homes on MY27 while drawing just 6,200 advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The Cowboys did a bit beter than that, with 362,700 of 'em.
Rewinding to Friday, the first fall premiere of the season, Fox's Nashville, played like an old country song titled "She Got the Ring, I Got the Finger." It drew just 53,582 total homes and a measly 18,600 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo.
Still, the country cute reality series managed more total homes than NBC's competing Las Vegas repeat and Belo8's locally produced and very well done The Cost of War: The Texas Toll. The 8 to 9 p.m. slot was "won" by a rerun of CBS' Jericho in total homes and Las Vegas among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Friday's local news derby had just two winners in the four major combat zones.
Belo8 swept the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Fox4 won in both measurements at 6 a.m., and the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of its Good Day also whipped the three network morning shows.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 13)
09/14/07 10:23 AM
By ED BARK
President Bush's live 8 p.m. address on the Iraq war spread across the four broadcast networks Thursday. Its aggregate audience didn't come close to matching the ratings for a typical Dallas Cowboys game.
From 8 to 8:15 p.m., the address drew a combined 355,598 total homes on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. On Fox and CBS, Bush lost audience from respective lead-ins Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and Big Brother 8. But the president barely improved on the lead-in from ABC's Ugly Betty repeat and also drew a bigger crowd than the closing 15 minutes of NBC's 30 Rock rerun.
Sunday night's season-opening Cowboys-Giants game averaged 803,748 D-FW homes on just one network -- NBC.
Bush's address knocked the 10 p.m. newscasts on Belo8 and CBS11 well past their usual starting times. A two-way battle between NBC5 and Fox4 was won by the Peacock in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 notched another comfortable win at 6 a.m. in total homes, but NBC made a lately infrequent trip to the winner's circle among 25-to-54-year-olds. Belo8 slipped to third after a three-day winning streak in the 25-to-54 demo. Note: Fox4's Megan Henderson has been off this week. Might that be a reason for the downturn in the younger demo?
Belo8 returned to the throne rooms at 5 and 6 p.m., however, winning across the board.
President Bush's live 8 p.m. address on the Iraq war spread across the four broadcast networks Thursday. Its aggregate audience didn't come close to matching the ratings for a typical Dallas Cowboys game.
From 8 to 8:15 p.m., the address drew a combined 355,598 total homes on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. On Fox and CBS, Bush lost audience from respective lead-ins Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and Big Brother 8. But the president barely improved on the lead-in from ABC's Ugly Betty repeat and also drew a bigger crowd than the closing 15 minutes of NBC's 30 Rock rerun.
Sunday night's season-opening Cowboys-Giants game averaged 803,748 D-FW homes on just one network -- NBC.
Bush's address knocked the 10 p.m. newscasts on Belo8 and CBS11 well past their usual starting times. A two-way battle between NBC5 and Fox4 was won by the Peacock in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 notched another comfortable win at 6 a.m. in total homes, but NBC made a lately infrequent trip to the winner's circle among 25-to-54-year-olds. Belo8 slipped to third after a three-day winning streak in the 25-to-54 demo. Note: Fox4's Megan Henderson has been off this week. Might that be a reason for the downturn in the younger demo?
Belo8 returned to the throne rooms at 5 and 6 p.m., however, winning across the board.
Flooring it: Cuban primed for takeoff on Dancing with the Stars
09/13/07 09:33 AM
By ED BARK
Barely two-and-a-half months removed from hip replacement surgery, Mark Cuban gets airborne for a heel click while prepping for Dancing with the Stars.
It prompts a big grin from him and two quick judgment calls. The 49-year-old Dallas Mavericks owner definitely does not have two left feet. And his competitive drive won't let him half-step his way through ABC's hottest show.
"I think everybody thinks I'm gonna be the stiff," he says during a brief break Wednesday afternoon. "That's the underlying sentiment. So I'll use that in my favor."
His training camp since late August is a North Dallas dance studio, where Cuban and pro partner Kym Johnson have been getting in step via three-hour weekday workouts. Their first televised performance, on Sept. 25th, will be the fox trot. That one's getting pretty smooth. Next up, assuming they survive the following night's first viewer vote-off, is a more demanding mambo that for now includes Johnson sliding through Cuban's A-framed legs.
"He's one of the hardest workers I've ever come across," she says.
Cuban's also lucky to have her. Johnson took goofball Jerry Springer deep into the competition during her first appearance on Dancing. Then, in last spring's edition, she and Joey Fatone placed second to Apolo Anton Ohno and partner Julianne Hough.
Fatone parlayed his winning personality and near-victory into a career resurgence that now finds him hosting NBC's The Singing Bee and the TV Guide Channel's red carpet award ceremonies. But Johnson says he was a slacker compared to Cuban, who's already sweated off 22 pounds since surgery.
"He's dancing like you'd never know he had anything wrong with him," Johnson says. "I was a bit concerned at first, but after working with him I can't see it, or feel that he's got any problem at all."
Cuban says his left hip "gets sore and it hurts. But I use lots of ice and lots of drugs (namely Tylenol, he adds)."
However Cuban fares, he can't do any better than fellow Dallas sports figure Emmitt Smith. The former Cowboys great won the third edition of Dancing despite an early round of hoots from ex-teammates. Cuban says that most Mavs players and coach Avery Johnson at least are talking good games.
"Avery thinks it's great," he says. "And 'Stack's' (Jerry Stackhouse) like, 'You've got a big set of balls to go out there.' Dirk (Nowitzki) doesn't give a (damn), but that's OK. I told him I was doing it, and he just shook his head."
Cuban and the female Johnson seem to be a good match on a different set of hardwoods. He jabs at her ("See, I always have to help her out") and she jabs back ("I've got another child to deal with," referring to the earlier partnership with Springer). She prods him, too, instructing Cuban to keep his movements snappy and his butt inverted.
"OK, mom, whatever you say," Cuban rejoins.
Johnson had never heard of Cuban until learning he'd be her partner. "I googled you," she says.
Now he's in her world -- and feels welcomed to it.
"I'm pretty much learning everything from scratch," Cuban says. "I mean, disco moves don't really count in this . . . In new businesses you're always out of your comfort zone, because you never know who's gonna kick your ass. But that's why I like it. It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. And if it's only a question of hard work, that I can do."
He's the third oldest dancer in a 12-competitor field, with only Wayne Newton, 65, and Jane Seymour, 56, his elders. Cuban has been known to act like a kid, though. Just ask NBA referees and commissioner David Stern. ABC likely will play up his occasional courtside meltdowns, but Cuban says he won't lip off -- at least not in the early going -- to Dancing's three judges. Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman are the mostly likely to test that resolve.
"What am I gonna do -- tell them that the rules of ballroom dancing are such and such, and they're wrong?" Cuban says. "People expect that, and ABC wants that, I think. Maybe if I get an overinflated opinion of myself . . . I told them I'm not opposed to speaking my mind, but I have to have a good reason."
Cuban has managed to "make Kym promise" to incorporate "a beer drinkers' special dance" into each of their routines.
For the fox trot, it will be a fleeting rendition of Churn the Butter. Also on tap: The Lawnmower, The Sprinkler, The Worm and The Gator.
"We're putting it in the routines in a clever way and not too much of it," Johnson says. "Len (Goodman) may kind of think it's a little strange, but I think he'll have a laugh about it. The most important thing is bringing a celebrity's personality out. And that's what we're doing."
It's also very much about technique, though, with Dancing's judges scolding contestants for bad posture, sloppy execution and overall stiffness. So there's Cuban jotting down notes about the mambo and later chanting, "Boom, boom, boom, cross body lead."
"You are now becoming a born dancer," Johnson tells him.
"My brain's keepin' up with the music," says Cuban.
So maybe he'll in fact defy expectations and be a serious contender for the show's oft-lampooned mirror ball trophy. Or might the fans at Mavs road games be treated to a new brand of Cuban sideshow?
"What I'm really curious about is if I screw up anywhere on the show, how much of it am I gonna see on those big Jumbotrons?" he wonders. "But considering what they do to me now, it would be a step up."
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 12)
09/13/07 08:53 AM
By ED BARK
It's topsy turvy at 10 p.m., where CBS11's newscast won in total homes Wednesday while Belo8 ran last. Huh?
The order of finish is tied to lead-in power, or lack of same. But CBS11 will take it after taking it in the teeth night after night. It's lately greatly improved newscast (subtract news director Regent Ducas, add Scott Diener) deserves the added exposure. Here's how it played out, with 9:45 to 10 p.m. numbers followed by the newscast ratings:
CSI: NY -- 260,609 total homes
CBS11 News -- 185,106
Dateline NBC -- 148,572
NBC5 News -- 163,185
Fox4 9 p.m. News -- 126,651
Fox4 News -- 146,136
NASCAR in Primetime -- 51,148
Belo8 News -- 143,700
Multiple translations: Belo8's lead-in from ABC fell well short of piss-poor. CBS11 coasted on a mighty river and then managed to stay afloat. Brand loyalty only gets you so far. But Belo8 clearly still has some of it.
A different 10 p.m. winnner, NBC5, emerged among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. In that audience group, the lead-ins from CSI: NY and Dateline NBC were virtually identical. Still, CBS11 slid to fourth place, behind Univision's Noticias 23 local newscast and Fox4.
That left Belo8 in a very unaccustomed fifth place. In retaliation, maybe sports anchor Dale Hansen should give a high school soccer match better play than the next NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway. Just a thought.
Two of the other three major newscast faceoffs also had mixed results.
Fox4 won at 6 a.m. in total homes, but Belo8 prevailed for the third straight day among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 took first place in total homes at 5 p.m. while Fox4 had the win with 25-to-54-year-olds. The 6 p.m. bouts went to Belo8 in both measurements.
It's topsy turvy at 10 p.m., where CBS11's newscast won in total homes Wednesday while Belo8 ran last. Huh?
The order of finish is tied to lead-in power, or lack of same. But CBS11 will take it after taking it in the teeth night after night. It's lately greatly improved newscast (subtract news director Regent Ducas, add Scott Diener) deserves the added exposure. Here's how it played out, with 9:45 to 10 p.m. numbers followed by the newscast ratings:
CSI: NY -- 260,609 total homes
CBS11 News -- 185,106
Dateline NBC -- 148,572
NBC5 News -- 163,185
Fox4 9 p.m. News -- 126,651
Fox4 News -- 146,136
NASCAR in Primetime -- 51,148
Belo8 News -- 143,700
Multiple translations: Belo8's lead-in from ABC fell well short of piss-poor. CBS11 coasted on a mighty river and then managed to stay afloat. Brand loyalty only gets you so far. But Belo8 clearly still has some of it.
A different 10 p.m. winnner, NBC5, emerged among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. In that audience group, the lead-ins from CSI: NY and Dateline NBC were virtually identical. Still, CBS11 slid to fourth place, behind Univision's Noticias 23 local newscast and Fox4.
That left Belo8 in a very unaccustomed fifth place. In retaliation, maybe sports anchor Dale Hansen should give a high school soccer match better play than the next NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway. Just a thought.
Two of the other three major newscast faceoffs also had mixed results.
Fox4 won at 6 a.m. in total homes, but Belo8 prevailed for the third straight day among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 took first place in total homes at 5 p.m. while Fox4 had the win with 25-to-54-year-olds. The 6 p.m. bouts went to Belo8 in both measurements.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 11)
09/12/07 09:31 AM
By ED BARK
NBC's two-hour season premiere of The Biggest Loser made minimal gains in D-FW Tuesday despite a heavy promotional push.
From 7 to 8 p.m., Loser ran third in total homes behind CBS' Power of 10 game show and two half-hours of ABC's slapped together Just For Laughs. It finished second, narrowly ahead of Power, among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
The 8 to 9 p.m. slice of Loser managed a first-place finish in total homes, beating both CBS' Big Brother 8 and ABC's i-Caught. It dropped to a close third, though, among 18-to-49-year-olds, with Big Brother setting the pace. All in all, that's a lackluster season debut for Loser, at least in these parts.
In the local news derby, CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast already is dramatically improved under new news director Scott Diener. It's no longer a rapid fire crime-a-thon, but still slow on the draw in the nightly Nielsens. Tuesday's edition again had the biggest 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in audience, this time from a repeat of NCIS. It again ran third in total homes, though, with Belo8 a dominant first.
The ABC station also won at 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. And for the second straight day, its Daybreak beat Fox4's usually potent Good Day in the 6 a.m. ratings for 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4 retaliated with a comfortable 6 a.m. win in total homes, with Belo8 drooping to third behind NBC5. The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Good Day also crunched the three network morning shows in both ratings measurements.
The 5 p.m. newscast ratings are getting more interesting, with Oprah's slipping numbers from 4 to 5 p.m. causing Belo8's to slide as well in early September.
Tuesday's first-run Oprah ran behind Fox4's double dose of Judge Judy in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5, with a solid closing kick from its 4 p.m. local newscast, won across the board at 5 p.m. while Belo 8 ran third behind Fox4.
Aided by a commanding lead-in from ABC's World News with Charles Gibson, Belo8 then recovered to run the table at 6 p.m.
NBC's two-hour season premiere of The Biggest Loser made minimal gains in D-FW Tuesday despite a heavy promotional push.
From 7 to 8 p.m., Loser ran third in total homes behind CBS' Power of 10 game show and two half-hours of ABC's slapped together Just For Laughs. It finished second, narrowly ahead of Power, among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
The 8 to 9 p.m. slice of Loser managed a first-place finish in total homes, beating both CBS' Big Brother 8 and ABC's i-Caught. It dropped to a close third, though, among 18-to-49-year-olds, with Big Brother setting the pace. All in all, that's a lackluster season debut for Loser, at least in these parts.
In the local news derby, CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast already is dramatically improved under new news director Scott Diener. It's no longer a rapid fire crime-a-thon, but still slow on the draw in the nightly Nielsens. Tuesday's edition again had the biggest 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in audience, this time from a repeat of NCIS. It again ran third in total homes, though, with Belo8 a dominant first.
The ABC station also won at 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. And for the second straight day, its Daybreak beat Fox4's usually potent Good Day in the 6 a.m. ratings for 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4 retaliated with a comfortable 6 a.m. win in total homes, with Belo8 drooping to third behind NBC5. The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Good Day also crunched the three network morning shows in both ratings measurements.
The 5 p.m. newscast ratings are getting more interesting, with Oprah's slipping numbers from 4 to 5 p.m. causing Belo8's to slide as well in early September.
Tuesday's first-run Oprah ran behind Fox4's double dose of Judge Judy in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5, with a solid closing kick from its 4 p.m. local newscast, won across the board at 5 p.m. while Belo 8 ran third behind Fox4.
Aided by a commanding lead-in from ABC's World News with Charles Gibson, Belo8 then recovered to run the table at 6 p.m.
Rash decision
09/11/07 11:10 PM
By ED BARK
D-FW television reporters have a knack for prompting national product recalls.
NBC5 Night Ranger Scott Gordon's Valentine's Day scoop on potentially bad batches of Peter Pan and Best Value peanut butter led to shelf-clearing across the country.
Now Fox4 reporter Brandon Todd's piece on skin-irritating, made-in-China flip-flops has caused Wal-Mart to pull them nationwide. The discount chain announced the decision Tuesday (Sept. 11) after Todd's earlier story on a Gun Barrel City woman who developed a rash in the same design as the footwear, which she bought for a dollar. Fox4 had the pictures to prove it, plus far grislier ones from a Florida woman who posted her badly scabbed feet on her Web site.
Wal-Mart contended that "only a few similar claims" were made by "several million" purchasers of the flip-flops. "Nonetheless we are removing the product from our shelves for testing and are preventing our registers from selling them," the company said in a statement.
The flip-flop recall now is getting heavy national play, as did the peanut butter scare.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Sept. 10)
09/11/07 12:16 PM
By ED BARK
Happily tackling broadcast reruns as the fall season nears, ESPN's opening Monday Night Football doubleheader outpointed all competing programs in D-FW.
The opening Bengals-Ravens game averaged 199,719 homes. Then the mostly late night Cardinals-49ers matchup hit on 172,928 homes. Think what the audience might be if the announcing trios for either game weren't so damned annoying. Let's tell "Jaws" (Ron Jaworski) to wire his shut.
Meanwhile, TNT's third season finale of The Closer drew 82,810 total homes from 8 to 9 p.m., beating reruns of both Fox's Prison Break and NBC's Heroes.
The 10:30 p..m. premiere of cheeky Hollywood tattler TMZ on Fox4 ran fourth in total homes with 73,068 of 'em. But it popped up to second place with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, edging both ABC's Nightline and CBS' Late Show with David Letterman.
The local news derby again saw CBS11 squander a substantial 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in advantage from a CSI: Miami repeat. Instead Belo8 led the way in total homes but fell to second behind NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 ran third in both measurements.
Fox4 won at 6 a.m. in total homes, but Belo8's Daybreak took first by a paper-thin margin in the 25-to-54 demo.
Fox4 turned the tables at 6 p.m., winning with 25-to-54-year-olds while Belo8 was tops in total homes.
NBC5 won in both measurements at 5 p.m.
Happily tackling broadcast reruns as the fall season nears, ESPN's opening Monday Night Football doubleheader outpointed all competing programs in D-FW.
The opening Bengals-Ravens game averaged 199,719 homes. Then the mostly late night Cardinals-49ers matchup hit on 172,928 homes. Think what the audience might be if the announcing trios for either game weren't so damned annoying. Let's tell "Jaws" (Ron Jaworski) to wire his shut.
Meanwhile, TNT's third season finale of The Closer drew 82,810 total homes from 8 to 9 p.m., beating reruns of both Fox's Prison Break and NBC's Heroes.
The 10:30 p..m. premiere of cheeky Hollywood tattler TMZ on Fox4 ran fourth in total homes with 73,068 of 'em. But it popped up to second place with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, edging both ABC's Nightline and CBS' Late Show with David Letterman.
The local news derby again saw CBS11 squander a substantial 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in advantage from a CSI: Miami repeat. Instead Belo8 led the way in total homes but fell to second behind NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 ran third in both measurements.
Fox4 won at 6 a.m. in total homes, but Belo8's Daybreak took first by a paper-thin margin in the 25-to-54 demo.
Fox4 turned the tables at 6 p.m., winning with 25-to-54-year-olds while Belo8 was tops in total homes.
NBC5 won in both measurements at 5 p.m.
Crowning achievement: New CBS11 anchor/reporter returns to Dallas homeland
09/11/07 09:32 AM
By ED BARK
Dallas-raised Nerissa Knight has returned home as a weekend morning co-anchor and general assignment reporter for CBS11.
She arrives from Beaumont's KBTV-TV, where she anchored that station's 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts after earlier stops at Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Mobile, Ala. TV stations.
Born in Wisconsin, Knight recalls watching Fox4 anchor Clarice Tinsley as a kindergartener during her earlier tenure at a Milwaukee TV station. When the family moved to South Dallas, "lo and behold, the first time I looked up to turn on the news, Clarice was there," Knight says in an email.
"I was entranced with news at age five" after first seeing Tinsley on TV, she says. "In kindergarten, I told my mom (her name also was Clarice) that I wanted to 'do the news.' "
It's been 14 years since she's lived in North Texas. Enroute Knight entered the 2007 Mrs. Texas America pageant, where she was Mrs. Southeast Texas. She placed among the 16 finalists and won an award for career achievement at the June 30th crowning in Southlake.
It's an unusual combination, but not unprecedented in the D-FW market. Former Miss America Jane Jayroe co-anchored the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts for KXAS-TV (Channel 5) from 1980-84.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Sept. 7-9)
09/10/07 01:32 PM
By ED BARK
Nothing else really mattered Sunday night. Not even Britney's extraordinarily inept performance on MTV's even dumber than usual Video Music Awards.
No, the only game in town was the Dallas Cowboys' season opener against the New York Giants, which averaged 803,748 D-FW homes on NBC5. That's more than six times the audience for ABC's runnerup duo of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Meet the Fockers.
But wait, there's more. This was an extraordinary sports weekend that also included the Texas-TCU clash in Austin, the U.S. Open Tennis Final, Tiger Woods' big victory at the BMW golf championship, a pivotal prime-time NASCAR race and three other season-opening pro football games. Here's the D-FW total homes scorecard:
Bears vs. Chargers (Fox) -- 360,469
Eagles vs. Packers (Fox) -- 233,818
Texas vs. TCU (FX) -- 158,314
Redskins vs. Dolphins (CBS) -- 151,007
Chevy Rock & Roll 400 (ABC) -- 107,166
BMW Golf Final Round (NBC) -- 75,504
U.S. Open Tennis Final (CBS) -- 63,732
And oh yes, 26,792 devoted hardball homes watched the Texas Rangers sweep the Oakland A's on MY27 Sunday afternoon to climb out of the American League West basement for at least a day.
In Friday's local news derby, NBC5's first batch of high-definition telecasts all fell short of winner's circles. It might have helped had the station first launched a promotional campaign instead of essentially sneaking them on the air.
Belo8 won comfortably at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 did likewise at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements.
Belo8 took the 5 and 6 p.m. races in total homes and barely nipped NBC5 at 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds. Fox4 won at 5 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demo.
Nothing else really mattered Sunday night. Not even Britney's extraordinarily inept performance on MTV's even dumber than usual Video Music Awards.
No, the only game in town was the Dallas Cowboys' season opener against the New York Giants, which averaged 803,748 D-FW homes on NBC5. That's more than six times the audience for ABC's runnerup duo of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Meet the Fockers.
But wait, there's more. This was an extraordinary sports weekend that also included the Texas-TCU clash in Austin, the U.S. Open Tennis Final, Tiger Woods' big victory at the BMW golf championship, a pivotal prime-time NASCAR race and three other season-opening pro football games. Here's the D-FW total homes scorecard:
Bears vs. Chargers (Fox) -- 360,469
Eagles vs. Packers (Fox) -- 233,818
Texas vs. TCU (FX) -- 158,314
Redskins vs. Dolphins (CBS) -- 151,007
Chevy Rock & Roll 400 (ABC) -- 107,166
BMW Golf Final Round (NBC) -- 75,504
U.S. Open Tennis Final (CBS) -- 63,732
And oh yes, 26,792 devoted hardball homes watched the Texas Rangers sweep the Oakland A's on MY27 Sunday afternoon to climb out of the American League West basement for at least a day.
In Friday's local news derby, NBC5's first batch of high-definition telecasts all fell short of winner's circles. It might have helped had the station first launched a promotional campaign instead of essentially sneaking them on the air.
Belo8 won comfortably at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 did likewise at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements.
Belo8 took the 5 and 6 p.m. races in total homes and barely nipped NBC5 at 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds. Fox4 won at 5 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demo.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 6)
09/07/07 09:53 AM
By ED BARK
D-FW viewers not surprisingly turned out big-time for Thursday night's Peyton Manning commercial festival, occasionally interrupted by the Colts-Saints NFL "kickoff" game on NBC.
Indy's eventual lopsided victory, after a 10-10 tie at halftime, lured 358,033 homes to crush all competing programming. An overblown pre-game entertainment extravaganza, led off by Kelly Clarkson's LXXXth nationally televised rendition of "Never Again," had 199,719 homes to also win its time slot against Fox's game Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (148,572 homes).
The four major local newscast competitions were a tale of two ratings pictures for Belo8.
It was a very bright picture in the total homes Nielsens, where the ABC station swept the 6 a.m. and 5, 6 and 10 p.m. competitions. (NBC5's late night newscast was knocked past 10:30 p.m. by the football game.)
Belo8 came up empty, though, among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 won at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demo while the Peacock placed first at 5 and 6 p.m.
D-FW viewers not surprisingly turned out big-time for Thursday night's Peyton Manning commercial festival, occasionally interrupted by the Colts-Saints NFL "kickoff" game on NBC.
Indy's eventual lopsided victory, after a 10-10 tie at halftime, lured 358,033 homes to crush all competing programming. An overblown pre-game entertainment extravaganza, led off by Kelly Clarkson's LXXXth nationally televised rendition of "Never Again," had 199,719 homes to also win its time slot against Fox's game Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (148,572 homes).
The four major local newscast competitions were a tale of two ratings pictures for Belo8.
It was a very bright picture in the total homes Nielsens, where the ABC station swept the 6 a.m. and 5, 6 and 10 p.m. competitions. (NBC5's late night newscast was knocked past 10:30 p.m. by the football game.)
Belo8 came up empty, though, among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 won at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demo while the Peacock placed first at 5 and 6 p.m.
Monk see, Monk do
09/07/07 08:51 AM
By ED BARK
Whatever your profession, it's often who you know. And D-FW media vet Nancy Jay has been virtually lifelong friends with Monk executive producer Randy Zisk.
He gifts her with a brief role as a news anchor on the Friday, Sept. 7th episode of Monk (8 p.m. central), subtitled "Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man."
"This is my 15 minutes of fame, probably condensed down to about 45 seconds," Jay says in a telephone interview.
She's otherwise been all over the D-FW media landscape since the early 1980s. Jay's worked in radio at KZPS, WBAP and KRLD. She's written for The Dallas Times Herald and was an entertainment reporter/anchor for much of the 1990s for KTVT-TV before CBS bought the station.
Lately she's freelancing in both radio and TV. Listen for her as the off-camera voice of Jerry Jones' wife during a new commercial in which he cradles a Super Bowl trophy while talking in his sleep and wearing his Cowboys pajamas.
"I want it all . . . I've tasted greatness and I'm hungry for it again," Jones says before his "wife" yells, "Jerry, wake up! You're dreamin' about Papa John's pizza again!"
Jay and Zisk have known each other since his days at St. Mark's School of Texas and her days at W.T. White. So he threw a little work her way when Monk's script called for a news anchor to report that a murderer put away by Monk had his conviction overturned.
"My heart was pounding," she says, "but it was an absolute blast."
Jay and fellow guest stars Alfred Molina and Angela Kinsey from The Office all had their own trailers, even if their names were spelled out in impermanent masking tape. She then spent six hours worth of "hurry up and wait" after a 6:15 a.m. makeup call. Jay says it gave her a firsthand understanding of why actors sometimes act up on the set. They're simply bored.
"If Brad Pitt had been my co-star, sure I'd invite him in and lock the door," she says.
Jay hasn't seen her Monk episode yet, but has been assured that "I do not end up on the cutting room floor."
Her character didn't have a name during filming, she says. "I'm thinking Nancy Jay'll work."
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 5)
09/06/07 09:58 AM
By ED BARK
Stormy weather definitely lights up the early morning news ratings. So much so that the 6 to 7 a.m. segment of Fox4's Good Day easily was the station's most-watched program Wednesday.
Good Day, which usually wins the 6 a.m. ratings battle, drew 131,522 homes in outpacing the rival news hours on NBC5 (92,553 homes), Belo8 (87,682 homes) and CBS11 (48,712 homes).
That's a total haul of 359,929 homes. On the morning before, a much calmer Tuesday, the four 6 a.m. shows drew 280,094 homes.
Fox4 also won easily at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
It otherwise was a big night at 10 p.m. for NBC5, which rolled to comfortable wins in both ratings measurements. CBS11's far calmer, mostly crime-shorn newscast ran third in total homes despite getting Wednesday's largest lead-in audience from a CBS repeat of CSI: NY. With or without recently deposed news director Regent Ducas, the station still has much rebuilding to do.
Belo8 took the other two news competitions, at 5 and 6 p.m., with comfy wins across the board.
Stormy weather definitely lights up the early morning news ratings. So much so that the 6 to 7 a.m. segment of Fox4's Good Day easily was the station's most-watched program Wednesday.
Good Day, which usually wins the 6 a.m. ratings battle, drew 131,522 homes in outpacing the rival news hours on NBC5 (92,553 homes), Belo8 (87,682 homes) and CBS11 (48,712 homes).
That's a total haul of 359,929 homes. On the morning before, a much calmer Tuesday, the four 6 a.m. shows drew 280,094 homes.
Fox4 also won easily at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
It otherwise was a big night at 10 p.m. for NBC5, which rolled to comfortable wins in both ratings measurements. CBS11's far calmer, mostly crime-shorn newscast ran third in total homes despite getting Wednesday's largest lead-in audience from a CBS repeat of CSI: NY. With or without recently deposed news director Regent Ducas, the station still has much rebuilding to do.
Belo8 took the other two news competitions, at 5 and 6 p.m., with comfy wins across the board.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 4)
09/05/07 09:41 AM
By ED BARK
The Big Guy networks are waiting another couple of weeks to flex their new fall seasons, but li'l dude MYNetworkTV went to the weight room Tuesday night with two new series premieres.
Jail fared the best, ranking a heady third from 8 to 9 p.m. with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The reality series, portions of which were filmed in the Tarrant County lockup, otherwise ran fifth with 62,108 total homes on MY27 locally. Those are small numbers, but gargantuan compared to audiences for last fall's English language telenovela flops on MNTV.
The second-year network's other new attraction, The Academy, ran fourth among 18-to-49-year-olds, nipping a competing Bones rerun on Fox. But it placed ninth overall with just 31,663 homes, also finishing behind two cable attractions (TNT's repeats of Law & Order and Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor).
The CBS game show Power of 10 continued to perform well, winning from 7 to 8 p.m. in total homes and running a very close third with 18-to-49-year-olds. Big Brother 8 then tied for first in the 18-to-49 demo while placing second overall behind Fox's House repeat.
In the local news derby, Belo8 had two dominating wins at 10 p.m. in total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11, holding on to most of its NCIS lead-in, ran second in both measurements (among English language newscasts) in its first official voyage under new news director Scott Diener.
Fox4 countered with twin wins at 6 a.m., with the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of its Good Day likewise running the table opposite the three network morning shows. The station also took the 5 p.m. crowns in both ratings measurements.
Belo8 won at 6 p.m. in total homes and shared the lead with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Big Guy networks are waiting another couple of weeks to flex their new fall seasons, but li'l dude MYNetworkTV went to the weight room Tuesday night with two new series premieres.
Jail fared the best, ranking a heady third from 8 to 9 p.m. with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The reality series, portions of which were filmed in the Tarrant County lockup, otherwise ran fifth with 62,108 total homes on MY27 locally. Those are small numbers, but gargantuan compared to audiences for last fall's English language telenovela flops on MNTV.
The second-year network's other new attraction, The Academy, ran fourth among 18-to-49-year-olds, nipping a competing Bones rerun on Fox. But it placed ninth overall with just 31,663 homes, also finishing behind two cable attractions (TNT's repeats of Law & Order and Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor).
The CBS game show Power of 10 continued to perform well, winning from 7 to 8 p.m. in total homes and running a very close third with 18-to-49-year-olds. Big Brother 8 then tied for first in the 18-to-49 demo while placing second overall behind Fox's House repeat.
In the local news derby, Belo8 had two dominating wins at 10 p.m. in total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11, holding on to most of its NCIS lead-in, ran second in both measurements (among English language newscasts) in its first official voyage under new news director Scott Diener.
Fox4 countered with twin wins at 6 a.m., with the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of its Good Day likewise running the table opposite the three network morning shows. The station also took the 5 p.m. crowns in both ratings measurements.
Belo8 won at 6 p.m. in total homes and shared the lead with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 news: The new guy has his work cut out for him -- but so does the old guy
09/04/07 03:51 PM
By ED BARK
At last it dawned on the head man. CBS11's news operation couldn't withstand another minute of news director Regent Ducas, let alone the start of a new fall season followed by the hyper-competitive November "sweeps" ratings period.
So CBS11/TXA21 president and general manager Steve Mauldin abruptly did what he had to do Friday evening by cutting loose the guy he'd hired barely five months earlier. The bigger question is why Mauldin did what he did in the first place.
He's not commenting right now, preferring to let the dust settle while CBS11's newest news director, Scott Diener, is left to undo the damage done to morale, image and ratings. The latter didn't improve either under Ducas, whose twisted metal 'n' mayhem approach to news perhaps fittingly left a train wreck behind.
Mauldin earlier had hired the well-regarded Greg Easterly from Cleveland to run the CBS/TXA21 news ships. But Easterly belatedly backed out during the holiday season after first attending the staff Christmas party. Then came the back flip to Ducas, who had taken Kansas City's CBS station to the top after first schooling it in the art of "urgent" in-your-face, small j journalism.
"I'm sure there is an adjustment period," Ducas said during an April interview with unclebarky.com. "I'm sure some people are wondering to themselves whether they're going to make it under this new format, whether they even subscribe to it in the first place."
Instead the troops finally prevailed while their volcanic general was sent to the stockade. But one wonders what would have happened had Diener been given the job in the first place.
He arrived at CBS11 as assistant news director in June 2006, more than nine months before Ducas got the call. Diener previously had been news director at KTVK-TV in Phoenix, which is hardly Podunk. Instead it's the country's 12th largest TV market, ranking well ahead of No. 31 Kansas City. KTVK also is owned by Dallas-based Belo Corp., which runs WFAA-TV (Channel 8) as well.
Belo may be a conservative, hidebound company in some respects, but none of its stations serves crap for news. In fact Diener's resume includes prestigious George Foster Peabody and duPont-Columbia awards for excellence in journalism. Maybe that was deemed to be too good a track record in these low-aiming times for many TV news operations. But now CBS11 is touting those honors in a news release that has Mauldin praising Diener as "a solid newsman, a strong leader and a great member of our team."
Still, Mauldin first chose Ducas, so he clearly shares the blame for what became a debacle. He's been running CBS11 and TXA21 since February 2003, when he arrived from Miami's WFOR-TV.
Gambling on Ducas -- and losing big -- may have cost Mauldin all but a few of the chips he had piled up with CBS before taking the D-FW job. But as a businessman, he knows the bottom line like the back of his hand. He was smart enough to recognize that Ducas' brand of news was turning off both advertisers and viewers. CBS11's newscasts had a respectable reputation even during rough times in the ratings. But Ducas made them an increasingly bad buy. CBS11 wasn't an art museum, but under Ducas it was starting to look like a junkyard.
Now Diener is left to clean up the mess without cleaning house. The station still has a solid group of reporters, even if many of them became dazed and confused in the past several months. In its favor, CBS11 also is going to high-definition on Sept. 24th, and will have a new news set as well.
Those cosmetic changes will open the door to wider sampling. But will curious viewers find ample reason to keep watching? Unfortunately, CBS11's promotions department isn't likely to get the go-ahead for a campaign underscored by the slogan, "Hey, we're not that way anymore!"
So we'll just have to wait and see.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Mon., Aug. 31-Sept. 3)
09/04/07 10:11 AM
By ED BARK
Truncated or not, NBC5's portion of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon raised a record $3.78 million in D-FW.
Some readers asked, however, why the station yielded to the final round of the Deutsche Bank golf tournament on Labor Day afternoon rather than stay on board with MDA.
The answer is easy enough. NBC5 is owned by the NBC network, which wasn't about to let a Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson duel go unseen in the country's fifth-largest TV market. And the outcry from D-FW viewers would have been far greater had NBC5 stayed with the telethon rather than briefly return to it after the golf tournament ended.
Monday's Nielsen numbers show the telethon averaging a meager .6 rating (14,614 homes) from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Deutsche Bank tournament had almost six times the audience (85,246 homes). Also, the telethon averaged just 2,170 advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds while the golf tournament drew 52,700 of 'em.
Chicago-based superstation WGN stayed with the telethon until 3 p.m. Monday before it, too, yielded to sports programming (the Cubs-Dodgers game at Wrigley Field). Still, MDA raised a record $63.8 million nationally. Could it have been much more with full coverage around the country? We'll never know. But times have changed.
Elsewhere on Labor Day, Texas Tech's drubbing of SMU on ESPN outdrew the golf tournament with an average of 102,295 homes. But CBS' CSI: Miami repeat was the most watched TV attraction of the day (185,106 homes).
In Monday's local news derby, Belo8 won at 10 p.m. in total homes while NBC5 struck back with a first place finish among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m., although the numbers were sharply depressed on a holiday morning when most viewers instead were able to sleep in. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, Fox4 placed first with a measly 11,480 of 'em. Last Thursday, before the holiday weekend began, it led the way with 74,620 viewers in the 25-to-54 demo.
Belo8 won in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, Belo8 and Fox4 shared the lead at both hours.
In Friday's local newscast derby, Belo8 had runaway twin wins at 10 p.m. The ABC station also doubled its pleasure at 6 a.m., with Fox4 sliding to an unaccustomed third place in both ratings measurements.
NBC5 had the best of it otherwise, winning twice at 5 p.m. and also with 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m. Belo8 topped the total homes ratings at 6 p.m.
Truncated or not, NBC5's portion of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon raised a record $3.78 million in D-FW.
Some readers asked, however, why the station yielded to the final round of the Deutsche Bank golf tournament on Labor Day afternoon rather than stay on board with MDA.
The answer is easy enough. NBC5 is owned by the NBC network, which wasn't about to let a Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson duel go unseen in the country's fifth-largest TV market. And the outcry from D-FW viewers would have been far greater had NBC5 stayed with the telethon rather than briefly return to it after the golf tournament ended.
Monday's Nielsen numbers show the telethon averaging a meager .6 rating (14,614 homes) from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Deutsche Bank tournament had almost six times the audience (85,246 homes). Also, the telethon averaged just 2,170 advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds while the golf tournament drew 52,700 of 'em.
Chicago-based superstation WGN stayed with the telethon until 3 p.m. Monday before it, too, yielded to sports programming (the Cubs-Dodgers game at Wrigley Field). Still, MDA raised a record $63.8 million nationally. Could it have been much more with full coverage around the country? We'll never know. But times have changed.
Elsewhere on Labor Day, Texas Tech's drubbing of SMU on ESPN outdrew the golf tournament with an average of 102,295 homes. But CBS' CSI: Miami repeat was the most watched TV attraction of the day (185,106 homes).
In Monday's local news derby, Belo8 won at 10 p.m. in total homes while NBC5 struck back with a first place finish among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
Fox4 had twin wins at 6 a.m., although the numbers were sharply depressed on a holiday morning when most viewers instead were able to sleep in. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, Fox4 placed first with a measly 11,480 of 'em. Last Thursday, before the holiday weekend began, it led the way with 74,620 viewers in the 25-to-54 demo.
Belo8 won in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, Belo8 and Fox4 shared the lead at both hours.
In Friday's local newscast derby, Belo8 had runaway twin wins at 10 p.m. The ABC station also doubled its pleasure at 6 a.m., with Fox4 sliding to an unaccustomed third place in both ratings measurements.
NBC5 had the best of it otherwise, winning twice at 5 p.m. and also with 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m. Belo8 topped the total homes ratings at 6 p.m.