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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Nov. 16) -- A+ for X Factor

By ED BARK
It's not the American Idol-esque juggernaut that vainglorious Simon Cowell had envisioned. But The X Factor is still flexing, particularly with its Wednesday night performance shows.

The latest two-hour edition dominated everything in its path from 7 to 9 p.m., averaging 359,027 D-FW viewers while also running the table with advertiser-preferred 18-to-49-year-olds.

CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation then slipped in to win the 9 p.m. hour in total viewers (257,416) while finishing in a three-way first place tie -- with ABC's Revenge and Law & Order: SVU -- in the 18-to-49 demographic.

In Wednesday's local news derby results, CBS11 took the 10 p.m. prize in total viewers but again fell to fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Fox4 instead rose up to claim its first November "sweeps" win in that key demographic.

Fox4 also swept the 6 a.m. competitions and added a 6 p.m. win with 25-to-54-year-olds.

CBS11 ran first at 6 p.m. in total viewers and tied NBC5 for the 5 p.m. top spot in that measurement. Fox4 and NBC5 shared the 25-to-54 gold at 5 p.m.

WFAA8's 5 p.m. newscasts, absent a 4 p.m. lead-in from Oprah, are steadily dying on the vine. On Wednesday, the syndicated Dr. Oz drew just 33,871 total viewers from 3 to 4 p.m. while CBS11's local newscast led the way with 128,708 viewers. WFAA8's 5 p.m. newscast ended up finishing a distant fourth in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds.

NOTE TO READERS: After seven nights of monitoring, I'm calling it a wrap for this latest ratings "sweeps" edition of "This Just In: A Night in the Lives of D-FW's Late Night Newscasts." Frankly I've seen more than enough to draw these overall impressions.

Fox4's 9 p.m. newscasts need an adrenaline shot. They seem tired of late and lacking in enterprise when it comes to standout reporting from the field. Instead the anchors increasingly tend to dominate the hour with live interviews and narrations.

NBC5 is trying harder and increasingly succeeding. But it's still prone to ridiculous extremes such as leading Tuesday's 10 p.m. edition with news of a brief rainstorm in Southlake.

WFAA8 by and large has the best and most aggressive late night newscasts, but embarrassed itself with a couple of trips to L.A. for innocuous Dancing with the Stars stories.

CBS11 tries to be distinctive, but its local enterprise stories mostly pale in comparison to WFAA8's. There's too often much ado about essentially nothing. Longer, more substantive pieces would help to balance the uptick in anchor banter.

But what do I know?
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