2006
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Dec. 28)
12/29/06 12:32 PM
By ED BARK
Score it as perfect timing for the Dallas Mavericks. Opposite nothing but reruns on all four major networks, the Mavs played and narrowly won a spine-tingling game against the visiting Phoenix Suns and Steve Nash. Net results in Thursday's D-FW Nielsens? Not bad.
Channel 21's telecast of the game (which ran from 7:15 to 9:49 p.m.) drew 133,280 homes. TNT cable's coverage pulled in an additional 59,500 homes locally, landing the Mavs just a bit shy of 200,000 homes for the night. Thursday's most-watched network attraction, a repeat of CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, was seen in 209,400 homes.
Here's a sideline report. Nielsen numbers say that twice as many 18-to-49-year-old men watched the Mavs as women in that advertiser-targeted age group. On the other hand, almost five times as many women than men were viewing ABC's Grey's Anatomy from 8 to 9 p.m. That's the way the ball bounces gender-wise.
The daily local newscast derby found Belo8 faring the best. The ABC station tied NBC5 at 10 p.m. in total homes and placed first outright with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser demographic for news programming.
Belo8 also won at 5 p.m. in both measurements and was first at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 had the top spot in total homes at 6 p.m. while NBC5 again cruised to a pair of comfortable wins at 6 a.m.
Also of note: Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast beat everything except the Mavs in total homes. Network competition at that hour was reruns of ER, Shark and Men in Trees.
Score it as perfect timing for the Dallas Mavericks. Opposite nothing but reruns on all four major networks, the Mavs played and narrowly won a spine-tingling game against the visiting Phoenix Suns and Steve Nash. Net results in Thursday's D-FW Nielsens? Not bad.
Channel 21's telecast of the game (which ran from 7:15 to 9:49 p.m.) drew 133,280 homes. TNT cable's coverage pulled in an additional 59,500 homes locally, landing the Mavs just a bit shy of 200,000 homes for the night. Thursday's most-watched network attraction, a repeat of CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, was seen in 209,400 homes.
Here's a sideline report. Nielsen numbers say that twice as many 18-to-49-year-old men watched the Mavs as women in that advertiser-targeted age group. On the other hand, almost five times as many women than men were viewing ABC's Grey's Anatomy from 8 to 9 p.m. That's the way the ball bounces gender-wise.
The daily local newscast derby found Belo8 faring the best. The ABC station tied NBC5 at 10 p.m. in total homes and placed first outright with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser demographic for news programming.
Belo8 also won at 5 p.m. in both measurements and was first at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 had the top spot in total homes at 6 p.m. while NBC5 again cruised to a pair of comfortable wins at 6 a.m.
Also of note: Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast beat everything except the Mavs in total homes. Network competition at that hour was reruns of ER, Shark and Men in Trees.
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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Dec. 27)
12/28/06 09:39 AM
By ED BARK
NBC's efforts on behalf of Friday Night Lights have been yeoman of late. The Peacock has been running extended promotional spots touting the critically acclaimed, Austin-made drama series as a family show that just happens to mix in a little football action.
"It's about life," says NBC in touting Lights' move to Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on Jan. 10. That said, a three-hour marathon of Lights repeats played dead in D-FW Wednesday night. They lured an average of 61,880 homes from 7 to 10 p.m. against lineups of reruns on rival stations. That's not a good sign, considering that most viewers have never seen Lights in the first place.
Oh well, the reruns gave the fledgling and very slowly growing TXA21 newscast a better chance to get sampled in prime-time. It averaged 36,890 homes from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, compared to a 26,180-homes average in the four-week November "sweeps." Channel 33's nightly local newscast at 9 p.m. drew 45,220 homes while Fox4's news at the same hour had 109,480 homes.
Wednesday's 10 p.m. crown went to Belo8, which won in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
NBC5 placed first in homes at 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., but couldn't prevail with 25-to-54-year-olds in any of those slots. Instead Fox4 won at 6 a.m. while Belo8 was tops in that demo at 5 and 6 p.m.
NBC's efforts on behalf of Friday Night Lights have been yeoman of late. The Peacock has been running extended promotional spots touting the critically acclaimed, Austin-made drama series as a family show that just happens to mix in a little football action.
"It's about life," says NBC in touting Lights' move to Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on Jan. 10. That said, a three-hour marathon of Lights repeats played dead in D-FW Wednesday night. They lured an average of 61,880 homes from 7 to 10 p.m. against lineups of reruns on rival stations. That's not a good sign, considering that most viewers have never seen Lights in the first place.
Oh well, the reruns gave the fledgling and very slowly growing TXA21 newscast a better chance to get sampled in prime-time. It averaged 36,890 homes from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, compared to a 26,180-homes average in the four-week November "sweeps." Channel 33's nightly local newscast at 9 p.m. drew 45,220 homes while Fox4's news at the same hour had 109,480 homes.
Wednesday's 10 p.m. crown went to Belo8, which won in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
NBC5 placed first in homes at 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., but couldn't prevail with 25-to-54-year-olds in any of those slots. Instead Fox4 won at 6 a.m. while Belo8 was tops in that demo at 5 and 6 p.m.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon.-Tues., Dec. 25-26)
12/27/06 01:27 PM
By ED BARK
Christmas Day's Grinch-like Cowboys-Eagles game on NBC had a 28.7 Nielsen rating (683,060 D-FW homes), again obliterating all in its path. That was 1.6 ratings points and 38,080 homes better than the Thanksgiving Day outing against the Buccaneers, which had a far happier outcome.
NBC's subsequent, expanded Christmas night edition of Deal or No Deal feasted on the game's big lead-in audience, averaging 328,440 homes for its two hours.
Another big-money game show, 1 vs. 100, then slipped to 211,820 homes, still good enough to easily win its time period against the concluding hour of Pirates of the Caribbean on ABC. NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast retained that audience in cruising to an easy win in homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
On Tuesday night, CBS' two-hour Kennedy Center Honors special controlled the 8 to 10 p.m. slot with an average of 142,800 homes. The program came and went without Jessica's Simpson's bungled rendition of "Nine to Five" on behalf of honoree Dolly Parton. Simpson asked that it be snipped from the televised presentation, and CBS obliged her.
Belo8 took Tuesday's 10 p.m. news battle in total homes but was nipped by NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock scored twin wins at 6 a.m., with viewing levels well below normal. Fox4 won with 25-to-54-year-olds at both 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Total homes victories at those hours respectively went to NBC5 and Belo8.
Christmas Day's Grinch-like Cowboys-Eagles game on NBC had a 28.7 Nielsen rating (683,060 D-FW homes), again obliterating all in its path. That was 1.6 ratings points and 38,080 homes better than the Thanksgiving Day outing against the Buccaneers, which had a far happier outcome.
NBC's subsequent, expanded Christmas night edition of Deal or No Deal feasted on the game's big lead-in audience, averaging 328,440 homes for its two hours.
Another big-money game show, 1 vs. 100, then slipped to 211,820 homes, still good enough to easily win its time period against the concluding hour of Pirates of the Caribbean on ABC. NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast retained that audience in cruising to an easy win in homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
On Tuesday night, CBS' two-hour Kennedy Center Honors special controlled the 8 to 10 p.m. slot with an average of 142,800 homes. The program came and went without Jessica's Simpson's bungled rendition of "Nine to Five" on behalf of honoree Dolly Parton. Simpson asked that it be snipped from the televised presentation, and CBS obliged her.
Belo8 took Tuesday's 10 p.m. news battle in total homes but was nipped by NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock scored twin wins at 6 a.m., with viewing levels well below normal. Fox4 won with 25-to-54-year-olds at both 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Total homes victories at those hours respectively went to NBC5 and Belo8.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Dec. 21)
12/22/06 10:56 AM
By ED BARK
D-FW viewers apparently just don't like Katie Couric, even when her CBS Evening News has a big hometown angle.
Couric's exclusive interview with Dallasite Karen James, widow of Mt. Hood climber Kelly James, fell flat in the local Nielsens Thursday. It placed a distant fourth at 5:30 p.m., even though the anchor blew in and out of Dallas that morning and devoted the entire second half of her newscast to the James interview. Here's a telescoped look:
NBC Nightly News -- 149,940 homes
Fox4 local news -- 130,900 homes
ABC World News -- 116,620 homes
CBS Evening News -- 73,780 homes
Thursday's Evening News also finished fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for non-entertainment programming. And it ran fifth with 18-to-49-year-olds.
Contrastingly, CBS' second seasonal telecast of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer lit up up the local Nielsens. Rudy took first place from 7 to 8 p.m. in homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, 18-to-49-year-olds and 18-to-34-year-olds.
In the local newscast wars, NBC5 again rang up twin wins at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. The Peacock also won at 5 p.m. in both measurements.
At 6 a.m., NBC5 had a commanding lead in homes and tied with Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demo. Fox4 also had a first place finish at 6 p.m., where it won in homes but fell short of first-place Belo8 with 25-to-54-year-olds.
D-FW viewers apparently just don't like Katie Couric, even when her CBS Evening News has a big hometown angle.
Couric's exclusive interview with Dallasite Karen James, widow of Mt. Hood climber Kelly James, fell flat in the local Nielsens Thursday. It placed a distant fourth at 5:30 p.m., even though the anchor blew in and out of Dallas that morning and devoted the entire second half of her newscast to the James interview. Here's a telescoped look:
NBC Nightly News -- 149,940 homes
Fox4 local news -- 130,900 homes
ABC World News -- 116,620 homes
CBS Evening News -- 73,780 homes
Thursday's Evening News also finished fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for non-entertainment programming. And it ran fifth with 18-to-49-year-olds.
Contrastingly, CBS' second seasonal telecast of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer lit up up the local Nielsens. Rudy took first place from 7 to 8 p.m. in homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, 18-to-49-year-olds and 18-to-34-year-olds.
In the local newscast wars, NBC5 again rang up twin wins at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. The Peacock also won at 5 p.m. in both measurements.
At 6 a.m., NBC5 had a commanding lead in homes and tied with Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demo. Fox4 also had a first place finish at 6 p.m., where it won in homes but fell short of first-place Belo8 with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Dec. 20)
12/21/06 01:38 PM
By ED BARK
So how did Wednesday's late night Dallas Mavericks game do on a day dominated by reruns and low holiday season viewing levels?
Well, the Mavs and Seattle Supersonics on Ch. 21 beat everything in sight from 11 p.m. to midnight. But the first 90 minutes of the game, which started at 9:30 p.m., couldn't outdraw any of D-FW's quartet of 10 p.m. newscasts or the first halves of NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno and CBS' Late Show with David Letterman.
The game overall had a not-bad 4.6 Nielsen rating (109,480 homes). That's about one-eighth the audience for a typical Dallas Cowboys game, but a blockbuster compared to the TV turnout for Wednesday night's Dallas Stars-Mighty Ducks contest on Ch. 27. It averaged an ice-cold 0.2 rating (4,760 homes) from 9 to 11:30 p.m. What's worse, the last hour of the game had "hashmarks" (no measurable audience) in the Nielsen printouts. That's a disastrously bad showing for a sport that increasingly is having a hard time getting any TV exposure at all. Webcasts here we come.
On the local news front, each of the four major providers got at least one candy cane.
CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast edged NBC5's by one-tenth of a point in total homes. But the Peacock won comfortably at that hour with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 also notched a commanding total homes win at 6 a.m., but Belo8's Daybreak nipped it for first place in the 25-54 demo.
The Peacock won in homes at 5 and 6 p.m. Fox4 took the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m. while Belo8 won in that demo at 5 p.m.
On its third night, the new NBC game show Identity rebounded from a mediocre Tuesday to claim first place from 7 to 8 p.m. in homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the main advertiser target for entertainment programming.
So how did Wednesday's late night Dallas Mavericks game do on a day dominated by reruns and low holiday season viewing levels?
Well, the Mavs and Seattle Supersonics on Ch. 21 beat everything in sight from 11 p.m. to midnight. But the first 90 minutes of the game, which started at 9:30 p.m., couldn't outdraw any of D-FW's quartet of 10 p.m. newscasts or the first halves of NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno and CBS' Late Show with David Letterman.
The game overall had a not-bad 4.6 Nielsen rating (109,480 homes). That's about one-eighth the audience for a typical Dallas Cowboys game, but a blockbuster compared to the TV turnout for Wednesday night's Dallas Stars-Mighty Ducks contest on Ch. 27. It averaged an ice-cold 0.2 rating (4,760 homes) from 9 to 11:30 p.m. What's worse, the last hour of the game had "hashmarks" (no measurable audience) in the Nielsen printouts. That's a disastrously bad showing for a sport that increasingly is having a hard time getting any TV exposure at all. Webcasts here we come.
On the local news front, each of the four major providers got at least one candy cane.
CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast edged NBC5's by one-tenth of a point in total homes. But the Peacock won comfortably at that hour with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC5 also notched a commanding total homes win at 6 a.m., but Belo8's Daybreak nipped it for first place in the 25-54 demo.
The Peacock won in homes at 5 and 6 p.m. Fox4 took the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 p.m. while Belo8 won in that demo at 5 p.m.
On its third night, the new NBC game show Identity rebounded from a mediocre Tuesday to claim first place from 7 to 8 p.m. in homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the main advertiser target for entertainment programming.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Dec. 19)
12/20/06 04:07 PM
By ED BARK
D-FW's Fox4 news loves it when competing networks hit rerun cycles. It inflates audiences for the station's homegrown 9 p.m. newscast, which had a big night on Tuesday.
Opposite repeats of CSI: NY, Law & Order: SVU and Boston Legal, Fox4 romped to a first place finish in total homes and with the two key advertiser demographics, 25-to-54-year-olds for news and 18-to-49-year-olds for entertainment programming. That just doesn't happen when CBS, NBC and ABC have original episodes of those series.
The big showing by Fox4's 9 p.m. news (190,400 homes) helped put its 10 p.m. newscast in a stronger position than usual. It placed a close third in both homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, easily outpointing CBS11 in both measurements.
Belo8 won the 10 p.m. competition in homes, but lost to NBC5 with 25-to-54-year-olds. It was the opposite outcome at 6 a.m., with the Peacock prevailing in homes but Belo8 taking first in the 25-to-54-year-old subset.
NBC5 also was tops at 6 p.m. in homes, with Fox4 taking the 25-to-54 race. At 5 p.m., Belo8 won in total homes and tied for first with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
On the entertainment front, NBC's latest big-money game show, Identity, drooped from its strong Monday night premiere. It finished third in homes and second among 18-to-49-year-olds. NBC is running Identity all this week, with illusionist Penn Jillette as ringmaster.
D-FW's Fox4 news loves it when competing networks hit rerun cycles. It inflates audiences for the station's homegrown 9 p.m. newscast, which had a big night on Tuesday.
Opposite repeats of CSI: NY, Law & Order: SVU and Boston Legal, Fox4 romped to a first place finish in total homes and with the two key advertiser demographics, 25-to-54-year-olds for news and 18-to-49-year-olds for entertainment programming. That just doesn't happen when CBS, NBC and ABC have original episodes of those series.
The big showing by Fox4's 9 p.m. news (190,400 homes) helped put its 10 p.m. newscast in a stronger position than usual. It placed a close third in both homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, easily outpointing CBS11 in both measurements.
Belo8 won the 10 p.m. competition in homes, but lost to NBC5 with 25-to-54-year-olds. It was the opposite outcome at 6 a.m., with the Peacock prevailing in homes but Belo8 taking first in the 25-to-54-year-old subset.
NBC5 also was tops at 6 p.m. in homes, with Fox4 taking the 25-to-54 race. At 5 p.m., Belo8 won in total homes and tied for first with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
On the entertainment front, NBC's latest big-money game show, Identity, drooped from its strong Monday night premiere. It finished third in homes and second among 18-to-49-year-olds. NBC is running Identity all this week, with illusionist Penn Jillette as ringmaster.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Dec. 18)
12/19/06 04:12 PM
By ED BARK
Holiday season or not, it's rare for a station to run the table in D-FW's four major local news battlegrounds.
NBC5 did it Monday, though, winning in total homes and with advertiser-preferred 25-to-54-year-olds at 10 p.m., 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. So if the office Christmas party happens to be on a Tuesday, well, good timing.
The Peacock did it the hard way at 10 p.m., inheriting a Scrooge-like 69,020 homes from NBC's 9 p.m. repeat of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. CBS11 got close to three times that many homes (199,920) from the last 15 minutes of CSI: Miami. But its 10 p.m. newscast dipped to 130,900 in finishing second to NBC5's 138,040.
Also of note: Fox4's 9 p.m. news attracted 159,460 homes to finish a strong second for that hour. The station's homegrown newscast generally fares very well against network repeats. And Fox4 gets to collect all the ad revenues, thank you very much.
On the entertainment front, the first night of NBC's Penn Jillette-hosted Identity opened well, winning its 8 to 9 p.m. time slot with 190,400 homes. The big money game show also took the No. 1 spot with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for non-news programming.
Holiday season or not, it's rare for a station to run the table in D-FW's four major local news battlegrounds.
NBC5 did it Monday, though, winning in total homes and with advertiser-preferred 25-to-54-year-olds at 10 p.m., 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. So if the office Christmas party happens to be on a Tuesday, well, good timing.
The Peacock did it the hard way at 10 p.m., inheriting a Scrooge-like 69,020 homes from NBC's 9 p.m. repeat of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. CBS11 got close to three times that many homes (199,920) from the last 15 minutes of CSI: Miami. But its 10 p.m. newscast dipped to 130,900 in finishing second to NBC5's 138,040.
Also of note: Fox4's 9 p.m. news attracted 159,460 homes to finish a strong second for that hour. The station's homegrown newscast generally fares very well against network repeats. And Fox4 gets to collect all the ad revenues, thank you very much.
On the entertainment front, the first night of NBC's Penn Jillette-hosted Identity opened well, winning its 8 to 9 p.m. time slot with 190,400 homes. The big money game show also took the No. 1 spot with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for non-news programming.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Dec. 15-17)
12/18/06 03:28 PM
By ED BARK
Saturday night's Cowboys-Falcons game expectedly dominated a pair of competing Christmas movies, but didn't roll up the score compared to recent telecasts.
Viewers without access to the NFL network, which isn't carried on area Time Warner cable systems, got the simulcast on Ch. 21, where the game had a preliminary 21.5 Nielsen rating (511,700 homes). That's a big number, although the Cowboys are accustomed to much bigger. Last Sunday's game against the Saints on NBC had a 37.3 rating (887,740 homes). The Dec. 3rd game against the Giants also registered in that range.
NBC's Saturday night reprise of It's A Wonderful Life from 7 to 10 p.m. drew 71,400 homes in D-FW. CBS' presentation of Elf (7 to 9 p.m.) attracted 54,740 homes. Both were outdrawn by Fox4's combo of Cops (84,490 homes), America's Most Wanted: America Strikes Back (109,480 homes) and the 9 p.m. local newscast (76,160 homes).
In Friday's local news festivities, Belo8 took the top spots in total homes at 10 p.m., 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. NBC notched another win at 6 a.m.
Ratings for 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming, were not immediately available Monday.
Saturday night's Cowboys-Falcons game expectedly dominated a pair of competing Christmas movies, but didn't roll up the score compared to recent telecasts.
Viewers without access to the NFL network, which isn't carried on area Time Warner cable systems, got the simulcast on Ch. 21, where the game had a preliminary 21.5 Nielsen rating (511,700 homes). That's a big number, although the Cowboys are accustomed to much bigger. Last Sunday's game against the Saints on NBC had a 37.3 rating (887,740 homes). The Dec. 3rd game against the Giants also registered in that range.
NBC's Saturday night reprise of It's A Wonderful Life from 7 to 10 p.m. drew 71,400 homes in D-FW. CBS' presentation of Elf (7 to 9 p.m.) attracted 54,740 homes. Both were outdrawn by Fox4's combo of Cops (84,490 homes), America's Most Wanted: America Strikes Back (109,480 homes) and the 9 p.m. local newscast (76,160 homes).
In Friday's local news festivities, Belo8 took the top spots in total homes at 10 p.m., 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. NBC notched another win at 6 a.m.
Ratings for 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming, were not immediately available Monday.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Dec. 14)
12/15/06 02:10 PM
By ED BARK
It's that most wonderful time of the year, although not for television-watching.
Reruns dominate prime-time, but even first-run programming doesn't do so hot. People rightfully are out and about, shopping, partying and pretty much giving the tube the old heave ho-ho-ho. Not even The Office's new one-hour Christmas special drew much of a crowd in D-FW Thursday night. It ran third in the 7 to 8 p.m. slot in both homes and with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
No prime-time show came close to a double-digit Nielsen rating. In fact, NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast, with an 8.9 mark (211,820 homes), easily was the most-watched program of the day.
NBC5 lately has re-established itself at 10 p.m. after Belo8 had a strong run during the past three weeks. The ABC station endured one of its lowest draws ever at 10 p.m., reaching just 104,720 homes. That put it third in that measurement, and fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime advertiser demographic for non-entertainment programming.
Fox4's Good Day finally perked up a bit, prevailing at 6 a.m. in total homes. But NBC5, which lately has been dominating the early morning throwdowns, again placed first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 claimed most of the day's other spoils, winning in both ratings measurements at 5 and 6 p.m. (with NBC5 tying for first with 25-to-54-year-olds in the latter hour).
Still, it's not a particularly good day for Belo8 when both early evening newscasts attract larger audiences than the station's marquee 10 p.m. show. That's an extreme rarity. Then again, it's Christmastime.
It's that most wonderful time of the year, although not for television-watching.
Reruns dominate prime-time, but even first-run programming doesn't do so hot. People rightfully are out and about, shopping, partying and pretty much giving the tube the old heave ho-ho-ho. Not even The Office's new one-hour Christmas special drew much of a crowd in D-FW Thursday night. It ran third in the 7 to 8 p.m. slot in both homes and with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds.
No prime-time show came close to a double-digit Nielsen rating. In fact, NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast, with an 8.9 mark (211,820 homes), easily was the most-watched program of the day.
NBC5 lately has re-established itself at 10 p.m. after Belo8 had a strong run during the past three weeks. The ABC station endured one of its lowest draws ever at 10 p.m., reaching just 104,720 homes. That put it third in that measurement, and fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime advertiser demographic for non-entertainment programming.
Fox4's Good Day finally perked up a bit, prevailing at 6 a.m. in total homes. But NBC5, which lately has been dominating the early morning throwdowns, again placed first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 claimed most of the day's other spoils, winning in both ratings measurements at 5 and 6 p.m. (with NBC5 tying for first with 25-to-54-year-olds in the latter hour).
Still, it's not a particularly good day for Belo8 when both early evening newscasts attract larger audiences than the station's marquee 10 p.m. show. That's an extreme rarity. Then again, it's Christmastime.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Dec. 13)
12/14/06 03:31 PM
By ED BARK
Here's how poorly ABC's Lost replacement, Day Break, is doing in the D-FW Nielsens.
On Wednesday, Belo8's homegrown 6 to 7 a.m. portion of Daybreak had a larger audience.
Day Break, a Groundhog Day-ish action-drama starring Taye Diggs as a framed police detective, lured just 64,260 homes from 8 to 9 p.m. That was bad enough for fourth in the time period.
Daybreak drew 66,640 homes in finishing third from 6 to 7 a.m.
The Diggs show now is scheduled to be yanked off the air earlier than ABC had planned. No new episodes are scheduled beyond Dec. 27. Of all the season's new serial dramas, Day Break easily has fared the worst.
In the local news arena, Belo8 has hit a mini-slump this week. Its 10 p.m. newscast couldn't overcome a dinky lead-in from ABC's Prime Time Live, finishing a rare third in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime advertiser demographic for non-entertainment programming. NBC5 took the top spots in both measurements, with CBS11 second by virtue of a healthy lead-in from CSI: NY.
NBC5 had two more easy wins at 6 a.m. It also topped Belo8 at 5 p.m. in total homes. The ABC station countered with two wins at 6 p.m., although just two-tenths of a rating point (4,760 homes) separated it from fourth-place CBS11. Belo8 also placed first at 5 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Here's how poorly ABC's Lost replacement, Day Break, is doing in the D-FW Nielsens.
On Wednesday, Belo8's homegrown 6 to 7 a.m. portion of Daybreak had a larger audience.
Day Break, a Groundhog Day-ish action-drama starring Taye Diggs as a framed police detective, lured just 64,260 homes from 8 to 9 p.m. That was bad enough for fourth in the time period.
Daybreak drew 66,640 homes in finishing third from 6 to 7 a.m.
The Diggs show now is scheduled to be yanked off the air earlier than ABC had planned. No new episodes are scheduled beyond Dec. 27. Of all the season's new serial dramas, Day Break easily has fared the worst.
In the local news arena, Belo8 has hit a mini-slump this week. Its 10 p.m. newscast couldn't overcome a dinky lead-in from ABC's Prime Time Live, finishing a rare third in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime advertiser demographic for non-entertainment programming. NBC5 took the top spots in both measurements, with CBS11 second by virtue of a healthy lead-in from CSI: NY.
NBC5 had two more easy wins at 6 a.m. It also topped Belo8 at 5 p.m. in total homes. The ABC station countered with two wins at 6 p.m., although just two-tenths of a rating point (4,760 homes) separated it from fourth-place CBS11. Belo8 also placed first at 5 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Happy Holidays -- um, you're fired
12/13/06 03:24 PM
Reporter Andrea Burnett, who joined NBC5 only last January, is the latest casualty of corporate-mandated downsizing. She's being let go at the end of the year.
Burnett came to NBC5 from KDFX-TV in Wichita Falls. She joins NBC5's Richard "Cash" Sirois, Ramona Logan and Loriana Hernandez in the station's recent or soon-to-be unemployed ranks.
Ed Bark
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Dec. 12)
12/13/06 02:30 PM
By ED BARK
The Grinch again gave back Christmas Tuesday night, but maybe it stole Belo8's newscast ratings as compensation.
The ABC station had uncommonly poor performances at 6 and 10 p.m., with NBC5 and CBS11 instead setting the pace.
First, though, to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which again held up well on ABC as Tuesday night's leadoff hitter. Grinch finished second to CBS' competing NCIS in total homes, but took the No. 1 spot with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for entertainment programming. Alas, an original episode of NBC's Friday Night Lights again got sacked by D-FW viewers. The made-in-Austin high school football saga placed a distant third in homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds.
NBC has given Lights a full-season order and will move it to Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in January. But a lamentable lack of viewer interest, both locally and nationally, is making it very tough for the network to go any further.
Barbara Walters otherwise scored again at 9 p.m. with her yearly compilation of the world's 10 Most Fascinating People. Babs gave Belo8's late night newscast a running start by drawing 180,880 homes in her special's closing 15 minutes. But the 10 p.m. news slipped to 157,080 homes. That let NBC5 snatch victory with 168,980 homes despite a lead-in of only 121,380 homes from the Peacock's Law & Order: SVU.
Belo8 also drooped at 6 p.m., finishing a rare third in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 whistled merry Christmas carols Wednesday after taking first place in both ratings measurements.
NBC5 continued to dominate the early morning ratings with twin victories at 6 a.m. The station's team of Brendan Higgins, Deborah Ferguson, Rebecca Miller and Tammy Dombeck has been running very strong of late while Fox4 suddenly finds itself in a fight with Belo8 for second place.
Belo8 as usual won the 5 p.m. news ratings in both measurements.
The Grinch again gave back Christmas Tuesday night, but maybe it stole Belo8's newscast ratings as compensation.
The ABC station had uncommonly poor performances at 6 and 10 p.m., with NBC5 and CBS11 instead setting the pace.
First, though, to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which again held up well on ABC as Tuesday night's leadoff hitter. Grinch finished second to CBS' competing NCIS in total homes, but took the No. 1 spot with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for entertainment programming. Alas, an original episode of NBC's Friday Night Lights again got sacked by D-FW viewers. The made-in-Austin high school football saga placed a distant third in homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds.
NBC has given Lights a full-season order and will move it to Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in January. But a lamentable lack of viewer interest, both locally and nationally, is making it very tough for the network to go any further.
Barbara Walters otherwise scored again at 9 p.m. with her yearly compilation of the world's 10 Most Fascinating People. Babs gave Belo8's late night newscast a running start by drawing 180,880 homes in her special's closing 15 minutes. But the 10 p.m. news slipped to 157,080 homes. That let NBC5 snatch victory with 168,980 homes despite a lead-in of only 121,380 homes from the Peacock's Law & Order: SVU.
Belo8 also drooped at 6 p.m., finishing a rare third in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming. CBS11 whistled merry Christmas carols Wednesday after taking first place in both ratings measurements.
NBC5 continued to dominate the early morning ratings with twin victories at 6 a.m. The station's team of Brendan Higgins, Deborah Ferguson, Rebecca Miller and Tammy Dombeck has been running very strong of late while Fox4 suddenly finds itself in a fight with Belo8 for second place.
Belo8 as usual won the 5 p.m. news ratings in both measurements.
Emmitt's the beau of the ball at big Dallas charity event
12/12/06 10:39 PM
By ED BARK
His dance partner, Cheryl Burke, canceled at the last minute due to illness. But Emmitt Smith showed up and played the perfect host Tuesday night on behalf of his charitable foundation.
"The pleasure's all mine. All mine," he could be heard saying on more than one occasion to well-heeled potential bidders. The night's grand prize, a private dance lesson from reigning Dancing with the Stars champs Smith and Burke, eventually went to three couples who parted with a total of $80 grand. Another $20,000-plus was raised separately, Smith said.
An invited crowd mingled in close quarters at the Plaza at Turtle Creek with Smith, his wife, Pat, pro football Hall of Famers Marcus Allen and Ronnie Lott, and possible future honorees Michael Irvin and Tim Brown.
Smith's triumphant green dancing costume and shoes were framed for the occasion, and party-goers also could pet the Dancing with the Stars mirror ball trophy. Late in the game, Allen held it aloft and proclaimed, "I want you guys to realize this is gonna be me next year. No way. Just kiddin'."
Maybe Allen should reconsider. Smith, in an interview, said his transformation from bruising running back to Dancing's teddy bear "has opened up a new world of possibilities."
Endorsement-wise, "It's totally shifted the dynamics," he said. "I've wanted to be in this position, and I thought football would do it for me. But in the world of entertainment, you've got a lot more women actively engaged in watching. I guess you could say the phone's been ringing off the hook with opportunities. Now I just have to sit back, make the right decisions and capitalize on it."
All proceeds from Tuesday's event, co-sponsored by Park Place Maserati, went to Emmitt Smith Charities, which currently is helping fund college educations for 19 disadvantaged students. Those who kicked in the big bucks also won a private dinner at The Mansion, an accompanying bottle of Dom Perignon and a night's stay. Allen urged a hard sell when Smith initially went a little easy on potential bidders.
"It's like church, dude," he said. "You've gotta put all the people on the spot. Wash away all your sins."
Amen to that.
Postscript: Shannon Hughes of Mesquite also was at Tuesday night's charity event, where she modeled Stanley Korshak jewelry. In early winter 2005, she placed second in NBC's "reality" show search for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. Should've won. But here's the punchline.
Shannon caught the eye of then Dallas Cowboys' third string quarterback Tony Romo, who asked a sportswriter for The Dallas Morning News to inquire about her availability. The sportswriter than lateraled the ball to me, because I'd interviewed her about the show. Did I think she'd go out with Romo? No, I said, she's engaged and they're already planning the wedding.
I hadn't seen Shannon since, so she'd never heard the story.
"Nope, I was taken," she said, laughing, upon learning what might have been.
Romo since has become one of America's hottest bachelors and Shannon indeed married her high school sweetheart, who's now on his medical residency in Galveston.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Dec. 11)
12/12/06 12:56 PM
By ED BARK
NBC's original Christmas movie, The Year Without a Santa Claus,, went a night without many viewers in D-FW.
The two-hour presentation, starring John Goodman, attracted just 128,520 ho-ho-homes Monday, finishing third from 8 to 10 p.m. behind CBS and ABC. The Peacock's preceding Deal or No Deal, hosted by Ho-Ho-Howie Mandel, drew 226,100 homes to rank as prime-time's most-watched show of the night.
News-wise, NBC5 scored twin wins at 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in both total viewers and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime target audience for advertisers. Belo8 won in both measurements at 5 and 6 p.m.
In the battle among late night entertainment shows, Ch. 33's 11 p.m. to midnight repeats of Friends and Sex & the City again beat the big-monied network talk shows in homes and among 18-to-49-year-olds, the preferred advertiser audience for non-news programming.
At 11:30 p.m., Sex & the City drew 80,920 homes and 54,000 viewers in the 18-to-49-demo, handily beating the first half-hour of NBC's runnerup Late Night with Conan O'Brien (45,220 and 43,500).
NBC's original Christmas movie, The Year Without a Santa Claus,, went a night without many viewers in D-FW.
The two-hour presentation, starring John Goodman, attracted just 128,520 ho-ho-homes Monday, finishing third from 8 to 10 p.m. behind CBS and ABC. The Peacock's preceding Deal or No Deal, hosted by Ho-Ho-Howie Mandel, drew 226,100 homes to rank as prime-time's most-watched show of the night.
News-wise, NBC5 scored twin wins at 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in both total viewers and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime target audience for advertisers. Belo8 won in both measurements at 5 and 6 p.m.
In the battle among late night entertainment shows, Ch. 33's 11 p.m. to midnight repeats of Friends and Sex & the City again beat the big-monied network talk shows in homes and among 18-to-49-year-olds, the preferred advertiser audience for non-news programming.
At 11:30 p.m., Sex & the City drew 80,920 homes and 54,000 viewers in the 18-to-49-demo, handily beating the first half-hour of NBC's runnerup Late Night with Conan O'Brien (45,220 and 43,500).
NBC5 ends Logan's run
12/12/06 09:52 AM
NBC5 veteran Ramona Logan, who both anchored and reported for the station, is another casualty of the Peacock's corporate-mandated downsizing. Logan, who joined NBC5 in 1985 from KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, was let go late last month.
As previously reported, weekend anchor Loriana Hernandez and sports reporter/anchor Richard "Cash" Sirois also are looking for new jobs. And Belo8's longtime Washington correspondent, Jim Fry, likewise is without work in the heart of the holidays. He was laid off last week.
Ed Bark
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Dec. 8-10)
12/11/06 02:35 PM
By ED BARK
We love to watch, even when the Cowboys are getting hammered.
Sunday night's game on NBC averaged 887,740 homes from kickoff to final tick, peaking at 994,840 between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. in the D-FW viewing area. That outdrew last Sunday's Cowboys-Giants game on Fox, which averaged 856,800 homes and topped out at 947,240.
CBS' Without a Trace managed the biggest audience among programs competing directly opposite Dallas and the New Orleans Saints. It lured 176,120 homes, which qualifies as more than a trace.
On Friday night, Christmas chestnuts Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, both on CBS, did well but not great opposite non-holiday programming.
'Dolph placed second in total homes from 7 to 8 p.m., losing to the NBC game show 1 vs 100 but handily beating a Billy Graham special on Belo8. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the target demographic for entertainment programming, 'Dolph tied 1 vs. 100 for first.
Frosty was tops with 18-to-49-year-olds, and finished second in homes behind ABC's Prime Time Live special.
The local news derby again gave Belo8 something to shout about at 10 p.m. where it whipped a lately faltering NBC5 in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the preferred advertiser audience for news.
Belo8 also won in both ratings measurements at 5 and 6 p.m. NBC5 took those races at 6 a.m., with Fox4's Good Day continuing to slump.
We love to watch, even when the Cowboys are getting hammered.
Sunday night's game on NBC averaged 887,740 homes from kickoff to final tick, peaking at 994,840 between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. in the D-FW viewing area. That outdrew last Sunday's Cowboys-Giants game on Fox, which averaged 856,800 homes and topped out at 947,240.
CBS' Without a Trace managed the biggest audience among programs competing directly opposite Dallas and the New Orleans Saints. It lured 176,120 homes, which qualifies as more than a trace.
On Friday night, Christmas chestnuts Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, both on CBS, did well but not great opposite non-holiday programming.
'Dolph placed second in total homes from 7 to 8 p.m., losing to the NBC game show 1 vs 100 but handily beating a Billy Graham special on Belo8. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the target demographic for entertainment programming, 'Dolph tied 1 vs. 100 for first.
Frosty was tops with 18-to-49-year-olds, and finished second in homes behind ABC's Prime Time Live special.
The local news derby again gave Belo8 something to shout about at 10 p.m. where it whipped a lately faltering NBC5 in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the preferred advertiser audience for news.
Belo8 also won in both ratings measurements at 5 and 6 p.m. NBC5 took those races at 6 a.m., with Fox4's Good Day continuing to slump.
Two terminated from Belo Washington Bureau
12/09/06 10:51 AM
Former Belo8 reporter Jim Fry
Veteran Belo8 reporter Jim Fry has been laid off from the station's Washington bureau, sources confirm.
A colleague, Tom Ackerman of Belo-owned KVUE-TV in Austin, also has been let go.
Fry joined Belo8 in 1982 and had been reporting from Washington for more than a decade. His picture is still on wfaa.com, but his station email has been disabled. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ed Bark
CBS11, TXA21 go to Cleveland for news leadership
12/08/06 04:48 PM
By ED BARK
CBS11 and TXA21 will begin the New Year with a new vice president of news.
Greg Easterly, from Fox-owned WJW-TV in Cleveland, was named Friday to replace Tom Doerr, who recently left the station to return to Miami.
Easterly, who has spent the last 10 years at WJW, is described as a "tremendous talent" and "terrific people person" in a memo distributed Friday by CBS11 and TXA21 president and general manager Steve Mauldin. He will "bring a very aggressive approach to our news gathering," Mauldin said.
Easterly is scheduled to join the station in mid-January, two weeks before the February ratings "sweeps" begin. Staffers are anticipating major shakeups in an effort to give CBS11 the push it needs to seriously contend for the No. 1 spot at 10 p.m. Despite a considerable lead-in advantage from CBS entertainment programming, the station placed a lackluster third at 10 p.m. in the November sweeps.
Interim news director Scott Diener will remain in that position until Easterly arrives, Mauldin said.
CBS11 and TXA21 will begin the New Year with a new vice president of news.
Greg Easterly, from Fox-owned WJW-TV in Cleveland, was named Friday to replace Tom Doerr, who recently left the station to return to Miami.
Easterly, who has spent the last 10 years at WJW, is described as a "tremendous talent" and "terrific people person" in a memo distributed Friday by CBS11 and TXA21 president and general manager Steve Mauldin. He will "bring a very aggressive approach to our news gathering," Mauldin said.
Easterly is scheduled to join the station in mid-January, two weeks before the February ratings "sweeps" begin. Staffers are anticipating major shakeups in an effort to give CBS11 the push it needs to seriously contend for the No. 1 spot at 10 p.m. Despite a considerable lead-in advantage from CBS entertainment programming, the station placed a lackluster third at 10 p.m. in the November sweeps.
Interim news director Scott Diener will remain in that position until Easterly arrives, Mauldin said.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Dec. 7)
12/08/06 02:30 PM
By ED BARK
Still slipping at 10 p.m., NBC5 conversely is firming its grip in the early mornings.
Thursday's ratings were another sign of the station's good times/bad times.
In the late night news derby, NBC5 prevailed over a resurgent Belo8 in total homes, but narrowly lost among advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal target audience for news programming. But from 6 to 7 a.m. the Peacock counted coup twice, wiping out its three news competitors in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4's woes continued in the early morning, where it had been a dominant force until a sharp setback in the November "sweeps." Belo8's Daybreak again beat Fox4's Good Day in the 25-to-54-year-old demo. Here's a snapshot of how the top three stations fared with that group:
NBC5 -- 73,502
Belo8 -- 53,713
Fox4 -- 36,751
On the entertainment front, new episodes of NBC's ER, CBS' Shark and ABC's transplanted Men In Trees clashed for the last time this year before mostly reruns take over during the heart of the holiday season.
ER won handily among 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target audience for entertainment programming. But it barely managed a second place finish in total homes (183,260), where it narrowly trailed Shark (192,780) and narrrowly beat Men In Trees (166,600).
Still slipping at 10 p.m., NBC5 conversely is firming its grip in the early mornings.
Thursday's ratings were another sign of the station's good times/bad times.
In the late night news derby, NBC5 prevailed over a resurgent Belo8 in total homes, but narrowly lost among advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal target audience for news programming. But from 6 to 7 a.m. the Peacock counted coup twice, wiping out its three news competitors in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4's woes continued in the early morning, where it had been a dominant force until a sharp setback in the November "sweeps." Belo8's Daybreak again beat Fox4's Good Day in the 25-to-54-year-old demo. Here's a snapshot of how the top three stations fared with that group:
NBC5 -- 73,502
Belo8 -- 53,713
Fox4 -- 36,751
On the entertainment front, new episodes of NBC's ER, CBS' Shark and ABC's transplanted Men In Trees clashed for the last time this year before mostly reruns take over during the heart of the holiday season.
ER won handily among 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target audience for entertainment programming. But it barely managed a second place finish in total homes (183,260), where it narrowly trailed Shark (192,780) and narrrowly beat Men In Trees (166,600).
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Dec. 6)
12/07/06 03:17 PM
By ED BARK
Seems like old times for once dominant Belo8, which lately has been spanking NBC5 in the 10 p.m. news ratings.
The ABC station won again Wednesday in total homes, making it a half-dozen first-place finishes in the last eight weeknights. As noted here before, NBC5's rapid-fire junk-cast of crime, health scares and thinly disguised infomercials might finally be taking a toll on its Nielsen numbers. Whatever's happening, it going to make for a very competitive February "sweeps," with Belo8's 10 p.m. shows getting a blast of Vitamin B from ABC's recent decision to move Lost back an hour to 9 p.m.
Another station is slumping, too. Ratings for Fox4's Good Day have hit a depression in the last month or so, with Belo8's Daybreak now a serious contender for the runnerup spot behind NBC5. On Wednesday, Daybreak again finished second at 6 a.m. in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the target advertiser audience for news programming.
Belo8 won the 5 and 6 p.m. face-offs by comfortable margins in both audience measurements. Maybe it's Dale Hansen wearing a tie, or as weatherman Pete Delkus has called it, a "costume." Station general manager Mike Devlin recently mandated that all reporters and anchors wear ties on-camera, although he exempted Hansen. But the longtime dean of D-FW sports anchors opted to tie the knot anyway. And Belo8 has been winning ever since, which he might want to note on the air.
On the entertainment front, ABC's Lost replacement, Day Break, drew just 88,060 homes Wednesday, losing even to the CW's competing One Tree Hill on Ch. 33 (90,440 homes). ABC will be cutting Day Break's planned 13-episode run short, likely ending the series later this month instead of in late January as originally planned.
At 7 p..m. the latest finale of CW's America's Next Top Model placed a heady second in both homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the preferred advertiser demo for entertainment shows. Model lost only to the return of CBS' King of Queens, which had back-to-back episodes from 7 to 8 p.m.
Also of note: MyNetworkTV's premieres of Wicked Wicked Games and Watch Over Me on Ch. 27 were beaten head-to-head from 7 to 9 p.m. by Ch. 21's TXA 21 local newscast. It outpointed the soaps in both homes and among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Seems like old times for once dominant Belo8, which lately has been spanking NBC5 in the 10 p.m. news ratings.
The ABC station won again Wednesday in total homes, making it a half-dozen first-place finishes in the last eight weeknights. As noted here before, NBC5's rapid-fire junk-cast of crime, health scares and thinly disguised infomercials might finally be taking a toll on its Nielsen numbers. Whatever's happening, it going to make for a very competitive February "sweeps," with Belo8's 10 p.m. shows getting a blast of Vitamin B from ABC's recent decision to move Lost back an hour to 9 p.m.
Another station is slumping, too. Ratings for Fox4's Good Day have hit a depression in the last month or so, with Belo8's Daybreak now a serious contender for the runnerup spot behind NBC5. On Wednesday, Daybreak again finished second at 6 a.m. in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the target advertiser audience for news programming.
Belo8 won the 5 and 6 p.m. face-offs by comfortable margins in both audience measurements. Maybe it's Dale Hansen wearing a tie, or as weatherman Pete Delkus has called it, a "costume." Station general manager Mike Devlin recently mandated that all reporters and anchors wear ties on-camera, although he exempted Hansen. But the longtime dean of D-FW sports anchors opted to tie the knot anyway. And Belo8 has been winning ever since, which he might want to note on the air.
On the entertainment front, ABC's Lost replacement, Day Break, drew just 88,060 homes Wednesday, losing even to the CW's competing One Tree Hill on Ch. 33 (90,440 homes). ABC will be cutting Day Break's planned 13-episode run short, likely ending the series later this month instead of in late January as originally planned.
At 7 p..m. the latest finale of CW's America's Next Top Model placed a heady second in both homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the preferred advertiser demo for entertainment shows. Model lost only to the return of CBS' King of Queens, which had back-to-back episodes from 7 to 8 p.m.
Also of note: MyNetworkTV's premieres of Wicked Wicked Games and Watch Over Me on Ch. 27 were beaten head-to-head from 7 to 9 p.m. by Ch. 21's TXA 21 local newscast. It outpointed the soaps in both homes and among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Dec. 5)
12/06/06 02:50 PM
By ED BARK
Jeepers peepers, how many of you watched the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at 9 p.m. on CBS11 Tuesday night?
In D-FW, it very much depends on whom you ask. Let's look at how the show fared with Nielsen's four major audience groups:
Total Homes
No. 4 with 111, 860. Frontrunner: ABC's Boston Legal (195,160)
25-to-54-Year-Olds
No. 4 with 79,156. Frontrunner: Boston Legal (130,042)
18-to-49-Year-Olds
No. 2 with 87,000. Frontrunner: NBC's Law & Order: SVU (90,000)
18-to-34-Year-Olds
No. 1 with 57,834. Runnerup: Law & Order: SVU (32,130)
In other words, Victoria's Secret and interloper Justin Timberlake delivered the goods for CBS by performing very well with advertiser-coveted younger audiences. Grandpappy Amos might have stolen a look or two, but Madison Avenue could care less.
Meanwhile at 7 p.m., ABC's vintage repeat of Santa Claus is Comin' to Town went to town with viewers of all ages, finishing No. 1 across the board. More 18-to-34-year-olds watched it -- 78,718 -- than watched the Victoria's Secret special. Aren't these ratings fascinating?
In the local news derby, Belo8 continued its strong run of late, winning at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming. Belo8's Daybreak also placed first at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, with NBC5 on top in total homes.
Belo8's newscasts won at 6 p.m. in both audience measurements, and took the 5 p.m. competition with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 was first at 5 p.m. in total homes, scoring a rare victory at that hour.
Jeepers peepers, how many of you watched the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at 9 p.m. on CBS11 Tuesday night?
In D-FW, it very much depends on whom you ask. Let's look at how the show fared with Nielsen's four major audience groups:
Total Homes
No. 4 with 111, 860. Frontrunner: ABC's Boston Legal (195,160)
25-to-54-Year-Olds
No. 4 with 79,156. Frontrunner: Boston Legal (130,042)
18-to-49-Year-Olds
No. 2 with 87,000. Frontrunner: NBC's Law & Order: SVU (90,000)
18-to-34-Year-Olds
No. 1 with 57,834. Runnerup: Law & Order: SVU (32,130)
In other words, Victoria's Secret and interloper Justin Timberlake delivered the goods for CBS by performing very well with advertiser-coveted younger audiences. Grandpappy Amos might have stolen a look or two, but Madison Avenue could care less.
Meanwhile at 7 p.m., ABC's vintage repeat of Santa Claus is Comin' to Town went to town with viewers of all ages, finishing No. 1 across the board. More 18-to-34-year-olds watched it -- 78,718 -- than watched the Victoria's Secret special. Aren't these ratings fascinating?
In the local news derby, Belo8 continued its strong run of late, winning at 10 p.m. in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming. Belo8's Daybreak also placed first at 6 a.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, with NBC5 on top in total homes.
Belo8's newscasts won at 6 p.m. in both audience measurements, and took the 5 p.m. competition with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 was first at 5 p.m. in total homes, scoring a rare victory at that hour.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Dec. 4)
12/05/06 02:57 PM
By ED BARK
Slowly but steadily, Belo 8's local newscasts seem to be regaining some of the strength they once took for granted.
The ABC affiliate's only surefire win is at 5 p.m. But daily local ratings printouts show steady progress at 10 p.m. and some renewed vigor at 6 a.m., where Belo8 has run a distant third for several years.
Monday's results are typical of late. NBC5 and Belo8 each got scant help at 10 p.m. from their respective network lead-ins, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and What About Brian.
The Peacock's Studio 60 delivered a measly 95,200 homes to NBC5, whose newscast jumped to 149,900 homes.
ABC's Brian funneled only 92,820 homes to Belo8, whose newscast jumped to 147,560 homes. That's a virtual tie, which is a better showing than Belo8 would have managed at this time last year. NBC5's nightly crime-fest, sauteed with a variety of worst-case health "alerts," seems to be losing its elasticity. You can only serve this slop for so long, even though Belo8 oftentimes has stooped to play copycat in hopes of catching a foe that's been first in late night news for five years.
The third place finisher at 10 p.m., CBS11, again had a considerable lead-in advantage, even from a repeat of CSI: Miami. But CBS11 as usual failed to hold serve despite putting on a newscast that's D-FW's best on many nights.
Fox4 news rarely gets out of fourth place at 10 p.m. But the station's 9 p.m. local newscast had gangbuster ratings Monday night. In fact, a haul of 209,440 homes made it D-FW's most-watched program of the entire day. That's quite an accomplishment on a night when NBC had firsttrun episodes of both Deal or No Deal and the hot freshman series Heroes.
At 6 a.m., Belo8's Daybreak had another encouraging outing. It tied for second in total homes with Fox4 and placed a close second with advertiser-preferred 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 won the waker-upper hour in homes but dipped to third place among 25-to-54-year-olds, where Fox4 barely prevailed.
Belo8 won in both ratings measurements at 5 and 6 p.m. The latter hour still finds Belo8 vulnerable. Otherwise it's NBC5 that's starting to sweat.
Slowly but steadily, Belo 8's local newscasts seem to be regaining some of the strength they once took for granted.
The ABC affiliate's only surefire win is at 5 p.m. But daily local ratings printouts show steady progress at 10 p.m. and some renewed vigor at 6 a.m., where Belo8 has run a distant third for several years.
Monday's results are typical of late. NBC5 and Belo8 each got scant help at 10 p.m. from their respective network lead-ins, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and What About Brian.
The Peacock's Studio 60 delivered a measly 95,200 homes to NBC5, whose newscast jumped to 149,900 homes.
ABC's Brian funneled only 92,820 homes to Belo8, whose newscast jumped to 147,560 homes. That's a virtual tie, which is a better showing than Belo8 would have managed at this time last year. NBC5's nightly crime-fest, sauteed with a variety of worst-case health "alerts," seems to be losing its elasticity. You can only serve this slop for so long, even though Belo8 oftentimes has stooped to play copycat in hopes of catching a foe that's been first in late night news for five years.
The third place finisher at 10 p.m., CBS11, again had a considerable lead-in advantage, even from a repeat of CSI: Miami. But CBS11 as usual failed to hold serve despite putting on a newscast that's D-FW's best on many nights.
Fox4 news rarely gets out of fourth place at 10 p.m. But the station's 9 p.m. local newscast had gangbuster ratings Monday night. In fact, a haul of 209,440 homes made it D-FW's most-watched program of the entire day. That's quite an accomplishment on a night when NBC had firsttrun episodes of both Deal or No Deal and the hot freshman series Heroes.
At 6 a.m., Belo8's Daybreak had another encouraging outing. It tied for second in total homes with Fox4 and placed a close second with advertiser-preferred 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 won the waker-upper hour in homes but dipped to third place among 25-to-54-year-olds, where Fox4 barely prevailed.
Belo8 won in both ratings measurements at 5 and 6 p.m. The latter hour still finds Belo8 vulnerable. Otherwise it's NBC5 that's starting to sweat.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot: (Fri.-Sun., Dec. 1-3)
12/04/06 02:22 PM
By ED BARK
The Cowboys rolled to another victory and big fat rating Sunday, easily besting their well-stuffed Thanksgiving Day numbers.
A mega-force of 856,800 D-FW homes watched Dallas beat the New York Giants on Fox4. A total of 644,980 homes dined on turkey and the Cowboys-Bucs game.
The rest of the TV world basically took a dirt nap opposite Sunday's mid-afternoon/early evening battle for NFC East supremacy. Over on Belo8, for instance, ABC's presentation of the Cup of Russia figure skating competition attracted a sub-piddling 19,040 homes from 3 to 5 p.m.
Fox also scored with a post-Cowboys BCS championship announcement show, seen in a nice-sized 366,520 homes locally.
On Friday, the continued cold weather continued to pay dividends for the local early morning news shows, all of which exceeded their November "sweeps" averages from 6 to 7 a.m. NBC5 continued to set the pace in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC also tallied comfortable wins at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. Belo8 won those competitions in total homes while taking the 5 p.m. news crowns in both ratings measurements.
The big local news ratings story of late has been Fox4's sudden downturn in the early morning, where its Good Day lately has recorded only a handful of wins. Instead Belo8 has some momentum, gaining ground on second-place Fox4 in both major audience measurements.
Fox4 is being hurt by very slow starts from 5 to 6 a.m., where NBC5's team of Deborah Ferguson and Brendan Higgins commands a consistently large lead over its rivals. The head start makes it tough for Fox4 to close the gap between 6 and 7 a.m., when audiences significantly increase. Its recent decision to put Tim Ryan and Megan Henderson in place an hour earlier has so far made little difference.
Good Day continues to do very well from 7 to 9 a.m., where it again beat the high-priced network morning shows Friday in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Cowboys rolled to another victory and big fat rating Sunday, easily besting their well-stuffed Thanksgiving Day numbers.
A mega-force of 856,800 D-FW homes watched Dallas beat the New York Giants on Fox4. A total of 644,980 homes dined on turkey and the Cowboys-Bucs game.
The rest of the TV world basically took a dirt nap opposite Sunday's mid-afternoon/early evening battle for NFC East supremacy. Over on Belo8, for instance, ABC's presentation of the Cup of Russia figure skating competition attracted a sub-piddling 19,040 homes from 3 to 5 p.m.
Fox also scored with a post-Cowboys BCS championship announcement show, seen in a nice-sized 366,520 homes locally.
On Friday, the continued cold weather continued to pay dividends for the local early morning news shows, all of which exceeded their November "sweeps" averages from 6 to 7 a.m. NBC5 continued to set the pace in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming.
NBC also tallied comfortable wins at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. Belo8 won those competitions in total homes while taking the 5 p.m. news crowns in both ratings measurements.
The big local news ratings story of late has been Fox4's sudden downturn in the early morning, where its Good Day lately has recorded only a handful of wins. Instead Belo8 has some momentum, gaining ground on second-place Fox4 in both major audience measurements.
Fox4 is being hurt by very slow starts from 5 to 6 a.m., where NBC5's team of Deborah Ferguson and Brendan Higgins commands a consistently large lead over its rivals. The head start makes it tough for Fox4 to close the gap between 6 and 7 a.m., when audiences significantly increase. Its recent decision to put Tim Ryan and Megan Henderson in place an hour earlier has so far made little difference.
Good Day continues to do very well from 7 to 9 a.m., where it again beat the high-priced network morning shows Friday in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Drum roll: Introducing the first unclebarky.com local news all-stars
12/01/06 02:57 PM
By ED BARK
It proved to be a long, eye-straining, brain-draining November. Watching a full "sweeps" worth of D-FW 10 p.m. newscasts is not recommended for the faint of commitment.
But what's done is done, and it's been worth the effort. I now have a renewed grasp of what's making news in the country's sixth largest TV market. Too much of it is consultant-induced drivel that isn't worth your time. But that's all been duly documented in the daily dispatches on these pages. Now it's time to acknowledge only the best anchors and reporters working the all-important late night shifts at Fox4, NBC5, Belo8 and CBS11.
This first unclebarky.com All-Star team is made up of those who regularly appeared on 10 p.m. newscasts during the 20 weeknights of the November "sweeps." With anchors, that's easy. It's pretty much the same faces night after night, and many of them have been coming into your homes for a decade or more.
Selecting the team's reporters is a tougher challenge. I've narrowed it down to eight, with the caveat that they had to make at least two appearances to qualify. That makes room for investigative work that takes time to prepare properly. Some of these were very close calls, but the idea was to put together a team of varying skills and ages. Experience counts for a lot but it's also important to replenish the stock with promising and energetic younger reporters.
So here we go. And please feel free to put together your own teams in the comments section.
BEST NEWSCAST
CBS11 has a consistently solid mix of breaking and enterprise stories. It resists responding to virtually every crime committed in the D-FW viewing area. Resorting to flash and trash apparently is the easiest road to ratings prosperity, as a certain station with a Peacock mascot demonstrates night after night. CBS11 sometimes plays that game, too, but it's far more often on the side of the angels. More viewers need to support TV journalism of a higher calling -- before it's too late.
Runnerup: Fox4
ANCHOR TEAM
Tracy Rowlett (CBS11) -- Still the steadiest hand in the business. Authoritative but not authoritarian, he takes the news seriously without being stuffy about it. You won't find a better local anchor anywhere. Consider him D-FW's Walter Cronkite. Solid as a rock, trusty as a Collie.
Clarice Tinsley (Fox4) -- She's nearly Rowlett's equal in terms of tenure, but Tinsley has weathered all of her storms at just one station. She brings a stateswoman's presence to latenight news. Once upon a time she over-sold the news. She's long since matured into a model presenter with a still-strong presence.
David Finfrock (NBC5) -- They say "Arctic Blast," he says "cold front." Immune to gimmickry and overblown pronouncements, Finfrock simply gives you a forecast you can take to the bank. Schooled by local weather legend Harold Taft, he knows his subject and it shows. Don't ever make him change.
Dale Hansen (Belo8) -- Yes, he's a loose cannon, full of bombast and too often fueled by a longheld grudge against the Dallas Cowboys. But he's our Dale, and no one in the market has a more entertaining or distinctive sportscast. Hansen will keep doing it his way until they show him the door. Damned if that's not admirable.
RUNNERSUP
John McCaa (Belo8), Karen Borta (CBS11), Pete Delkus (Belo8), Mike Doocy (Fox4)
REPORTERS (in alphabetical order)
Rebecca Aguilar (Fox4) -- You can always count on a straight story from her. A tenacious, hard-digger with a long history at the station.
Bennett Cunningham (CBS11) --- His on-air flair can be a bit overdone at times, but Cunningham's consumer reports invariably have a sound foundation.
J.D. Miles (CBS11) --- Send him out on anything and he'll deliver the goods. A strong, reliable street reporter.
Shaun Rabb (Fox4) -- He's been at it a long time, and knows the black community inside out. Eminently fair and no longer off-puttingly showy.
George Riba (Belo8) -- He's been reliably covering sports in D-FW for longer than the Mavericks have existed. Still hasn't lost his enthusiasm for going beyond the playing field.
Robert Riggs (CBS11) -- Another combat veteran, literally. He's covered the war in Iraq and brings a serious sense of purpose to whatever else he's digging up.
Shelly Slater (Belo8) -- She's the team's rookie phenom, a newcomer whose talent and imaginative approaches to stories already are readily apparent.
Brandon Todd (Fox4) -- This guy really goes after it, and it shows when his competitors are covering the same story. Expect him to give you a little something the others don't have.
RUNNERSUP
Ginger Allen (CBS11), Derek Castillo (NBC5), Jeff Crilley (Fox4), Jim Douglas (Belo8), Jay Gormley (CBS11), Byron Harris (Belo8)
It proved to be a long, eye-straining, brain-draining November. Watching a full "sweeps" worth of D-FW 10 p.m. newscasts is not recommended for the faint of commitment.
But what's done is done, and it's been worth the effort. I now have a renewed grasp of what's making news in the country's sixth largest TV market. Too much of it is consultant-induced drivel that isn't worth your time. But that's all been duly documented in the daily dispatches on these pages. Now it's time to acknowledge only the best anchors and reporters working the all-important late night shifts at Fox4, NBC5, Belo8 and CBS11.
This first unclebarky.com All-Star team is made up of those who regularly appeared on 10 p.m. newscasts during the 20 weeknights of the November "sweeps." With anchors, that's easy. It's pretty much the same faces night after night, and many of them have been coming into your homes for a decade or more.
Selecting the team's reporters is a tougher challenge. I've narrowed it down to eight, with the caveat that they had to make at least two appearances to qualify. That makes room for investigative work that takes time to prepare properly. Some of these were very close calls, but the idea was to put together a team of varying skills and ages. Experience counts for a lot but it's also important to replenish the stock with promising and energetic younger reporters.
So here we go. And please feel free to put together your own teams in the comments section.
BEST NEWSCAST
CBS11 has a consistently solid mix of breaking and enterprise stories. It resists responding to virtually every crime committed in the D-FW viewing area. Resorting to flash and trash apparently is the easiest road to ratings prosperity, as a certain station with a Peacock mascot demonstrates night after night. CBS11 sometimes plays that game, too, but it's far more often on the side of the angels. More viewers need to support TV journalism of a higher calling -- before it's too late.
Runnerup: Fox4
ANCHOR TEAM
Tracy Rowlett (CBS11) -- Still the steadiest hand in the business. Authoritative but not authoritarian, he takes the news seriously without being stuffy about it. You won't find a better local anchor anywhere. Consider him D-FW's Walter Cronkite. Solid as a rock, trusty as a Collie.
Clarice Tinsley (Fox4) -- She's nearly Rowlett's equal in terms of tenure, but Tinsley has weathered all of her storms at just one station. She brings a stateswoman's presence to latenight news. Once upon a time she over-sold the news. She's long since matured into a model presenter with a still-strong presence.
David Finfrock (NBC5) -- They say "Arctic Blast," he says "cold front." Immune to gimmickry and overblown pronouncements, Finfrock simply gives you a forecast you can take to the bank. Schooled by local weather legend Harold Taft, he knows his subject and it shows. Don't ever make him change.
Dale Hansen (Belo8) -- Yes, he's a loose cannon, full of bombast and too often fueled by a longheld grudge against the Dallas Cowboys. But he's our Dale, and no one in the market has a more entertaining or distinctive sportscast. Hansen will keep doing it his way until they show him the door. Damned if that's not admirable.
RUNNERSUP
John McCaa (Belo8), Karen Borta (CBS11), Pete Delkus (Belo8), Mike Doocy (Fox4)
REPORTERS (in alphabetical order)
Rebecca Aguilar (Fox4) -- You can always count on a straight story from her. A tenacious, hard-digger with a long history at the station.
Bennett Cunningham (CBS11) --- His on-air flair can be a bit overdone at times, but Cunningham's consumer reports invariably have a sound foundation.
J.D. Miles (CBS11) --- Send him out on anything and he'll deliver the goods. A strong, reliable street reporter.
Shaun Rabb (Fox4) -- He's been at it a long time, and knows the black community inside out. Eminently fair and no longer off-puttingly showy.
George Riba (Belo8) -- He's been reliably covering sports in D-FW for longer than the Mavericks have existed. Still hasn't lost his enthusiasm for going beyond the playing field.
Robert Riggs (CBS11) -- Another combat veteran, literally. He's covered the war in Iraq and brings a serious sense of purpose to whatever else he's digging up.
Shelly Slater (Belo8) -- She's the team's rookie phenom, a newcomer whose talent and imaginative approaches to stories already are readily apparent.
Brandon Todd (Fox4) -- This guy really goes after it, and it shows when his competitors are covering the same story. Expect him to give you a little something the others don't have.
RUNNERSUP
Ginger Allen (CBS11), Derek Castillo (NBC5), Jeff Crilley (Fox4), Jim Douglas (Belo8), Jay Gormley (CBS11), Byron Harris (Belo8)
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Nov. 30)
12/01/06 02:30 PM
By ED BARK
Give D-FW newscasts an "Arctic Blast" any time of the year. Hell, they'll even take a lemon chill. That's because the ratings make it seem like Christmas.
Thursday's prime recipients were the early morning news shows, viewed avidly in search of information on school closings, icy roads and whether the world -- shiver -- indeed might be ending. First let's look at the average number of homes tuned to the 6 to 7 a.m. shows for the 20-day November "sweeps," which ended on Wednesday:
NBC5 -- 114,240
Fox4 -- 102,340
Belo8 -- 83,300
CBS11 -- 42,840
Now here's the windfall for Thursday's waker-uppers:
NBC5 -- 218,960
Fox4 -- 204,680
Belo8 -- 173,740
CBS11 -- 61,880
In other words, three of the four stations more than doubled their audiences. And at 3 p.m., NBC5's weather coverage, in place of Ellen, drew more than four times the eyeballs. Take a look:
Ellen at 3 p.m. on NBC5
Sweeps avg. -- 30,940 homes
Thursday's weather special -- 138,040 homes
In prime-time, ABC's Grey's Anatomy easily had its highest D-FW rating of the season. The medical drama reeled in 459,340 homes. Alas, the network's following Men In Trees, making its first Thursday appearance in place of The Nine, went timbe-r-r-r with just 192,780 homes.
The local stations otherwise like b-r-r-r-r just fine.
Give D-FW newscasts an "Arctic Blast" any time of the year. Hell, they'll even take a lemon chill. That's because the ratings make it seem like Christmas.
Thursday's prime recipients were the early morning news shows, viewed avidly in search of information on school closings, icy roads and whether the world -- shiver -- indeed might be ending. First let's look at the average number of homes tuned to the 6 to 7 a.m. shows for the 20-day November "sweeps," which ended on Wednesday:
NBC5 -- 114,240
Fox4 -- 102,340
Belo8 -- 83,300
CBS11 -- 42,840
Now here's the windfall for Thursday's waker-uppers:
NBC5 -- 218,960
Fox4 -- 204,680
Belo8 -- 173,740
CBS11 -- 61,880
In other words, three of the four stations more than doubled their audiences. And at 3 p.m., NBC5's weather coverage, in place of Ellen, drew more than four times the eyeballs. Take a look:
Ellen at 3 p.m. on NBC5
Sweeps avg. -- 30,940 homes
Thursday's weather special -- 138,040 homes
In prime-time, ABC's Grey's Anatomy easily had its highest D-FW rating of the season. The medical drama reeled in 459,340 homes. Alas, the network's following Men In Trees, making its first Thursday appearance in place of The Nine, went timbe-r-r-r with just 192,780 homes.
The local stations otherwise like b-r-r-r-r just fine.
Male delivery: not so much with TV news
11/30/06 10:43 PM
By ED BARK
Men aren't big news eaters. That's what the November "sweeps" ratings tell us about D-FW's 10 p.m. late shows.
Ergo, that's why you see so many stories on shopping, cosmetics and cosmetic treatments, particularly on the two leaders of the pack, NBC5 and Belo8.
It's not for nothing that NBC5 reporter Brian Curtis took viewers on so many infomercial-esque bargain hunts. Or that Belo8 anchor Gloria Campos teased, "It's no stretch to say women hate stretch marks. Many try without much luck to rub them away with creams, Vitamin E oil or cocoa butter. But finally stretch marks may have met their match."
Nielsen Media Research numbers lay out the viewing disparities. Let's look at the key advertiser target audience for news, 25-to-54-year-olds.
Women in that age group turned out in big numbers for the 10 p.m. newscasts on NBC5, Belo8, CBS11 and Fox4. The combined average audience per night -- 273, 446 women within the 25-to-54-year-old demographic. Among women 18-to-49 years of age, the number is 241,187.
Guys 25-to-54 don't exactly boycott the late news. But the disparity is striking. Nielsen says that an average of 177,907 men in that age group sat still for one of the local 10 p.m. newscasts. That's nearly 100,000 fewer Kens than Barbies. In the 18-to-49-year-old demo, 161,679 watched.
Sweeps breakdowns for area cable viewing aren't available, but it's a safe bet that lots of men are watching Sportscenter or a game in progress at 10 p.m. When alternatives are fewer, the gender gap lessens. The local stations' quartet of 6 to 7 a.m. news programs is a good example.
An average of 116,784 women aged 25-to-54 watched during the November sweeps, compared to 91,123 men in that demographic.
The 18-to-49-year-old numbers look like this: Women -- 106,855. Men -- 92,612.
There's a big gender gap in the morning on Belo8's Daybreak, which finished third in the November "sweeps" among all 25-to-54-year-olds. But Daybreak was the No. 1 draw with women in that group, edging NBC5's morning show. Daybreak barely registered with men, though, finishing a distant third and barely ahead of CBS11.
All in all, men just don't watch as much TV as women. An exception, though, is Jerry Springer. The 2 p.m. edition of his show on Ch. 33 draws more than twice as many males than females, say the D-FW Nielsens.
We know what we like.
NBC5 sports department down to a twosome
11/30/06 03:26 PM
By ED BARK
NBC5's already smallish sports staff was further downsized this week with the layoff of reporter Richard "Cash" Sirois and the departure of the executive sports producer to ESPN. The weekend producer earlier quit and wasn't replaced.
That leaves anchor Newy Scruggs and part-time sports reporter Derek Castillo, whose most visible contribution is the station's Friday night high school football segment.
Ongoing corporate-mandated layoffs have left NBC-owned Channel 5's sports department "torn apart" in the words of a station staffer who requested anonymity.
Scruggs has been struggling to keep his chin up of late. His nightly two-minute segments on NBC5's 10 p.m. newscasts are roughly three-fifths the time his competitors get on Fox4, Belo8 and CBS11. And NBC5 is the only station in D-FW to split its sports segment with an elongated commercial break that lasts far longer than the sports segment itself.
On Wednesday's 10 p.m. newscast, which marked the close of the November "sweeps," Scruggs was squeezed out entirely by elongated "Arctic Blast" coverage. Meanwhile, Fox4's Mike Doocy, Belo8's Dale Hansen and CBS11's Babe Laufenberg had their usual segments that night.
NBC5's already smallish sports staff was further downsized this week with the layoff of reporter Richard "Cash" Sirois and the departure of the executive sports producer to ESPN. The weekend producer earlier quit and wasn't replaced.
That leaves anchor Newy Scruggs and part-time sports reporter Derek Castillo, whose most visible contribution is the station's Friday night high school football segment.
Ongoing corporate-mandated layoffs have left NBC-owned Channel 5's sports department "torn apart" in the words of a station staffer who requested anonymity.
Scruggs has been struggling to keep his chin up of late. His nightly two-minute segments on NBC5's 10 p.m. newscasts are roughly three-fifths the time his competitors get on Fox4, Belo8 and CBS11. And NBC5 is the only station in D-FW to split its sports segment with an elongated commercial break that lasts far longer than the sports segment itself.
On Wednesday's 10 p.m. newscast, which marked the close of the November "sweeps," Scruggs was squeezed out entirely by elongated "Arctic Blast" coverage. Meanwhile, Fox4's Mike Doocy, Belo8's Dale Hansen and CBS11's Babe Laufenberg had their usual segments that night.
NBC5, Belo8 and Fox4 with an asterisk take top news ratings prizes
11/30/06 01:38 PM
By ED BARK
(copyright unclebarky.com)
NBC5 extended its 10 p.m. "sweeps" winning streak, but not without a strong challenge from Belo8 in the just-concluded November ratings game.
The Peacock took the total homes battle by just two-tenths of a rating point (4,760 homes), averaging an 8.7 rating to Belo8's 8.5. The ABC station won Wednesday's climactic 10 p.m. "Arctic Blast" showdown by a solid two ratings points over NBC5. Had the cold weather frenzy kicked in a few nights earlier, Belo8 might well have caught the reigning champ, which hasn't lost at 10 p.m. since the November 20001 "sweeps." Counting the February and May competitions, that's 15 consecutive sweeps wins stretching over five years.
NBC5 won by a comparatively comfortable margin at 10 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds, which all four major local news stations say is the prime target audience for news programming. The Peacock also took the 6 a.m. ratings crowns in both audience measurements, defeating archrival Fox4.
Belo8 had an easy time winning the 5 p.m. news competition in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. At 6 p.m., it turned back a strong challenge from CBS11 in total homes but ran second to Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4's 6 p.m. ratings in the latter measurement are inflated, though, by a huge lead-in audience from the Thanksgiving Day Dallas Cowboys-Tampa Bay Bucs game. That day's delayed 6 p.m. newscast had a gargantuan 13.2 rating in the 25-54 demo (373,164 persons). For the entire 20-day "sweeps" period, Fox4 averaged a 2.8 rating (79,156 persons) among 25-to-54-year-olds. Belo8 had been in a close three-way battle with Fox4 and NBC5 before the Cowboys boost kicked in.
In other D-FW sweeps results:
***Fox4's extended 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Good Day beat the three high-priced network morning shows among 25-to-54-year-olds. ABC's Good Morning America edged Good Day in total homes, though, with NBC's Today lagging in third and the CBS Early Show a very distant fourth.
***The syndicated Regis & Kelly on Fox4 narrowly outpointed a tough field at 9 a.m. in both homes and 18-to-49-year-olds, the target advertiser audience for non-news programming. Belo8's homegrown Good Morning Texas finished second in a grouping that also included Rachael Ray on CBS11, the last hour of NBC's Today and Jerry Springer (Ch. 33).
***Wheel of Fortune on CBS11 handily won in total homes at 6:30 p.m., but was nipped in the 18-to-49-year-old demo by Entertainment Tonight on Belo8.
***The Oprah Winfrey Show on Belo8 continued its reign at 4 p.m., easily beating runnerup Judge Judy on Fox4
***In her first sweeps test, Katie Couric's CBS Evening News ran third at 5:30 p.m in total homes, but was just six-tenths of a rating point (14,280 homes) behind Brian Williams' runnerup NBC Nightly News. ABC's World News, anchored by Charles Gibson won comfortably in homes, but was edged by both the NBC Nightly News and Fox4's local newscast among 25-to-54-year-olds. The CBS Evening News slipped to fourth place in that demographic.
Here are the complete results in the four major local newscast competitions:
10 p.m.
Homes
NBC5 -- 207,060
Belo8 -- 202,300
CBS11 -- 149,940
Fox4 -- 97,580
25-to-54-Year-Olds
NBC5 -- 166,793
Belo8 -- 132,869
CBS11 -- 81,983
Fox4 -- 65,021
6 a.m.
Homes
NBC5 -- 114,240
Fox4 -- 102,340
Belo8 -- 83,300
CBS11 -- 42,840
25-to-54-Year-Olds
NBC5 -- 67,848
Fox4 -- 62,194
Belo8 -- 50,886
CBS11 -- 25,443
5 p.m.
Homes
Belo8 -- 147,560
NBC5 -- 111,860
Fox4 -- 95,200
CBS11 -- 76,160
25-to-54-Year-Olds
Belo8 -- 67,848
NBC5 -- 56,540
Fox4 -- 48,059
CBS11 -- 26,180
6 p.m.
Homes
Belo8 -- 147,560
CBS11 -- 138,040
NBC5 -- 114,240
Fox4 -- 107,100
25-to-54-Year-Olds
Fox4 -- 79,156
Belo8 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 59,367
CBS11 -- 50,886
(copyright unclebarky.com)
NBC5 extended its 10 p.m. "sweeps" winning streak, but not without a strong challenge from Belo8 in the just-concluded November ratings game.
The Peacock took the total homes battle by just two-tenths of a rating point (4,760 homes), averaging an 8.7 rating to Belo8's 8.5. The ABC station won Wednesday's climactic 10 p.m. "Arctic Blast" showdown by a solid two ratings points over NBC5. Had the cold weather frenzy kicked in a few nights earlier, Belo8 might well have caught the reigning champ, which hasn't lost at 10 p.m. since the November 20001 "sweeps." Counting the February and May competitions, that's 15 consecutive sweeps wins stretching over five years.
NBC5 won by a comparatively comfortable margin at 10 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds, which all four major local news stations say is the prime target audience for news programming. The Peacock also took the 6 a.m. ratings crowns in both audience measurements, defeating archrival Fox4.
Belo8 had an easy time winning the 5 p.m. news competition in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. At 6 p.m., it turned back a strong challenge from CBS11 in total homes but ran second to Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4's 6 p.m. ratings in the latter measurement are inflated, though, by a huge lead-in audience from the Thanksgiving Day Dallas Cowboys-Tampa Bay Bucs game. That day's delayed 6 p.m. newscast had a gargantuan 13.2 rating in the 25-54 demo (373,164 persons). For the entire 20-day "sweeps" period, Fox4 averaged a 2.8 rating (79,156 persons) among 25-to-54-year-olds. Belo8 had been in a close three-way battle with Fox4 and NBC5 before the Cowboys boost kicked in.
In other D-FW sweeps results:
***Fox4's extended 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Good Day beat the three high-priced network morning shows among 25-to-54-year-olds. ABC's Good Morning America edged Good Day in total homes, though, with NBC's Today lagging in third and the CBS Early Show a very distant fourth.
***The syndicated Regis & Kelly on Fox4 narrowly outpointed a tough field at 9 a.m. in both homes and 18-to-49-year-olds, the target advertiser audience for non-news programming. Belo8's homegrown Good Morning Texas finished second in a grouping that also included Rachael Ray on CBS11, the last hour of NBC's Today and Jerry Springer (Ch. 33).
***Wheel of Fortune on CBS11 handily won in total homes at 6:30 p.m., but was nipped in the 18-to-49-year-old demo by Entertainment Tonight on Belo8.
***The Oprah Winfrey Show on Belo8 continued its reign at 4 p.m., easily beating runnerup Judge Judy on Fox4
***In her first sweeps test, Katie Couric's CBS Evening News ran third at 5:30 p.m in total homes, but was just six-tenths of a rating point (14,280 homes) behind Brian Williams' runnerup NBC Nightly News. ABC's World News, anchored by Charles Gibson won comfortably in homes, but was edged by both the NBC Nightly News and Fox4's local newscast among 25-to-54-year-olds. The CBS Evening News slipped to fourth place in that demographic.
Here are the complete results in the four major local newscast competitions:
10 p.m.
Homes
NBC5 -- 207,060
Belo8 -- 202,300
CBS11 -- 149,940
Fox4 -- 97,580
25-to-54-Year-Olds
NBC5 -- 166,793
Belo8 -- 132,869
CBS11 -- 81,983
Fox4 -- 65,021
6 a.m.
Homes
NBC5 -- 114,240
Fox4 -- 102,340
Belo8 -- 83,300
CBS11 -- 42,840
25-to-54-Year-Olds
NBC5 -- 67,848
Fox4 -- 62,194
Belo8 -- 50,886
CBS11 -- 25,443
5 p.m.
Homes
Belo8 -- 147,560
NBC5 -- 111,860
Fox4 -- 95,200
CBS11 -- 76,160
25-to-54-Year-Olds
Belo8 -- 67,848
NBC5 -- 56,540
Fox4 -- 48,059
CBS11 -- 26,180
6 p.m.
Homes
Belo8 -- 147,560
CBS11 -- 138,040
NBC5 -- 114,240
Fox4 -- 107,100
25-to-54-Year-Olds
Fox4 -- 79,156
Belo8 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 59,367
CBS11 -- 50,886
This just in: a night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Tues., Nov. 28)
11/29/06 04:29 PM
By ED BARK
D-FW weathercasters and anchors all took their chill pills Tuesday night, warning viewers to brace for that most wonderful time of the year -- an "Arctic Blast."
That's the universally accepted term now on all four major news stations, with a little "Wintry Mix" added for good measure.
Of course it' could get lots better for those yearning to see a shivering nightbeat reporter pull a Valerie Williams. She's the former Belo8 reporter who found herself barely able to talk while doing a frigid weather standup in the 1990s. Chortling anchors Tracy Rowlett and the late Chip Moody loved it, figuratively throwing snowballs at her by asking more questions after she tried to sign off.
Williams did a lot of award-winning work during her time at Belo8, but this is the one image that sticks. Records are made to be broken, though, so maybe Belo8's newest lady of the night, Chris Hawes, can give viewers something to remember if the temperatures indeed plunge to sub-freezing in the next few days.
Anchor Karen Borta got things off to a rousing start on CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast.
"You've got about one more day to get ready for the arctic blast," she warned viewers before reporter Joel Thomas reported in shirtsleeves from downtown Fort Worth. Appearances are misleading, though, because "the big one" is coming, promised a weather official.
NBC5 anchor Mike Snyder promised "a blast of icy arctic air" before yielding to calmer, cooler David Finfrock, who never has a blast with his weathercasts. Finfrock throttled down to "cold front" in preparing North Texans for a sharp drop in temps.
Belo8 anchor Gloria Campos tried "bitter blast" on for size. Meteorologist Pete Delkus, who was used to far worse in his previous venue, Cincinnati, played along in his weather segment.
"Look at this arctic blast sliding in," he said as his weather map magically showed an arctic blast sliding in. Delkus sprinkled in some "wintry mix," too, and even raised the spectre of a "hard freeze." But he also "covered my butt," as he put it, by advising that a change in the storm track could keep the area dry but still cold.
Fox4 weather guy Dan Henry had "Arctic Blast" plastered in big bold letters. He then warned of a possible "Triple Threat" -- namely arctic air, severe storms and heavy winds. Reporter Brandon Todd earlier ran down various cold weather preparations. Fire wood sales are up, de-icing trucks are ready and outdoor water faucets are being capped with insulators. In the North Country, it's known as a nice spring day.
Other news butted in on this penultimate night of the 20-day November "sweeps."
Fox4 veteran Shaun Rabb was the only reporter to do anything of note with the Rev. Jesse Jackson's call to ban the n-word under all circumstances. He visited Dallas on Tuesday to spread the word about his latest initiative.
Rabb followed up by interviewing young blacks who said they now were thinking twice about using the n-word after comedian Michael Richards' recent racial tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club. A white student at predominantly black Paul Quinn College told Rabb he's often called the n-word but doesn't respond in kind because it would be deemed racist coming from him.
On Belo8, newcomer Shelly Slater had a lengthy piece on the "Mean Girls" phenomenon. "Bullying is big," she told viewers, who then got the chance to see not one, not two, not three, but four Shellys simultaneously on-screen.
How so? Slater, standing before a still shot of high school hallway lockers, used herself to illustrate how one meanie had told all but one member of her clique to dress in white. While talking, she evolved into three Shellys in white and then a lone outcast Shelly in black. It actually worked pretty well, but once is enough.
Belo8 reporter Dan Ronan had far more new information than rival stations on the much-chronicled Albert Sterling "murder-for-hire" plot, in which he allegedly commissioned a hitman to kill his pregnant wife. The hitman instead squealed on Sterling, who is being extradited from New Mexico. But Sterling's attorney told Ronan that the guy in fact is a thief who invented a cover story after being caught. We'll see.
CBS11's Sarah Dodd, set to become Dallas police chief David Kunkle's fifth wife on Dec. 8, scored an exclusive one-on-one with incoming Dallas County district attorney Craig Watkins, a huge upset winner earlier this month. Watkins didn't say all that much, but it's a notch on the reporter's belt before her off-camera life changes dramatically.
NBC5 had a scoop, too, courtesy of dogged night creature Scott Gordon. Anchor Jane McGarry teased it with typical NBC5 understatement.
"An eerie story," she said. "Thieves forced a North Texas family from their home. Tonight we have an eerie crime alert from Frisco."
Did we mention the story was eerie?
Gordon played along, telling McGarry that "the plot is straight out of a horror movie."
Basically, a man on a business trip had his car stolen at the airport after leaving his keys in it. An undercover police officer then learned that the thief intended to use the keys to burglarize the man's home, where his wife and three young daughters also resided. They were relocated to a neighbor's house, and police later arrested the culprit, who headed a luxury car theft ring known as "Operation Dough Boy."
Belo8's Hawes reported on the same theft ring, but Gordon had the personal touches that literally brought the story home.
Tuesday night's howler came from a reliable provider, NBC5 reporter Brian Curtis. His "Filthy Feet" story got a creepy buildup from anchor Snyder, who said, "You know, many of us take off our shoes to go through the airport security. Some of us even go b-a-a-arefoot. But as we are about to learn, that barefoot stuff is a health hazard."
A doctor agreed, telling Curtis that the "disgusting" practice can spread athlete's foot, nail fungus, etc. As an alternative, passengers should either keep their socks on or wear disposable foot covers provided by most airports. Curtis then laid it on real thick.
"Mom always told you to wear clean underwear," he said. "Now there's something else you should add to the list."
Oh shaddup.
Epilogue: NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs, who gets a far shorter segment than Dale Hansen, Mike Doocy or Babe Laufenberg, received an extra 30 seconds beyond his usual skimpy two minutes Tuesday night. That still left him about 45 seconds shy of his rivals. But Scruggs did get a chance to throw in a brief commentary on how high school football players are getting "way too polished" in their media interviews. He also got to use one of his starved-for-air sports reporters, Cash Sirois.
Was it coincidental that Scruggs got the additional time on the same day unclebarky.com detailed his unhappiness with the situation? It would be pretty to think so.
Unlike Monday night, Scruggs ended his sportscast with a big smile. But his small gain left NBC5 without enough time to do the usual brief "kicker" story before giving way to the Tonight Show.
Instead, McGarry quickly blurted, "For all of us at NBC5, thanks for being with us."
Snyder, who usually gets the last word, instead could be seen biting his lip. He looked almost as unhappy as Scruggs did the night before.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Nov. 28)
11/29/06 04:28 PM
By ED BARK
Barring a big meltdown on what's expected to be a cold night Wednesday, NBC5 has clinched a narrow victory over Belo8 in the 10 p.m. newscast ratings.
The Peacock's Tuesday night win, although a narrow one, slowed Belo8's momentum in the late night race. NBC5 already has a firm grip on first place among advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds. But in total homes, it had led the ABC station by just three-tenths of a rating point (7,140 homes) with two nights left in the November sweeps, which end on Wednesday. NBC hasn't lost a sweeps race at 10 p.m. since November, 2001. The other sweeps months are February and May.
Belo8 otherwise had a great day Tuesday, particularly at 6 a.m. It's Daybreak usually lags in third place behind NBC5 and Fox4. But Daybreak took the No. 1 spot in both early morning ratings measurements. Belo8's newscasts also won across the board at 5 and 6 p.m., and at the latter hour the ABC station seemingly has wrapped up a close win over CBS11 in total homes.
On the entertainment front, the new ABC comedy Big Day looks as though it's DOA, at least in D-FW. The network's preceding Charlie Brown Christmas drew 178,500 homes, with Big Day then dipping to just 92,820. That mired it in fourth place from 8 to 8:30 p.m. in both homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for non-news programming.
Another newbie, CBS' 3 Lbs. medical series, also doesn't look as though it can carry its weight. It likewise lagged in fourth-place from 9 to 10 p.m., with Fox4's third-place local newscast still drawing more than twice the crowd for 3lbs.
Barring a big meltdown on what's expected to be a cold night Wednesday, NBC5 has clinched a narrow victory over Belo8 in the 10 p.m. newscast ratings.
The Peacock's Tuesday night win, although a narrow one, slowed Belo8's momentum in the late night race. NBC5 already has a firm grip on first place among advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds. But in total homes, it had led the ABC station by just three-tenths of a rating point (7,140 homes) with two nights left in the November sweeps, which end on Wednesday. NBC hasn't lost a sweeps race at 10 p.m. since November, 2001. The other sweeps months are February and May.
Belo8 otherwise had a great day Tuesday, particularly at 6 a.m. It's Daybreak usually lags in third place behind NBC5 and Fox4. But Daybreak took the No. 1 spot in both early morning ratings measurements. Belo8's newscasts also won across the board at 5 and 6 p.m., and at the latter hour the ABC station seemingly has wrapped up a close win over CBS11 in total homes.
On the entertainment front, the new ABC comedy Big Day looks as though it's DOA, at least in D-FW. The network's preceding Charlie Brown Christmas drew 178,500 homes, with Big Day then dipping to just 92,820. That mired it in fourth place from 8 to 8:30 p.m. in both homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for non-news programming.
Another newbie, CBS' 3 Lbs. medical series, also doesn't look as though it can carry its weight. It likewise lagged in fourth-place from 9 to 10 p.m., with Fox4's third-place local newscast still drawing more than twice the crowd for 3lbs.
This just in: a night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Mon., Nov. 27)
11/28/06 06:34 PM
By ED BARK
Dallas-Fort Worth is sports-crazed, right? We can't get enough of the Cowboys, Mavericks, etc.
One big-time local TV sports anchor is losing that argument -- big-time. And every now and then Newy Scruggs of NBC5 goes a bit public with the fact that his three rivals all get lots more time at 10 p.m. than he does. The disparity has been noted previously in these columns, with Scruggs responding via email, "Thanks. Finally somebody said it for me."
He doesn't want to go any further, and there's no intent here to put him out on a limb. But Scruggs did go ahead and make a point on Monday's 10 p.m. newscast. He did so with a simple statement of fact that spoke volumes. "That's my two minutes of sports," he told viewers. "We'll be right back with more news."
"New Dawg," as he's sometimes called, had a hangdog look on his face. And there was no joy in Mudville when he somberly sat to the left of anchor Mike Snyder after the nightly light "kicker" story put the newscast to bed.
Let's look at precisely what Scruggs is up against while also noting that NBC5 is still clinging to the overall No. 1 spot at 10 p.m. in the face of a closing charge by Belo8, which won handily in Monday night's Nielsens.
Here's what a stopwatch shows. Scruggs, the only anchor to have his sports segment split in two, got 59 seconds in the first half. Make that one minute, four seconds if you count the tease he had to read for the Dallas Stars game footage in his second half.
Then came 3 minutes, 36 seconds worth of commercials and promotions, allowing Scruggs ample time to take a run around the station building if he chose. He then got 59 more seconds to mop up, excluding the three seconds it took for him to flog "more news" at the butt-end of his segment. What was that news? A quick hit on a Dallas hotel selling off its old fixtures during a major renovation.
Unlike his peers, Scruggs doesn't get any time to banter with his fellow anchors. Not that you'd really want to when Snyder's pretty much your only recourse. But byplay can be a big part of the sports segments on Fox4, Belo8 and CBS11. It makes the athletic supporters feel included and important, not that Belo8's Dale Hansen would ever fear otherwise.
Over on CBS11, sports anchor Babe Laufenberg basked in a league-leading 3 minute, 23 second sports spot. It gives him a chance to flesh things out, have a little fun and actually use his reporters in the field. Scruggs, who has a vibrant personality, just doesn't have enough time to do any of that. If he clears his throat, he loses about one-twentieth of his segment.
Hansen got three minutes, 20 seconds. That provided enough time for reporter George Riba's interesting story on the adversity overcome by Allen's injury-wracked high school football team, which is still in the playoffs. We're not even including anchor Gloria Campos' pre-game warmup, in which she asked, "Are you a Romosexual?" This supposedly is a new urbandictionary.com word for infatuation with Cowboys QB Tony Romo.
Fox4's Mike Doocy had three minutes, 15 seconds to show and tell, even though his station's 10 p.m. newscast is five minutes shorter than the others. In a happy talk close that flowed naturally, he asked anchor Clarice Tinsley how to pronounce "Poinsettia" after noting that TCU's football team is going to a bowl game of that name.
She gave him a quick My Fair Lady lesson, prompting Doocy to acknowledge that he'd just managed to say it wrong in two different ways. These are the kinds of natural unscripted moments that actually work to the benefit of a newscast. But Scruggs wouldn't know because he's not allowed to come out and play. Simply put, the station is wasting him.
NBC5 otherwise found time Monday night to sprint through 36 "stories," including of course, a purse snatching. Crime, tragedy and ridiculous health or consumer reports suck up virtually all of this air. Do viewers watch simply to get a good laugh? Otherwise, how to explain?
Two NBC5 health reports vied for the biggest hoo-hahs Monday night. Kristi Nelson solemnly told viewers about "Desk Rage," which can occur when people are frustrated with their jobs.
"It can lead to poor productivity," she said before turning to the wisdom of Dr. Mauricio Papini. All in all, "Specialists say anger is normal," Nelson concluded. "But don't let it ruin you."
Anchor Jane McGarry then might have brought your house down with her tease of Meredith Land's probing report on protruding stomachs. Here it is, verbatim: "Well, battling belly budge, er, bulge, means staying away from the bar and picking up the barbells. But a new pill is promising to beat bloat and tighten your tummy."
A nice selection of sculpted women in bikinis then interceded before Land clued viewers to a new "Flat Stomach pill" that of course isn't yet approved by the FDA. Cue another bikini shot. That's a wrap.
Belo8 anchor Gloria Campos weighed in with her own slip of the tongue while introducing Debbie Denmon's hard-hitting piece on ... well ... let her try to tell it.
"They are embarrassing, unslightly (sic), and it's no stretch to say women hate stretch marks," Campos informed viewers. "Many try without much luck to rub them away with creams, Vitamin E oil or cocoa butter. But finally stretch marks might have met their match."
Denmon then reported on two different outpatient techniques that cost between $175 to $600 a pop.
"Sounds like about 10 sessions for you and I, Pete," anchor John McCaa quipped to weathercaster Pete Delkus.
CBS11's Shannon Hori got caught in this net, too, with a story on how eating heart-healthy foods such as beans can both unclog arteries and make you "feel more frisky" in the ol' sackeroo.
Hori looked more than frisky during her standup at a grocery store. In fact she looked alluringly ready for a Victoria's Secret runway walk in heavy makeup and a cute 'n' flimsy negligee top. A little horn music and candlelight imagery helped her bring the story on home. "If you can shake it up in the kitchen, perhaps you can stir it up in the bedroom, too," she deduced.
Two nights to go before turning out the lights on the November "sweeps." Maybe I need a bean salad.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Nov. 27)
11/28/06 06:33 PM
By ED BARK
Belo8's late-breaking run at NBC5's 10 p.m. supremacy should make it interesting on the last two nights of the November "sweeps," which end on Wednesday.
The ABC station decisively beat the Peacock Monday night in total homes, and now is within three-tenths of a rating point (7,140 homes) of the lead. It will take two more strong showings, however, for Belo8 to overcome even that thin margin. And NBC5 retains a hammerlock on the 25-to-54-year-old audience, which is more prized by advertisers.
Belo8's return to the living at 10 p.m. is countered by not-so-good news at 6 p.m., where it used to crush all comers. In total homes, its lead is just two-tenths of a point (4,760 homes) over CBS11. And among 25-to-54-year-olds, Belo8 is still in a tight fight with both Fox4 and NBC5. At issue, though, is whether Fox4 should be allowed to count a delayed Thanksgiving Day 6:30 p.m. newscast in that mix. If so, a huge ratings inflation generated by the preceding Cowboys game would give Fox4 a clear "sweeps" win with 25-to-54-year-olds. If not, the station might well place a close third.
Otherwise NBC5 looks like a winner at 6 a.m. in both audience measurements. And Belo8 will do likewise, by relatively wide margins, at 5 p.m.
In entertainment programming Monday night, the made-in-North Texas fall finale of Fox's Prison Break limped home with a fourth-place finish in total homes. PB fared a bit better with 18-to-49-year-olds, the target demographic for non-news programming. It was still no match for NBC's Deal or No Deal or ABC's Wife Swap, but did manage to outdraw CBS' competing sitcom combo of How I Met Your Mother and The Class.
Among 18-to-34-year-olds, though -- and this is very perplexing -- PB sunk all the way to sixth place, behind Secretos and Alarma TV on KMPX-TV (Ch. 29) and the CW network comedies Everybody Hates Chris and All of Us.
Belo8's late-breaking run at NBC5's 10 p.m. supremacy should make it interesting on the last two nights of the November "sweeps," which end on Wednesday.
The ABC station decisively beat the Peacock Monday night in total homes, and now is within three-tenths of a rating point (7,140 homes) of the lead. It will take two more strong showings, however, for Belo8 to overcome even that thin margin. And NBC5 retains a hammerlock on the 25-to-54-year-old audience, which is more prized by advertisers.
Belo8's return to the living at 10 p.m. is countered by not-so-good news at 6 p.m., where it used to crush all comers. In total homes, its lead is just two-tenths of a point (4,760 homes) over CBS11. And among 25-to-54-year-olds, Belo8 is still in a tight fight with both Fox4 and NBC5. At issue, though, is whether Fox4 should be allowed to count a delayed Thanksgiving Day 6:30 p.m. newscast in that mix. If so, a huge ratings inflation generated by the preceding Cowboys game would give Fox4 a clear "sweeps" win with 25-to-54-year-olds. If not, the station might well place a close third.
Otherwise NBC5 looks like a winner at 6 a.m. in both audience measurements. And Belo8 will do likewise, by relatively wide margins, at 5 p.m.
In entertainment programming Monday night, the made-in-North Texas fall finale of Fox's Prison Break limped home with a fourth-place finish in total homes. PB fared a bit better with 18-to-49-year-olds, the target demographic for non-news programming. It was still no match for NBC's Deal or No Deal or ABC's Wife Swap, but did manage to outdraw CBS' competing sitcom combo of How I Met Your Mother and The Class.
Among 18-to-34-year-olds, though -- and this is very perplexing -- PB sunk all the way to sixth place, behind Secretos and Alarma TV on KMPX-TV (Ch. 29) and the CW network comedies Everybody Hates Chris and All of Us.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshots (Wed.-Fri., Nov. 22-24)
11/27/06 03:55 PM
By ED BARK
What can a competing Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day do to local early evening newscasts?
Obliterate 'em. That's what.
The Cowboys already had the game in hand by 5 p.m. on Turkey day. No matter. The audience was still building at that hour, with 673,540 homes watching Dallas continue to slaughter Tampa Bay on Fox4. Here's what was left for the newscasts on CBS11, NBC5 and Belo8, with the latter station likely registering an all-time low:
CBS11 -- 52,360 homes (compared to a not much better 54,740 on the previous Thursday)
NBC5 -- 26,180 homes (compared to 78,540)
Belo8 -- 14,280 homes (compared to 140,420)
It didn't get much better for the 6 p.m. Thursday newscasts, but here's the silver lining. Stations are allowed to "throw out" their local news programs during holiday periods. And in these cases, all three of them did. So those anemic numbers won't count in the final November "sweeps" ratings averages.
Fox4 was the only station to count any of its newscasts on Thanksgiving Day, but only the 10 p.m.
Belo8 continued to lay back on Friday, too, tossing its 6 a.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscast ratings. The ABC station's 5 p.m. news gave way to a college football game. Rival stations mixed and matched, leaving races at 6 a.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. still a bit too close to call with just three days left. Belo8 has an insurmountable edge at 5 p.m.
Elsewhere on Thanksgiving Day, CBS' crap game between the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins nonetheless overwhelmed a competing national dog show on NBC, outdrawing it by a better than 4-to-1 margin. But the Peacock's coverage of the rain-soaked Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade easily was D-FW's top draw from 9 a.m. to noon.
On Friday night, a rare battle of three feature films put ABC's Shrek 2 on top, with NBC's Family Man and Fox's Bruce Almighty tying for third. The silver medal went to CBS' firstrun episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home and Numb3rs.
What can a competing Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day do to local early evening newscasts?
Obliterate 'em. That's what.
The Cowboys already had the game in hand by 5 p.m. on Turkey day. No matter. The audience was still building at that hour, with 673,540 homes watching Dallas continue to slaughter Tampa Bay on Fox4. Here's what was left for the newscasts on CBS11, NBC5 and Belo8, with the latter station likely registering an all-time low:
CBS11 -- 52,360 homes (compared to a not much better 54,740 on the previous Thursday)
NBC5 -- 26,180 homes (compared to 78,540)
Belo8 -- 14,280 homes (compared to 140,420)
It didn't get much better for the 6 p.m. Thursday newscasts, but here's the silver lining. Stations are allowed to "throw out" their local news programs during holiday periods. And in these cases, all three of them did. So those anemic numbers won't count in the final November "sweeps" ratings averages.
Fox4 was the only station to count any of its newscasts on Thanksgiving Day, but only the 10 p.m.
Belo8 continued to lay back on Friday, too, tossing its 6 a.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscast ratings. The ABC station's 5 p.m. news gave way to a college football game. Rival stations mixed and matched, leaving races at 6 a.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. still a bit too close to call with just three days left. Belo8 has an insurmountable edge at 5 p.m.
Elsewhere on Thanksgiving Day, CBS' crap game between the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins nonetheless overwhelmed a competing national dog show on NBC, outdrawing it by a better than 4-to-1 margin. But the Peacock's coverage of the rain-soaked Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade easily was D-FW's top draw from 9 a.m. to noon.
On Friday night, a rare battle of three feature films put ABC's Shrek 2 on top, with NBC's Family Man and Fox's Bruce Almighty tying for third. The silver medal went to CBS' firstrun episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home and Numb3rs.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Tues., Nov. 21)
11/22/06 04:23 PM
By ED BARK
A lone woman pushes a shopping card in a vacant, darkened parking lot. Its only cargo is an uncooked chicken in a clear plastic bag. You're going "LIVE" with intrepid NBC5 reporter Susan Risdon.
Simultaneously on Belo8, a lone woman shines a flashlight into the front seat of an unoccupied parked car at the Grapevine Mills Mall. Gadzooks, she spots an alluring shopping bag. Reporter Chris Hawes is on the prowl, too. Don't play chicken with her.
Night 14 of the 20-day November "sweeps" found the two stations' featured ladies of the night squaring off at the top of their respective 10 p.m. newscasts. NBC5 and Belo8 remain in a tight ratings fight for the No. 1 spot at that hour. So let's get crackin' with a couple of show-and-tellers brought to you by some of late night's prettiest faces. It's tougher to put a good face on the stories they told.
Risdon took over after anchor Jane McGarry trilled about an "emerging strain" of salmonella "that's making people sick." This cued the shopping cart gambit for a story that otherwise had no wheels. Basically, viewers were told they can get sick from eating undercooked chicken. You also need to wash your hands after handling raw poultry. And be sure to clean any surfaces that come in contact with a bird in hand. Yes, this was NBC5's lead story Tuesday night. Risdon handled it with her usual grim determination, though.
Hawes had her table set by anchor John McCaa, who trumpeted this: "It happens in a flash. And it could happen to any of us at any time. But during the holidays, what you leave in your car could be a feast for thieves."
Well, we've heard this many times before, usually on NBC5's purse-snatching, package-pilfering newscasts. But Hawes gave it a game try anyway after anchor Gloria Campos told viewers that car break-ins were on the rise in North Texas.
The reporter's other hook was grainy video of a brazen thief who had posted his crimes on the Internet after setting them to music. Hawes then got some tips from a police officer. Basically, lock your car and keep packages out of easy view. But then you already knew that.
Hawes ended her story by basically discounting its reason for being. Police statistics say the Grapevine Mills Mall had zero car break-ins last holiday season, she told viewers. So in a sense, never mind. Not that those facts got in the way of Belo8's big chill of a come-on.
Rival stations led their newscasts with actual news. CBS11 sent Sarah Dodd to the site of a Plano apartment blaze that left dozens of residents homeless. Fox4's Shaun Rabb, landed the first interview with suspended Dallas police officer Jose Cabrera, who had dodged reporters since he and his wife were charged earlier this month with falsifying their passports. They're also suspected of selling drugs out of their home.
Cabrera denied all, but said that his Colombia birthplace will be held against him anyway. People will think, "He's from Colombia. He's got to be a drug dealer," the 11-year police veteran told Raab.
Fox4 regularly out-reports rival stations on local news of import. It keeps story counts under control and picks its spots rather than racing at a NASCAR pace, as NBC5 and Belo8 increasingly do.
A notable exception is longtime Belo8 gumshoe Byron Harris, who followed up on Tuesday night with a second lengthy and telling look at fatigued airline pilots. The station's main medical reporter, Janet St. James, also had an interesting story on ear damage caused by iPods, and a new way of preventing it.
Belo8 anchor McCaa earlier stepped into a trap laid by his TelePrompTer. Noting the death of film director Robert Altman, he called him "the man behind the hit TV comedy M*A*S*H." McCaa later rebooted, telling viewers that, of course, "we know that Robert Altman took care of the movie M*A*S*H, not the TV show M*A*S*H."
Campos then took a little shot at Belo8's latter day staff makeup. "Some of our writers are a little on the young side," she said. "Let's put it that way."
Delicately put, Campos hardly dressed the part of a news anchor Tuesday night. An oversized white pearl necklace, a low-cut top and a glaringly loud red-and-black jacket instead made her look ready-made for a parade float. Sorry, don't mean to be Mr. Blackwell, but what was she thinking?
Over on CBS11, reporters Jack Fink and J.D. Miles respectively had worthwhile stories on Dallas' nascent Urban Search and Rescue Team, and a proposed law that would raise the pay of preschool teachers while also requiring more training.
CBS11 sports anchor Babe Laufenberg handed his nightly man-crush on Cowboys QB Tony Romo off to reporter Steve Dennis, who harped on "Romo-mentum." Babe instead figuratively batted his eyes at Troy Aikman, who turned 40 on Tuesday.
"Troy may be gone but he won't be forgotten by us," Babe said as CBS11 flashed a doctored illustration of Aikman sporting a disheveled Nick Nolte mug shot look.
That takes us to another unsightly story on NBC5, where reporting of genuine import is all too rare. Instead, anchor McGarry had this in mind: "Tonight, the answer that can zap the zits right off your back."
Consumer reporter Brian Curtis later set forth with another infomercial, this time for a spa that won't be named here. Dreamy music played while a client had her back treated to the tune of $200.
"It's worth the money. Spend it," she said. "You work hard for it. Treat yourself."
Six more nights to go. This is hard work.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Nov. 21)
11/22/06 04:23 PM
By ED BARK
Races remain very close in three of the four major D-FW newscast battlefields. Here's how it looks through 14 weekdays of the November "sweeps," which end on Wednesday, Nov. 29:
10 p.m.
TOTAL HOMES (average per newscast)
NBC5 -- 202,300
Belo8 -- 190,400
CBS11 -- 152,320
Fox4 -- 88,060
25-to-54-Year-Olds
NBC5 -- 163,966
Belo8 -- 124,388
CBS11 -- 84,810
Fox4 -- 59,367
6 a.m.
TOTAL HOMES
NBC5 -- 116,620
Fox4 -- 104,720
Belo8 -- 78,540
CBS11 -- 45,220
25-to-54-Year--Olds
NBC5 -- 67,848
Fox4 -- 62,194
Belo8 -- 50,886
CBS11 -- 25,443
6 p.m.
TOTAL HOMES
Belo8 -- 142,800
CBS11 -- 138,040
NBC5 -- 107,100
Fox4 -- 85,680
25-to-54-Year-Olds
Belo8 -- 62,194
NBC5 -- 59,367
Fox4 -- 56,540
CBS11 -- 53,713
5 p.m.
TOTAL HOMES
Belo8 -- 140,420
NBC5 -- 102,340
Fox4 -- 97,580
CBS11 -- 73,780
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
Belo8 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 50,886
Fox4 -- 45,232
CBS11 -- 28,270
Races remain very close in three of the four major D-FW newscast battlefields. Here's how it looks through 14 weekdays of the November "sweeps," which end on Wednesday, Nov. 29:
10 p.m.
TOTAL HOMES (average per newscast)
NBC5 -- 202,300
Belo8 -- 190,400
CBS11 -- 152,320
Fox4 -- 88,060
25-to-54-Year-Olds
NBC5 -- 163,966
Belo8 -- 124,388
CBS11 -- 84,810
Fox4 -- 59,367
6 a.m.
TOTAL HOMES
NBC5 -- 116,620
Fox4 -- 104,720
Belo8 -- 78,540
CBS11 -- 45,220
25-to-54-Year--Olds
NBC5 -- 67,848
Fox4 -- 62,194
Belo8 -- 50,886
CBS11 -- 25,443
6 p.m.
TOTAL HOMES
Belo8 -- 142,800
CBS11 -- 138,040
NBC5 -- 107,100
Fox4 -- 85,680
25-to-54-Year-Olds
Belo8 -- 62,194
NBC5 -- 59,367
Fox4 -- 56,540
CBS11 -- 53,713
5 p.m.
TOTAL HOMES
Belo8 -- 140,420
NBC5 -- 102,340
Fox4 -- 97,580
CBS11 -- 73,780
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
Belo8 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 50,886
Fox4 -- 45,232
CBS11 -- 28,270
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Nov. 20)
11/21/06 05:17 PM
By ED BARK
Is NBC5's crime-blotter, rip 'n' read, junk food 10 p.m. newscast finally starting to wear a little thin?
Or are D-FW viewers slowly metastasizing around the oft-edgy chuckle-talk among Belo8's Dale Hansen-led anchor posse?
Whatever's happening might be starting to shock and surprise NBC5, which decisively lost for the third straight night at 10 p.m. in the total homes Nielsens. Belo8 also managed to nip NBC5 among advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds, although the Peacock still has that race well in hand. In homes, though, it's starting to get very close after 13 days of the 20-day November "sweeps."
Monday's results put Belo8 and NBC5 on a virtually even playing field with lowly 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-ins from their respective ABC and NBC networks. That again left CBS11's generally higher-quality 10 p.m. newscast in another perfect position to top the 10 p.m. ratings. But again, it didn't happen despite a sumptuous table set by CSI: Miami. Here's a telescoped look at how the three stations fared in total homes:
Belo8
What About Brian (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 119,000 homes
Belo8's 10 p.m. newscast -- 216,580 homes.
CBS11
CSI: Miami (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 309,400 homes
CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast -- 199,920 homes
NBC5
Studio 60 (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 107,100 homes
NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast -- 168,980 homes
There are horse races at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., too.
NBC5 continues to hold off archrival Fox4 in the early morning competition, winning by just one-tenth of a rating point Monday in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. At 6 p.m., Belo8 remains marginally ahead of CBS11 in homes, and is in a three-way race with NBC5 and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The 5 p.m. derby looks like a lock for Belo8 in both measurements.
At 10:35 p.m., Late Show with David Letterman had a big night with Jerry Seinfeld and his special guest, Michael Richards, who apologized via satellite for his recent racial tirade at a comedy club. Both Seinfeld and Richards were bothered by some inappropriate laughter from Letterman's studio audience, with the former Cosmo Kramer wondering aloud whether he had chosen the right venue.
For Letterman's ratings purposes, it was the perfect choice. Late Show averaged 131,693 homes in its first 45 minutes to outdraw Jay Leno's usually triumphant Tonight Show (112,653 homes). On the previous Monday, Leno averaged a slightly higher 115,827 homes, but Letterman drew just 91,233.
Is NBC5's crime-blotter, rip 'n' read, junk food 10 p.m. newscast finally starting to wear a little thin?
Or are D-FW viewers slowly metastasizing around the oft-edgy chuckle-talk among Belo8's Dale Hansen-led anchor posse?
Whatever's happening might be starting to shock and surprise NBC5, which decisively lost for the third straight night at 10 p.m. in the total homes Nielsens. Belo8 also managed to nip NBC5 among advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds, although the Peacock still has that race well in hand. In homes, though, it's starting to get very close after 13 days of the 20-day November "sweeps."
Monday's results put Belo8 and NBC5 on a virtually even playing field with lowly 9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-ins from their respective ABC and NBC networks. That again left CBS11's generally higher-quality 10 p.m. newscast in another perfect position to top the 10 p.m. ratings. But again, it didn't happen despite a sumptuous table set by CSI: Miami. Here's a telescoped look at how the three stations fared in total homes:
Belo8
What About Brian (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 119,000 homes
Belo8's 10 p.m. newscast -- 216,580 homes.
CBS11
CSI: Miami (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 309,400 homes
CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast -- 199,920 homes
NBC5
Studio 60 (9:45 to 10 p.m.) -- 107,100 homes
NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast -- 168,980 homes
There are horse races at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., too.
NBC5 continues to hold off archrival Fox4 in the early morning competition, winning by just one-tenth of a rating point Monday in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. At 6 p.m., Belo8 remains marginally ahead of CBS11 in homes, and is in a three-way race with NBC5 and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
The 5 p.m. derby looks like a lock for Belo8 in both measurements.
At 10:35 p.m., Late Show with David Letterman had a big night with Jerry Seinfeld and his special guest, Michael Richards, who apologized via satellite for his recent racial tirade at a comedy club. Both Seinfeld and Richards were bothered by some inappropriate laughter from Letterman's studio audience, with the former Cosmo Kramer wondering aloud whether he had chosen the right venue.
For Letterman's ratings purposes, it was the perfect choice. Late Show averaged 131,693 homes in its first 45 minutes to outdraw Jay Leno's usually triumphant Tonight Show (112,653 homes). On the previous Monday, Leno averaged a slightly higher 115,827 homes, but Letterman drew just 91,233.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Mon., Nov. 20)
11/21/06 11:48 AM
By ED BARK
Visceral, jaw-dropping video is the siren song of television news. And it's all the better for any station making a "clean kill" with a bonafide exclusive.
CBS11 reporter J.D. Miles delivered the goods on Night 13 of the November "sweeps" with a top-of-the-10 p.m. newscast report on SWAT team raids of three illegal Dallas poker parlors. The brute force used in these raids -- smashing down doors, breaking windows, bellowing at terrified card players -- raised a big question about the strong-armed police tactics deployed to thwart non-violent crime. You can see for yourself here.
Miles responsibly reported both sides of what he called law enforcement's "less than delicate approach." Police contended that a "full SWAT approach" is necessary whenever weapons could be involved in busts of large groups of people. They also said the games can "bring problems" to a community.
Don't tell that to some of the players, though, particularly a traumatized woman who hid her face while saying, "It did scare me to death."
CBS11's cameras caught another man pleading, "I'm so scared, sir, please." He said he'd only been watching, not playing.
Miles was the only TV reporter along on the raids, which netted 20 arrests and 83 citations. Police lately have been cracking down on poker parlors, he said, with 152 tickets issued so far this year, and just eight last year.
Fox4 and Belo8 had no coverage at all. NBC5's Randy McIlwain did his best to put together a story from the outside looking in. He showed day-after damage to a SWAT-battered building and interviewed a "poker journalist" who said the raids were excessive and driving the games further underground.
NBC5 and Belo8, in a tightening race for the 10 p.m. ratings leadership, otherwise seemed to be in a bullet train race to win the night's highest story count honors. Excluding weather and sports, the Peacock zipped through 26 stories while its ABC competitor fired back with 23. CBS11 comparatively took its time with 17 stories. Fox4, whose 10 p.m. newscast is five minutes shorter than its competitors, chalked up 15.
Despite its fast and furious pace, NBC5's newscast omitted the day's two big talkers -- Fox's cancellation of its planned O.J. Simpson specials and former Seinfeld star Michael Richards' racially charged diatribe at a comedy club, for which he apologized that night on a pre-taped CBS' Late Show with David Letterman.
NBC5 also was the only station to ignore Emmitt Smith's recent win on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. The message is clear: TV stories tied to rival networks aren't deemed news on NBC-owned Channel 5, even if they're otherwise making headlines around the country.
Fox4 had major coverage of the Simpson controversy, noting in no small measure that criticism of the specials came from some of Fox's biggest stars, including Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera.
"It was a terrible idea to enrich this slob of a double-murderer," Rivera said in part, exhibiting his usual aplomb.
Interview "sound bites" are seldom stretched even that long on NBC5, whose reporters and editors have mastered the art of buzz-cutting to the bone. Consumer reporter Brian Curtis showed how it's done in a story on how check-bouncing can be bad for your credit. Here are some of the bitty bites that made it on-air:
"That's not good."
"Good to know, good to know."
"It hurts."
"Hopefully not, hopefully not."
"I've bounced a few."
"Probably. Probably."
Monday night's better work included:
***A thorough story by CBS11's Jay Gormley on MADD's push for mandatory breathalyzer installations in autos of convicted drunk drivers. The car can't be started until the driver first shows that he or she is sober. Gormley was the only reporter to interview a man who's been driving under such restrictions for several years.
***An interesting look at major renovations coming to the Fort Worth stockyards, with CBS11's Joel Thomas recovering nicely from his Friday night tripe on a goat-man monster.
***Steve Stoler's well-researched Belo8 report on whether Collin County's "red-light cameras" prevent or provoke more accidents.
***Fox4 reporter Jeff Crilley's followup on a fatal fuel truck wreck that police now think may have been caused by a hit-and-run driver.
***Belo8 reporter Chris Hawes' piece on latter day "bold bank robbers" who aren't even trying to conceal their identities from security cameras.
NBC5's Kristi Nelson receives an honorable mention for at last emerging from the dark of night to narrate a story on what to look for in food labels. Amazingly, she did the story from the warmth of the station's studios. For no apparent reason, Nelson previously has been sent into the moonlit outdoors to report live on silicone breast implants and about how two jelly donuts can have fewer calories than a cream cheese-slathered bagel.
Belo8 anchor Gloria Campos had the night's blooper of note, telling viewers that the Zip-ity Do Dolly can be a dangerous Christmas gift.
"Buttons can fall off," she said, "causing a shocking danger, er, choking danger."
The word "shocking" is an instrumental part of a news anchor's vocabulary, so Campos can be excused this once.
Belo8 sports anchor Dale Hansen and weatherman Pete Delkus got dicier during a little dustup near newscast's end. Delkus had been talking about a cold front coming in, but was still forecasting highs of 68 degrees. Hansen found this amusing.
"And there's the turkey for Dale," Delkus retorted, referring to a cartoon gobbler perched above the Thanksgiving Day forecast. "He's got a running commentary over there ... I don't know what he's thinking, but I can only imagine."
Hansen isn't one to let anyone imagine what he's thinking.
"I'm sittin' here thinking about this cold front," he told Delkus. "Sixty-eight degrees. Oh my goodness. He went to meteorology school to come up with that!"
Delkus gamely kept chuckling. One of these days, though ...
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Fri., Nov. 17)
11/20/06 03:56 PM
By ED BARK
Sometimes a generally respectable newscast gives in to its evil twin. Or maybe young CBS11 reporters Joel Thomas and Jack Fink thought they were freelancing for Geraldo At Large on Night 12 of the ongoing November "sweeps."
How else to explain Thomas' Friday night report on the "Lake Worth monster," a half-man, half-goat that supposedly terrorized mere mortals back in the summer of '69? Meanwhile, Fink now has egg on his face after leading the previous night's 10 p.m. newscast with an unidentified mother's allegation that a bottle of Yoo Hoo soft drink had a human appendage in it. She had already hired an attorney, of course.
Thomas dredged up an old, tongue-in-check news story from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which otherwise has an on-air partnership with the more reliably tabloid-ish NBC5. He talked to a couple of locals who played along with the notion that a giant, hairy monster terrorized an earlier generation's beer drinkers and makeout artists.
Congenial Wayne Clark of the Fort Worth Nature Center took the intrepid correspondent on a traipse through the monster's old stomping grounds. Legend has it that goat/man once threw a tire at young revelers from more than 300 feet away. Or as Barbara Walters would say, "Wheely?!"
"Some say it was a surly neighbor tired of the parties," Thomas told viewers. He then wound up his report at the spot "where it all happened." A doubting Thomas he's not. This one probably will resurface as part of the station's Christmas party gag reel.
Earlier in Friday's newscast, CBS11 lamely acknowledged that Fink's "Mystery in a Bottle" story basically had come up empty. The station topped Thursday's show with what anchor Karen Borta teased as a "bizarre case in the town of Pantego." Her running mate, Tracy Rowlett, then warned viewers that some of the images in Fink's story could be "disturbing."
More troubling was CBS11's decision to make this its lead story rather than wait for police to complete their tests on exactly what was floating atop a Yoo Hoo chocolate drink. It was gross, all right, but looked more like a badly decomposed fried egg than a body part.
Fink quoted a Yoo Hoo spokesman who told him mold can form inside a bottle if there's a leak in the cap seal. That wouldn't be much of a big breaking news story. In fact it wouldn't be a story at all. So Fink and CBS11 downplayed that very real possibility. Alas, that's what the "mysterious object" turned out to be, police tests confirmed Friday. So yes, CBS11 was alone in breaking the mold, but that's about it.
Over on NBC5, anchor Mike Snyder initially bumbled his way through another of the station's stolen purse stories. He should have this particular lingo down by now. The station has brought viewers news of purse thievery or just plain "dirty purses" on six of its 12 "sweeps" newscasts so far. But big Mike was still slow on the draw. As in: "Police say a purse thief, or theft. Thief. It is thief, that's right, Mike."
An earlier story also put purses in play. Mistress of the dark Susan Risdon had another of her mean streets tales, this one about crooks who copy down gift card numbers in hopes of using them online.
"Well, Jane," she told anchor Jane McGarry in her preamble, "we always tell you to watch your purses and wallets during this holiday season."
Boy, do they ever. So much so that frustrated citizen Nikki Harris seemed to be reading a script when she lamented, "Watch your wallets, watch your credit cards, and now you have to watch your gift cards. It's getting ridiculous."
NBC5 otherwise has a fixation with Wal-Mart, which has made cameo appearances on eight of the 12 sweeps newscasts. Usually it's a short burst on what the retail giant is doing to save you money. On Friday, anchor McGarry alerted viewers to check out Wal-Mart's Web site on Thanksgiving for some unspecified "great deals." Smacks of product placement, but you make the call.
Nothing particularly good or bad stood out on Fox4 or Belo8 Friday night. Sometimes it can be better that way.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., Nov. 17)
11/20/06 03:55 PM
By ED BARK
Boosted by night two of a Barbara Walters special, Belo8 tightened the 10 p.m. news race by decisively beating frontrunner NBC5 for a second straight night in total homes.
Through 12 days of the 20-day November "sweeps," the two stations now are within half a rating point of each other (11,900 homes) in a time slot that NBC5 has controlled since the February 2002 sweeps. The Peacock still has a comfortable lead among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming.
The races remain tight at 6 p.m., with Belo8 still a bit ahead of CBS11 in total homes, but barely beating NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds after finishing a weak third in that demographic on Friday.
Belo8 won at 5 p.m. in both audience measurements. The 6 a.m. race is still between NBC5 and Fox4, with the Peacock maintaining slim leads.
On the entertainment front, big-name sweeps guests on the networks' late night talkers often can't turn the tide against Ch. 33's repeats of Friends and Sex and the City. From 11 p.m. to midnight Friday, the two comedies were D-FW's top draws with 18-to-49-year-olds, the preferred advertiser audience for entertainment programming.
Boosted by night two of a Barbara Walters special, Belo8 tightened the 10 p.m. news race by decisively beating frontrunner NBC5 for a second straight night in total homes.
Through 12 days of the 20-day November "sweeps," the two stations now are within half a rating point of each other (11,900 homes) in a time slot that NBC5 has controlled since the February 2002 sweeps. The Peacock still has a comfortable lead among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming.
The races remain tight at 6 p.m., with Belo8 still a bit ahead of CBS11 in total homes, but barely beating NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds after finishing a weak third in that demographic on Friday.
Belo8 won at 5 p.m. in both audience measurements. The 6 a.m. race is still between NBC5 and Fox4, with the Peacock maintaining slim leads.
On the entertainment front, big-name sweeps guests on the networks' late night talkers often can't turn the tide against Ch. 33's repeats of Friends and Sex and the City. From 11 p.m. to midnight Friday, the two comedies were D-FW's top draws with 18-to-49-year-olds, the preferred advertiser audience for entertainment programming.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Thurs., Nov. 16)
11/17/06 03:06 PM
By ED BARK
Some readers are saying it's a crime that NBC5's 10 p.m. newscasts again are topping the Nielsen ratings.
NBC5 might say in turn, "It's the crime, stupid." The station is thriving on nightly onslaughts of bad things happening and maybe worse things yet to come. It's calculated and it's working like gangbusters. Viewers aren't about to shoot the messenger, though. They're too busy watching.
Night 11 of the ongoing November "sweeps" provided more evidence, and right from the opening bell.
"A shadowy figure in your hallway," anchor Mike Snyder intoned at the start of Thursday's 10 p.m. show. "Would you know what to do?"
Sinister music accompanied his tease before viewers were whisked to mistress of the dark Susan Risdon's story of a Frisco woman who verbally drove an intruder from her living room after taking a course at the Citizen's Police Academy. He then supposedly took a crack at a neighbor's house, but was foiled again.
"He had a bad night for a crook ... He was caught by every person that he tried to steal from," said resident Susan Blessing.
NBC5 reeled off a total of 11 crime stories Thursday, easily besting runnerup Fox4 (seven) and more than doubling the five crime stories apiece on Belo8 and CBS11.
"And here's another one," said anchor Snyder, speaking volumes after viewers were treated to a "smash and grab" at a supermarket.
The night's centerpiece was reporter Brian Curtis' heavily promoted chiller on North Texas' most dangerous shopping malls. Generic horror music kicked in as the station re-created what it must be like for a lone woman to walk through a dark, dank, covered parking ramp. Surely someone must be following her. And sure enough, viewers could catch a fleeting glimpse of a looming "crook" wearing a black stocking cap. Actually the crook was an extra or perhaps a hapless station intern deployed to dress the part. Or maybe it was Curtis himself. Gotta multi-task in times when ongoing NBC Universal layoffs reportedly have sent two news staffers packing.
Curtis, who usually sings the joys of bargain shopping, examined police records from last year's holiday season. A total of 12 malls went under the knife, and what the reporter found shouldn't shock anyone with a more than room temperature IQ.
The Parks shopping center in Arlington led all comers with 25 thefts from cars and eight assaults last November and December. North East mall chalked up five stolen vehicles to lead the league in that category.
Curtis and anchor Jane McGarry did note that millions upon millions of shoppers visit these malls annually, with The Parks having some of the heaviest traffic. What wasn't mentioned is that seven of the 12 malls surveyed by NBC5 had no reported physical robberies during the last holiday season. Eight had no assaults and eight also had fewer than 10 thefts from unoccupied cars. You can see for yourself on the nbc5i.com website.
Reporting that kind of information on the air doesn't set off any alarm bells, though. So NBC5 closed this particular case with more footage of a woman walking to her car while eerie music doomed her to a likely purse-snatching or beating.
Serious, solid reporting, some of it crime-related, also hit home screens Thursday. NBC5 somehow missed the day's most interesting crime story, which led the late night newscasts on both Fox4 and Belo8.
A northeast Dallas man wired his home with video cams after being previously burglarized. He then was startled to see someone robbing him again. But the victim had to watch from afar on his office computer, which had been programmed to alert him of any intruder. Police ultimately arrived too late to catch the thief, but video of the robber and robbery is posted here.
Fox4's Jeff Crilley out-reported Belo8's Bob Greene on this story by getting an extra detail that his competitor missed. The possessions taken from the victim's home include recent videotape of his engagement ceremony. "I need to get that back," he said. Crilley also began his story by putting himself in the lens of one of those in-home surveillance cams. Effective touch.
Fox4 likewise outpaced its rivals in detailing why so many people are camping out to buy the new PlayStation3. Many want to sell it on eBay and make a quick killing. CBS11's Tiani Jones noted this, but told viewers that the "older gamers just didn't want to talk about it, at least on camera."
Some of those older gamers did talk to Fox4's Lari Barager after she noted that only one person in line, a kid, planned to keep his PlayStation3. Not so Aaron Whitelock, who urged, "We'll list it tomorrow (on eBay). So watch."
CBS11's Ginger Allen checked in with another solid investigation, this time on identity thieves who hole up in area hotels with a new CD that can generate thousands of credit card numbers from a single card theft. Once a frenetic hand-talker, Allen has matured into one of the area's better gumshoes.
For laughs -- or gags -- viewers could go to Belo8, which increasingly is programming bursts of "happy talk" into the 10 p.m. news. Thursday's takeoff point was reporter David Schechter's throwaway piece on what lousy listeners men are. Anchor John McCaa helped to set it up by feigning not listening to partner Gloria Campos' introduction. Hoo-hah.
Weatherman Pete Delkus later joined in the merriment, saying that men can't win no matter what they say. Not to be outdone, McCaa laboriously tried this one on Delkus after a commercial break: "Well, we want to promise that we do listen, all the time. Right? What's your name?"
Only nine more nights to go.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Nov. 16)
11/17/06 03:06 PM
By ED BARK
She can still turn a head. Solid numbers for a 9 p.m. Barbara Walters special helped propel Belo8 to a rare victory in total homes at 10 p.m. But frontrunning NBC5's newscast still prevailed with advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds Thursday night.
Day 11 of the 20-day November "sweeps" also saw the 6 p.m. race remain very close and the 6 a.m. competition tighten a bit.
At 6 p.m., Belo8 and CBS11 are virtually tied in homes, with the latter station winning by just one-tenth of a point in their latest skirmish. They tied on Thursday with 25-to-54-year-olds, where Belo8 currently is fighting off challenges from all three news competitors.
NBC5 continues to lead at 6 a.m., but Fox4 inched closer Thursday with narrow wins in both ratings measurements. Belo8 still seems to have the 5 p.m. race under control.
ABC's Walters show, in which she counted down "mistakes" by both her and celebrity guests, drew 283,220 homes after inheriting 404,600 from the preceding Grey's Anatomy. That's a considerable dropoff, but not nearly as steep as those plummets by Six Degrees, now on hiatus. In its last Thursday airing (Nov. 2), Degrees grabbed a measly 104,720 homes in D-FW.
Babs fell a bit shorter with 18-to-49-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for entertainment programming. NBC's competing ER beat her among those viewers -- 198,000 to 171,000.
She can still turn a head. Solid numbers for a 9 p.m. Barbara Walters special helped propel Belo8 to a rare victory in total homes at 10 p.m. But frontrunning NBC5's newscast still prevailed with advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds Thursday night.
Day 11 of the 20-day November "sweeps" also saw the 6 p.m. race remain very close and the 6 a.m. competition tighten a bit.
At 6 p.m., Belo8 and CBS11 are virtually tied in homes, with the latter station winning by just one-tenth of a point in their latest skirmish. They tied on Thursday with 25-to-54-year-olds, where Belo8 currently is fighting off challenges from all three news competitors.
NBC5 continues to lead at 6 a.m., but Fox4 inched closer Thursday with narrow wins in both ratings measurements. Belo8 still seems to have the 5 p.m. race under control.
ABC's Walters show, in which she counted down "mistakes" by both her and celebrity guests, drew 283,220 homes after inheriting 404,600 from the preceding Grey's Anatomy. That's a considerable dropoff, but not nearly as steep as those plummets by Six Degrees, now on hiatus. In its last Thursday airing (Nov. 2), Degrees grabbed a measly 104,720 homes in D-FW.
Babs fell a bit shorter with 18-to-49-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for entertainment programming. NBC's competing ER beat her among those viewers -- 198,000 to 171,000.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Wed., Nov. 15)
11/16/06 05:32 PM
By ED BARK
Ten down, 10 to go. We're at the halfway point of the November "sweeps," with these two watery eyes still trained on the four 10 p.m. news combatants. Your comments are always welcome at the end of these tomes. Let me know what you're seeing and feeling, too. Are the featured newscasts in the No. 6 TV market making your grade? Or are they too often insulting your intelligence?
From this view, I'd like to see more of NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs. His nightly segments are chopped in two by a big load of commercials, making Scruggs the equivalent of a running back who can't get any momentum going because he's not getting enough carries. The second part of his sportscast ran for just 30 seconds Wednesday night before Scruggs said, "That's sports, and we'll be right back with more news." That's pretty much the way it is every night. Really, why even bother?
Here's a guy with an ebullient personality and surely some strong opinions, too. But NBC5 is pretty much wasting those attributes. Where's the sense of play? What did Scruggs think of the recent Bob Knight incident? How does he feel about the Cowboys' ups and downs? Dunno. Or at least he's not telling us on NBC5's most-watched newscast of the day.
Scruggs anchors his segments apart from the rest of NBC5's anchor team before barely joining Mike Snyder, Jane McGarry and David Finfrock for the last five seconds or so of the show. He can't be entirely blamed for wanting to keep his distance from Snyder and whatever drivel he has to impart. But Scruggs seems too divorced from the proceedings. He needs to play more to his obvious strengths, and NBC5 needs to let him do his sportscast in one piece. In short, free Newy.
OK, moving right along to a story that got heavy play on all four stations -- upcoming rate hikes on two North Texas toll roads. CBS11's Jack Fink had the most interesting enterprise effort. He tracked down the area's biggest tollway deadbeat, Blair Williams. The guy has rolled up 2,441 violations that add up to a total of $62,000 in back fees when a $25 administrative charge is added to each offense.
Fink talked to both Williams and his attorney, who conceded his client is at least partly at fault. North Texas Tollway Authority spokeswoman Donna Huerta sealed the deal by telling Fink, "We don't want to harass anyone. We want people to know we're serious, though."
Belo8's Brad Hawkins tried a different tack to see if taking the tollway is necessarily faster than going to the same destination for free. He and a producer journeyed separately from Belo8's downtown Dallas offices to a parking lot in Collin County. In this instance, it took Hawkins 54 minutes to make the trip on pay roads while his producer paid nothing to get there three minutes faster. Hawkins noted that it was only a snapshot, and that times could vary. Still, it wasn't a bad way to make a point.
Fox4's Jeff Crilley and NBC5's Kristi Nelson covered the same story, but without any extra effort. NBC5's 10 p.m. format doesn't give its reporters much room to grow, though. The highest story count in D-FW demands a get-in, get-out approach from nightbeat correspondents in the field.
Whatever the story, NBC5 regularly implores viewers to either stay tuned or pay dearly. Anchor McGarry took even this standard tack to extremes by trumpeting "The miracle pill every woman wants to know about. Call your family and friends. Nobody should miss this one."
Your family and friends would have been pissed if you did. The "miracle pill" turned out to be a contraceptive laced with a new ingredient that might calm some of those nasty PMS mood swings. One woman said it's been "a lot easier to roll with the punches" since taking it.
"Especially when you're not rolled up in pain," reporter Carol Wang added -- painfully.
NBC5 was the only station to ignore what for many had to be the night's biggest development. Former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith's victory on ABC's Dancing With the Stars was witnessed by huge TV audiences nationally and locally. Even if it's not on your network it's a story, as both CBS11 and Fox4 understood. Not so NBC5, which did give viewers the scoop on a man arrested for alleged "overt sexual behavior" on a passenger flight and the latest dangers associated with sugary drinks.
Belo8, an ABC affiliate, of course made plenty of room for Emmitt's victory over Mario Lopez. Disheveled "Why Guy" Mike Castelluci reported live from Los Angeles for the third straight night. His wardrobe kept devolving, with Castelluci this time sporting a sub-nondescript western cut shirt that made him look like an outhouse on Rodeo Drive.
"And what have we learned here?" he asked anchor Gloria Campos. "We've learned that tough guys can dance. It's manly to do the mambo. Emmitt did it. Another MVP season."
Castelluci also learned that Emmitt lost 15 pounds during the 10-week competition. So clearly it was worth the trip.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Nov. 15)
11/16/06 04:34 PM
By ED BARK
Wednesday's Dancing With the Stars finale, which crowned Emmitt Smith champion, had 549,780 D-FW homes in its pocket, exceeding the 499,800 for Tuesday's last performances by the former Cowboys great and Mario Lopez.
That's a huge turnout, although D-FW's overall 23.1 Nielsen rating surprisingly fell short of the numbers in Philadelphia (24.3), Orlando (24.1), West Palm Beach (24.1) and Indianapolis (23.3). The finale had its smallest Nielsen number -- 11.0 -- in wallflower-rich Salt Lake City.
ABC and Belo8 execs weren't dancing for long, though. The following two-hour premiere of Lost replacement Day Break deep-sixed to an overall 204,680 homes in D-FW. Worse yet, Day Break opened with 349,860 homes locally from 8 to 8:15 p.m., but closed with just 154,700 from 9:45 to 10 p.m.
The falloff helped NBC5's news to easily win again at 10 p.m. in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming.
At the halfway point of the November "sweeps," (10 of the 20 weekdays), here's how the weekday local newscast race looks at 10 p.m., 6 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m.
10 p.m.
HOMES
NBC5 -- 202,300
Belo8 -- 176,120
CBS11 -- 152,320
Fox4 -- 90,440
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC5 -- 163,966
Belo8 -- 115,907
CBS11 -- 81,983
Fox4 -- 65,021
6 a.m.
HOMES
NBC5 -- 119,000
Fox4 -- 104,720
Belo8 -- 80,920
CBS11 -- 42,840
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC5 -- 70,675
Fox4 -- 65,021
Belo8 -- 50,886
CBS11 -- 25,443
6 p.m.
HOMES
Belo8 -- 140,420
CBS11 -- 135,660
NBC5 -- 102,340
Fox4 -- 83,300
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
Belo8 -- 62,194
Fox4 -- 56,540
NBC5 -- 56,540
CBS11 -- 53,713
5 p.m.
HOMES
Belo8 -- 138,040
NBC5 -- 104,720
Fox4 -- 95,200
CBS11 -- 73,780
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
Belo8 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 53,713
Fox4 -- 45,232
CBS11 -- 25,443
Wednesday's Dancing With the Stars finale, which crowned Emmitt Smith champion, had 549,780 D-FW homes in its pocket, exceeding the 499,800 for Tuesday's last performances by the former Cowboys great and Mario Lopez.
That's a huge turnout, although D-FW's overall 23.1 Nielsen rating surprisingly fell short of the numbers in Philadelphia (24.3), Orlando (24.1), West Palm Beach (24.1) and Indianapolis (23.3). The finale had its smallest Nielsen number -- 11.0 -- in wallflower-rich Salt Lake City.
ABC and Belo8 execs weren't dancing for long, though. The following two-hour premiere of Lost replacement Day Break deep-sixed to an overall 204,680 homes in D-FW. Worse yet, Day Break opened with 349,860 homes locally from 8 to 8:15 p.m., but closed with just 154,700 from 9:45 to 10 p.m.
The falloff helped NBC5's news to easily win again at 10 p.m. in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming.
At the halfway point of the November "sweeps," (10 of the 20 weekdays), here's how the weekday local newscast race looks at 10 p.m., 6 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m.
10 p.m.
HOMES
NBC5 -- 202,300
Belo8 -- 176,120
CBS11 -- 152,320
Fox4 -- 90,440
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC5 -- 163,966
Belo8 -- 115,907
CBS11 -- 81,983
Fox4 -- 65,021
6 a.m.
HOMES
NBC5 -- 119,000
Fox4 -- 104,720
Belo8 -- 80,920
CBS11 -- 42,840
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
NBC5 -- 70,675
Fox4 -- 65,021
Belo8 -- 50,886
CBS11 -- 25,443
6 p.m.
HOMES
Belo8 -- 140,420
CBS11 -- 135,660
NBC5 -- 102,340
Fox4 -- 83,300
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
Belo8 -- 62,194
Fox4 -- 56,540
NBC5 -- 56,540
CBS11 -- 53,713
5 p.m.
HOMES
Belo8 -- 138,040
NBC5 -- 104,720
Fox4 -- 95,200
CBS11 -- 73,780
25-to-54-YEAR-OLDS
Belo8 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 53,713
Fox4 -- 45,232
CBS11 -- 25,443
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Tues., Nov. 14)
11/15/06 04:02 PM
By ED BARK
Night and day. There were notable differences in how Bob Knight's latest physical outburst played out on 10 p.m. newscasts Tuesday night.
CBS11 and NBC5 paid the least attention on Night 9 of the ongoing November "sweeps" ratings period. But Belo8 and Fox4 made the most of Knight's jab to the chin of player Michael Prince (shown above in an AP photo) during Monday night's Texas Tech-Gardner-Webb game.
Belo8 led this particular league in replays, showing Knight's not-so-greatest hit a total of 13 times. No, that's not a misprint. The ABC station teased it twice at the top of the newscast, showed it three more times during an "Assertive or Assault?" news brief, teased it once again after the Pete Delkus weather segment and then seven more times within sports anchor Dale Hansen's coverage. That's probably some kind of local news record, but there are no official stats kept on these things.
Anchor Gloria Campos primed the pump early in the newscast, asking viewers, "What does Dale Hansen think? Well, use your imagination."
Hansen spared Knight the rod he regularly uses on Terrell Owens, Bill Parcells or Mark Cuban.
"This really isn't in Bobby Knight's top 5," he said. "But it is amazing that a coach who demands some discipline from his players doesn't have any. Not so amazing that as long as you win, it doesn't matter."
Knight contended he had merely "flipped" the player's head up to get his attention. And Tech athletic director Gerald Myers already has said there'll be no disciplinary measures taken.
"I don't think it was that big a deal," Hansen reiterated. But anchor Campos wanted to bat it around some more.
"If you were that kid's dad, how would you react?" she asked him.
Hansen said he'd be "mad" because he doesn't want anyone else touching his kid.
"It hurts me as a mother to see that," Campos told him before Hansen again let his mouth pin him to the mat.
"My son's 35," he said. "And I'm still thinking about beating him up when I get home tonight. He's been trouble lately. But I don't want anyone else to do it."
Everyone laughed it up at that one, including the righteous Campos. Just one big happy family.
Fox4 sports anchor Mike Doocy, whose station played Knight-Prince five times, had a more measured but still pointed response.
"I don't think Knight deserves to be reprimanded for this incident," he said. "But there will be another incident with Knight. There always is. It's a shame that a guy who's done so much good for so many kids cannot keep himself under control."
The station's subsequent "Fan on the Street" audio had a nice bite to it. One woman said Knight "is a God" and should never be disciplined. Another had a polar opposite view: "Bob Knight is a sad excuse for a basketball coach. He needs to be gone."
But Fox4 commendably saved the best for last, from an angry male caller. "His (Prince's) parents say it's not a problem," he said. "But to get ratings, you guys want to throw it out there like it is a problem. Knock it off!"
In a companion web poll, 42 percent said Knight should be disciplined, but 55 percent said he should not. The other three percent still weren't sure.
Over on CBS11 (three replays), sports anchor Babe Laufenberg didn't even mention the matter. He instead handed Knight off to the previous news segment, where the incident was briefly covered in tandem with video of a truly violent altercation at a Corpus Christi Pee Wee League football game.
Laufenberg again focused on the increasing popularity of Cowboys QB Tony Romo. His capper: an inventive bit in which Romo already was being named to the Ring of Honor, enshrined in the NFL's Hall of Fame, pictured on a new $9 bill and chiseled onto Mount Rushmore.
NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs (three replays) likewise wasn't all that interested in Knight. The station's condensed coverage included an interview with the coach's former sports information director at Indiana, who thought Knight was just being Knight.
Tuesday night otherwise brought two standout stories.
CBS11's Robert Riggs took viewers to the Red River Army Depot near Texarkana, where thousands of "battle-scarred" vehicles from the Iraq war have been taken for repair. The pictures were strikingly different in this piece. They underscored the sheer magnitude of the war effort, and the casualties it's claimed.
Belo8's Brett Shipp revisited his previous story on illegal highway gambling joints in Hunt County. Many were busted and their machines confiscated last March. But now the places are back in business, said Shipp, who had the hidden camera pictures to prove it. Patrons of "modest means" looking to strike it rich are easy marks for the often rigged machines, Shipp reported.
In the recycled news bin file, CBS11's J.D. Miles and Fox4's Emily Lopez interviewed an angry David Lyles, who had called 911 three times in a fruitless effort to prevent a recent murder. It took Dallas police more than 20 minutes to respond, by which time it was too late. Belo 8's Rebecca Lopez had the same story on Monday's 10 p.m. newscast. Fox4 and CBS11 did have audio tapes of the 911 calls, which weren't being released at the time that Belo8 broke the story.
And oh yeah, the "Why Guy." Belo8's Mike Castelluci finally got his interview with Emmitt Smith Tuesday night after ABC's performance finale of Dancing with the Stars.
"It's been the best soap opera on TV," he said before telling Smith, "I've never heard any dirt on you. Do you have any dirt for me?"
Rather than stiff-arm him, Smith patiently replied, "No, we don't have any dirt. We don't believe in having dirt. We believe in working hard and trying to make our dancing and our routines the best."
Smith's upbeat wife, Patricia, then commiserated with Castelluci after he told he was "exhausted."
He did kind of look like a wreck on the air. But exhausted? After a ninth night of watching all this stuff. he'll get no sympathy here.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Nov. 14)
11/15/06 03:38 PM
By ED BARK
Again infused by Emmitt Smith, ABC's Dancing with the Stars drew its all-time largest D-FW audience Tuesday night.
The show's 90-minute performance finale fell just a few living rooms short of a half-million homes, settling for 499,800. That tripled the audience of its nearest time slot competitor, CBS' NCIS (166,600 homes).
Area viewers increasingly were turned off, though, by William Shatner's new Show Me the Money game show, which followed Dancing from 8:30 to 10 p.m. "Shat" started with a robust 316,540 homes for the first 15 minutes of Money. But by 8:45 p.m., the ratings looked like pennies from hell. Only 157,080 homes were still aboard at that point. Both NBC's Law & Order: SVU (240,380 homes) and CBS' new 3 Lbs. medical drama (168,980) were outdrawing it by then.
NBC5 had another profitable night in the local news wars, winning at 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Belo8 recovered a bit from a very bad Monday by winning at 5 p.m. in both ratings measurements. CBS11 and Belo8 tied in homes at 6 p.m., but both were thumped in the 25-to-54 demo by NBC5.
Through nine weeknights of the 20-night November "sweeps," NBC5 is comfortably ahead at 10 p.m. and continues to build on its 6 a.m. lead over the usually potent Fox4. Belo8 appears to have the 5 p.m. news race in its pocket, but 6 p.m. is still very much up for grabs.
Again infused by Emmitt Smith, ABC's Dancing with the Stars drew its all-time largest D-FW audience Tuesday night.
The show's 90-minute performance finale fell just a few living rooms short of a half-million homes, settling for 499,800. That tripled the audience of its nearest time slot competitor, CBS' NCIS (166,600 homes).
Area viewers increasingly were turned off, though, by William Shatner's new Show Me the Money game show, which followed Dancing from 8:30 to 10 p.m. "Shat" started with a robust 316,540 homes for the first 15 minutes of Money. But by 8:45 p.m., the ratings looked like pennies from hell. Only 157,080 homes were still aboard at that point. Both NBC's Law & Order: SVU (240,380 homes) and CBS' new 3 Lbs. medical drama (168,980) were outdrawing it by then.
NBC5 had another profitable night in the local news wars, winning at 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Belo8 recovered a bit from a very bad Monday by winning at 5 p.m. in both ratings measurements. CBS11 and Belo8 tied in homes at 6 p.m., but both were thumped in the 25-to-54 demo by NBC5.
Through nine weeknights of the 20-night November "sweeps," NBC5 is comfortably ahead at 10 p.m. and continues to build on its 6 a.m. lead over the usually potent Fox4. Belo8 appears to have the 5 p.m. news race in its pocket, but 6 p.m. is still very much up for grabs.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Mon., Nov. 13)
11/14/06 03:55 PM
By ED BARK
What's the story with D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts? Too often, it seems, there really isn't one.
Night 8 of the ongoing November "sweeps" offered plenty of material. As usual, NBC5 set the pace with its "Not Just What Happens, What Matters" mix of crime alerts, health alerts and scary what-might-have-beens.
The station's second story Monday night was on a four-year-old girl with scabs on her face who alarmed at least one passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight from El Paso to Dallas. Might she have had contagious chicken pox or something even worse? Reporting live from Love Field, Susan Risdon said the airline responded by checking her out and determining that the girl had been cleared for air travel by her doctor. The kid then took a second flight to Tulsa with her mother. Was that really the second most important story of the day? Was it a story at all?
Next came anchor Jane McGarry's reader about a five-year-old Denton girl who had been bitten in the face by a dog. Medics were on the scene, but "her injuries weren't as serious as first feared," McGarry told viewers. Was that the third most important story of the day in the country's sixth largest TV market?
McGarry later chimed in with a cheery tease before a commercial break. "There is a new risk for breast cancer," she said. "And it's likely on your dinner plate."
Boy, ain't that always the way it goes? The station later whisked through a brief on how heavy red meat eating could increase the risk of breast cancer, according to a Harvard University study.
"But this is only one of many causes of breast cancer," McGarry cautioned. It's another way of saying that NBC5 might clue you to the perils and pitfalls of peaches on another news night.
NBC5 reporter Brian Curtis later chipped in with another nightly bargain hunt. All well and good, except that his no-questions-asked air kisses of various product sellers amount to transparent infomercials. His latest beneficiary was a Web Site that promises lower airline fares than some of its better known online competitors. Yeah? So?
We'll cleanse the palate with a legitimately solid story before moving on to Belo8 "Why Guy" Mike Castelluci. CBS11 reporter Jay Gormley had a very intriguing piece on young men who are starving themselves thin. Most anorexics are women, but the male gender lately is going on something of a bender, too.
Gormley focused on a "thin is in" group of five young men whose average height and weight is 5 foot 11 and 130 pounds. He also interviewed recovering anorexic Kyle Erwin, a 5 foot 7 inch 23-year-old who once shrunk himself to 88 pounds. It was a revealing story from a different angle than we're used to seeing.
Over on Belo8, the puckish Castelluci was sent to Los Angeles for an up-close-and-personal look at Emmitt Smith's Tuesday night showdown with Mario Lopez on ABC's Dancing with the Stars performance finale. Anchor Gloria Campos first introduced him as the "Wise Guy" before correcting herself. But on second thought, "You are kind of a bit of a wise guy anyway," she told him.
"Well, thanks very much -- I think," said Castelluci, who'd already had a bad day. His efforts to interview Emmitt or watch his "top secret" rehearsal were rebuffed by his own ABC network, leaving Castelluci without a story unless he concocted one. So he did, visiting a Pink hot dog stand where Emmitt had eaten at least once.
"He was wolfing it down. He was very excited to get a Pink hot dog," said owner Gloria Pink in a "story" that Belo8 billed as "Food For a Champion."
Castelluci also interviewed a couple of people who had never heard of Dancing with the Stars (vengeance is his!) and treated viewers to a Hollywood Walk of Fame "street performance" from a guy dressed as Barney the dinosaur. A better idea would have been to let Castelluci call it a day and then ream out the ABC network behind closed doors for stiffing him.
All four stations -- haven't forgotten you, Fox4 -- gave prominent play to the stormy City Council meeting in Farmers Branch, where English was voted the city's official language and landlords were told they'll be held accountable for housing illegal immigrants. The pushing, shoving and shouting outside made for "good" TV pictures, but the stations presented the story responsibly. Belo8, the only station to send two reporters, had the overall best coverage.
In recycling bin news, Fox4's Brandon Todd told about the nine-year-old boy from Cleburne who steered his mother's car to safety and then calmly called 911 after she had passed out at the wheel. Belo8's Jim Douglas had the same story on last Thursday's 10 p.m. newscast.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Nov. 13)
11/14/06 03:54 PM
By ED BARK
It happens very rarely, which is why Belo8 would like to wipe away Monday's Nielsens. The once dominant ABC station was shut out across the board in the four major local news competitions on Day 8 of the November sweeps. And for the most part, Belo8 wasn't even close to winning in either total homes or with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
CBS11 on the other hand had an unusually good day, winning in homes at both 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., where it benefited greatly from a robust CSI: Miami lead-in. But NBC5's late news won handily with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock also prevailed at 5 p.m. in both ratings measurements while Fox4 took the 25-54 spoils at 6 p.m. Belo8 fared particularly poorly in the latter hour, finishing third in homes and fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds. In the 6 a.m. battle, NBC5 won for the sixth time in eight days over arch rival Fox4, which rebounded by barely nipping NBC5 in the 25-54 demo.
On the entertainment front, Prison Break continued to languish at 7 p.m. Mondays despite a cameo appearance by Good Day co-anchor Megan Henderson. She's the fourth Fox4 news personality to do the show, following Clarice Tinsley, Emily Lopez and Melissa Cutler.
Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the targeted audience for entertainment programming, Prison Break placed just fourth with 69,000 viewers. The made-in-North Texas drama trailed NBC's Deal or No Deal (150,000), ABC's Wife Swap (96,000) and the CBS comedies How I Met Your Mother and The Class (both with 78,000).
Nationally, PB ranked second with 18-to-49-year-olds (behind Deal or No Deal) and had its strongest ratings in that demo since Oct. 2, Fox says.
It happens very rarely, which is why Belo8 would like to wipe away Monday's Nielsens. The once dominant ABC station was shut out across the board in the four major local news competitions on Day 8 of the November sweeps. And for the most part, Belo8 wasn't even close to winning in either total homes or with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
CBS11 on the other hand had an unusually good day, winning in homes at both 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., where it benefited greatly from a robust CSI: Miami lead-in. But NBC5's late news won handily with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock also prevailed at 5 p.m. in both ratings measurements while Fox4 took the 25-54 spoils at 6 p.m. Belo8 fared particularly poorly in the latter hour, finishing third in homes and fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds. In the 6 a.m. battle, NBC5 won for the sixth time in eight days over arch rival Fox4, which rebounded by barely nipping NBC5 in the 25-54 demo.
On the entertainment front, Prison Break continued to languish at 7 p.m. Mondays despite a cameo appearance by Good Day co-anchor Megan Henderson. She's the fourth Fox4 news personality to do the show, following Clarice Tinsley, Emily Lopez and Melissa Cutler.
Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the targeted audience for entertainment programming, Prison Break placed just fourth with 69,000 viewers. The made-in-North Texas drama trailed NBC's Deal or No Deal (150,000), ABC's Wife Swap (96,000) and the CBS comedies How I Met Your Mother and The Class (both with 78,000).
Nationally, PB ranked second with 18-to-49-year-olds (behind Deal or No Deal) and had its strongest ratings in that demo since Oct. 2, Fox says.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Fri., Nov. 10)
11/13/06 03:52 PM
Belo8's Chris Hawes, Pete Delkus and Bob Greene: All had their moments on the station's teeter-tottering Friday 10 p.m. newscast.
By ED BARK
Belo8's 10 p.m. newscast stood out Friday night -- sometimes like a sore thumb. The station that once set a national standard for local news coverage sometimes seems intent on sinking to within striking distance of a certain other D-FW station that has a Peacock for its mascot and a Ted Baxter knockoff in one of its anchor chairs.
Let's again go to the videotapes to review Night 7 of the November "sweeps" news wars.
Early in its 10 p.m. show, Belo8 played bait-and-switch with those heretofore "secret" plans for the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington. Last week the state attorney-general's office ruled that taxpayers had a right to see them since their money will be used to partly fund the team's new showplace. The Cowboys had argued that security issues were at stake, but that didn't wash.
Fox4, NBC5 and CBS11 all reported the attorney-general's ruling on their Wednesday 10 p.m. newscasts. Belo8 managed to miss that one entirely, but tried to come back with a vengeance Friday night.
"They didn't want you to see this," the station huffed. Then reporter Chris Hawes took over with a story that dropped the ball well before sports anchor Dale Hansen once again ripped Terrell Owens for doing the same. Hawes reported live from Friday night's DeSoto-Arlington high school football game, where she said from the stands that the Cowboys had threatened legal action if stations displayed any stadium blueprints on-camera.
"But the city said we can do with them what we like," she said. "So now you're about to see them."
Well, not quite yet. Viewers instead saw two excited members of the DeSoto high school color guard. "Tonight they fantasized about performing before five times as many people" at the new Cowboys stadium, said Hawes.
One girl said she'd be "so nervous." And the other: "I'd be excited to perform there because you'd have to look way up and just perform your heart out."
Brief glimpses of three stadium blueprints proved to be sub-revealing. But Belo8 did have ample, not-so-secret footage of the girls marching and fantasizing. Hawes then closed the report by disclosing that the new football palace will "have glazed aluminum wall panels and some limestone veneer." Wow, start spreadin' the news.
Hawes' embarrassingly silly approach might have played OK in Dinkytown. But for a down-to-earth real story, the place to be was Fox4. Reporter Brandon Todd calmly flipped through the stacks of blueprints at Arlington City Hall and interviewed people who actually had something to do with them. That included Arlington mayor Bob Cluck, who said that some parts of the stadium plans will and must be kept private for security reasons.
Todd also talked to elderly Evelyn Wray, the last Arlington homeowner to be displaced before construction began.
"It just still makes me angry," she said, even though Todd pointed out that she had received $2.7 million to vacate.
CBS11's Joel Thomas capably reported on the hardly riveting piles of stadium blueprints while NBC5 gave the story only passing mention via a brief read-through by anchor Mike Snyder.
The veteran NBC5 desk man still has a knack for injecting the creepy-crawlies into some of his offhand remarks. Savoring a crisp fall night after unseasonably warm temperatures, he told forecaster David Finfrock, "Ah, you sleep so good with a light blanket on. It's gonna be g-o-o-od tonight." Cringe.
Over on Belo8, overtly amiable weatherman Pete Delkus had a full-blown "happy talk" coming out party. The subject was a Massachusetts judge's ruling that a burrito isn't a sandwich. Anchors John McCaa and Gloria Campos both came down on the other side of this pressing issue, insisting that a burrito certainly is a sandwich. But Delkus wasn't so sure, telling McCaa just before a commercial break, "It's gotta have the old-fashioned bread, John."
That wasn't nearly the end of it. McCaa tried to steer Delkus toward a weather topic when they returned. But the heir to Troy Dungan went right back to burrito-ville.
"I'll eat whatever ya put in front of me," he declared. "I don't care if it's a burrito, pita bread, whatever it is, Gloria, I'll eat it. A sandwich is a sandwich is a burrito. Whatever."
Another new face at Belo8, Bob Greene, did a nice job reporting on the 60 new "red light cameras" being installed at various busy Dallas intersections. Street reporter Greene has been criticized in these columns for lack of legwork. This time he thoroughly covered his bases with a good cross-section of interviews.
Nightbeat veteran Scott Gordon of NBC5 had a decent opening piece on a Fort Worth fire station that took in a two-month old baby whose mother had disappeared. Texas' "Baby Moses" law allows such dropoffs with no questions asked, Gordon said.
CBS11's Jack Fink brought viewers a heartwarmer on the surprise reunion in Wylie between a soldier returning from Iraq and his wife, who didn't expect him home for her 30th birthday. The station's Robbie Owens had a heartbreaker about the many kids whose only good meals of the day are at their schools. One wrote in a survey, "Sometimes we don't have any food on the weekends, so I eat grass because it's just like salad."
The Texas Food Bank's Food4Kids program is trying to stop this from happening, Owens said. Viewers can donate via a link on CBS11TV.com.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., Nov. 10)
11/13/06 02:39 PM
By ED BARK
Day 7 of the November "sweeps" gave NBC5 another nudge toward sweeping the 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. newscast battles in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock nipped runnerup Belo8 in homes at 10 p.m. and zapped the ABC station among advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds. Its margins were comparatively paper-thin at 6 a.m., where second-place Fox4 remains in contention but needs a lopsided win or two to get seriously back on track.
Friday's 5 and 6 p.m. results again were all over the board. Belo8 edged NBC5 in homes at 5 p.m., but the Peacock prevailed with 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11 topped the 6 p.m. ratings in homes and remains a serious threat to Belo8 in that measurement. Belo8 countered by narrowly winning with 25-to-54-year-olds, with Fox4 just one-tenth of a rating point behind and third-place CBS11 only another tenth of a point back.
The 10 p.m. newscasts on NBC5 and Belo8 both were seen in more homes than any of Friday's prime-time entertainment programming on their respective networks. As with last Friday, no program of any sort came close to hitting a double-digit Nielsen rating. Lots of people just have other things to do on the last work day of the week.
Day 7 of the November "sweeps" gave NBC5 another nudge toward sweeping the 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. newscast battles in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds.
The Peacock nipped runnerup Belo8 in homes at 10 p.m. and zapped the ABC station among advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds. Its margins were comparatively paper-thin at 6 a.m., where second-place Fox4 remains in contention but needs a lopsided win or two to get seriously back on track.
Friday's 5 and 6 p.m. results again were all over the board. Belo8 edged NBC5 in homes at 5 p.m., but the Peacock prevailed with 25-to-54-year-olds. CBS11 topped the 6 p.m. ratings in homes and remains a serious threat to Belo8 in that measurement. Belo8 countered by narrowly winning with 25-to-54-year-olds, with Fox4 just one-tenth of a rating point behind and third-place CBS11 only another tenth of a point back.
The 10 p.m. newscasts on NBC5 and Belo8 both were seen in more homes than any of Friday's prime-time entertainment programming on their respective networks. As with last Friday, no program of any sort came close to hitting a double-digit Nielsen rating. Lots of people just have other things to do on the last work day of the week.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Thurs., Nov.9)
11/10/06 04:34 PM
By ED BARK
Night 6 of the November "sweeps" found all four stations playing up the rapid release of a young mother who drowned her two young daughters just over three years ago. Let's look at the caliber of the reporting after first outlining the basics.
Lisa Ann Diaz of Plano was hospitalized in August 2004 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity. She had been charged with murdering her three- and -five-year-old daughters by submerging them in the family bathtub. A state district judge ruled on Thursday that Diaz was now fit to be released.
Fox4 veteran Shaun Rabb excelled in thoroughly detailing the story without hyping up any attendant community outrage. He gave viewers a timeline of the case and interviewed both the prosecutor and Diaz's defense attorney. Rabb also talked to a clinical psychologist who said a complete cure under these circumstances is "very difficult." And he was the only reporter to specify the conditions of Diaz's release. She must meet regularly with her caseworker, undergo mandated blood tests and live with her mother, he told viewers.
In contrast, young Belo8 reporter Bob Greene touched very few of these basic bases. He didn't interview anybody on camera, even though anchor Gloria Campos had primed the pump by saying, "Bob, this comes as a big shock, I bet, to a lot of people."
Greene's narration of the case's particulars mirrored his reporting earlier this month on a sexual assault in Garland. Again, there were no on-camera interviews, just a recitation of the facts illustrated by some earlier video. You've got to do more than that. And if any interviews were cut from his stories, then Greene was ill-served by station producers and editors.
NBC5, where crime is king, went heavy on community outrage after reporter Scott Gordon whetted appetites by telling viewers that Diaz already was "home eating dinner with her relatives."
An indignant Plano resident then declared, "Once you're crazy, you're crazy."
The battle-scarred Gordon, long a member of NBC5's night team, is regularly sent where the yellow police tape roams. He's a tenacious survivor in a tough game, but the toll on him shows. Why not give him a nice, puffy little feature now and then?
Reporter Jack Fink of CBS11 had a solid report on Diaz, but nonetheless fell short of the ringwise Raab's work.
CBS11 led Thursday's 10 p.m. newscast with an interesting report from plucky investigator Ginger Allen on sizable increases in mailbox thefts. Allen focused on a woman who watched through a living room front window while her mail was being pilfered. She then chased the thief, got her mail back and took down his license plate, resulting in his arrest.
Those events were reprised in black-and-white video, with CBS11 erring in not labeling it a re-creation. But the station could have done without anchor Karen Borta's over-the-top tease. "All North Texans need to be on the alert tonight," she declared. Well, no, not really.
Over on Belo8, reporter Jim Douglas offered a palate-cleansing. pleasant little story that had nothing to do with all hell breaking loose.
Douglas interviewed a cute-as-a-button nine-year-old boy who acted fast when his mother blacked out while driving the family car. The second-grader managed to steer the auto to safety, put on the parking brake and then call 911 to direct paramedics to the scene. It later was determined that his now smiling mom had experienced "an extremely severe panic attack."
Amazingly, Douglas didn't set up the story while standing outdoors in the dark. There's an awful lot of that going around, often to the point of absurdity.
NBC5's Kristi Nelson, for instance, was sent out into the night to do a live report on an Internet trivia quiz about calorie counts of various foods. Did you know that two jelly donuts have fewer calories than a sesame bagel with cream cheese? Now you do, but it's still a mystery why Nelson had to hit the road for her live standup. There wasn't even an illustrative donut shop backdrop or anything.
Belo8 led its newscast with reporter Chris Hawes' "exclusive" interview with two women who claimed they were sexually assaulted by a "cosmetics procedures" technician. The accused, Jimmy Adams, "locked us out of the clinic" when asked to do an interview, Hawes said. However, on the day before, Hawes said she did "talk with one patient who told us he (Adams) had just finished treating her."
Anchor Campos either wasn't listening or rigidly following her script. "So Chris, the question tonight is, 'Is Adams still practicing?' " she asked.
"Well, yes, he is," Hawes restated. "But the prosecutor tells us he's not had any contact with any of the alleged victims."
Anchor John McCaa and weatherman Pete Delkus later combined for the night's most laborious segue.
"Now, more and more not-so-thin North Texans are slicing off the fat," said McCaa.
"Well, John, we're going to start to trim some of the heat" from the forecast, rejoined Delkus.
Belo8 sports anchor Dale Hansen took a break from beating up on Mark Cuban and Terrell Owens. Which means it was Cowboys coach Bill Parcells' turn again in a piece titled, "Big Bill Blames Media."
Hansen told viewers that Parcells is "talking like it's them against the world right now." As evidence he presented this hardly damning excerpt from a Parcells press conference: "I really believe we can do it. Now I know that's not an opinion that probably has a lot of credence around here right now, particularly in the media and maybe among the fans. But I believe we can do it."
A smirking Hansen then added, "Yeah, well, it must be me."
His sportscast also included a nice piece by Erin Hawksworth on a resurgent SMU football team that might make it to a bowl game for the first time in more than two decades. But Hansen was the only one to miss Thursday night's big college football upset, with Rutgers knocking off unbeaten, No. 3 Louisville with a last-second field goal.
CBS11's Babe Laufenberg, who hosts a weekly Sunday Cowboys show, got Parcells to open up a bit on his relationship with Owens.
"I'm doing my very best to try to make it work . . . We'll see how it goes from here," he said. "I think there's a possibility it can, but I'm not sure it will."
Hansen already has shown, night after night, that he's rooting strongly against the both of them.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Nov. 9)
11/10/06 03:51 PM
By ED BARK
NBC tightened its grip on the late night and early morning news races Thursday while Belo8 continued to separate itself from the pack at 5 p.m.
But the race is still on at 6 p.m., where Belo8 and CBS11 are battling in total homes and Fox4 is in contention to win among 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
NBC5 made two big hauls at 10 p.m. The Peacock-owned station drew 266,560 homes in spanking runnerup Belo8 (192,780). And NBC5 had double the number of 25-to-54-year-olds, pulling in 248,776 to Belo8's 115,907.
The 6 a.m. competition has seen the usually strong Fox4 falter this week. On Thursday, its Good Day managed only a third place finish among 25-to-54-year-olds, with Belo8 slowly gaining ground in trying to dig out of third place. That likely won't happen in this sweeps period, where six of the 20 weekdays now have been counted. But the ABC station is showing a little momentum of late in the early morning.
On the entertainment front, it's still a pitched battle at 9 a.m. among Belo8's homegrown Good Morning Texas and four well-funded outsiders. On Thursday, CBS11's Rachael Ray narrrowly won in total homes with 59,500. GMT (57,120) was right behind, followed by Fox4's Live with Regis & Kelly (54,740), the last hour of NBC's Today (52,360) and Jerry Springer on Ch. 33 (28,560).
It got even tighter in the fight for 18-to-49-year-olds, the key demographic for entertainment programming. Rachael Ray and R&K led the way (27,000). Then came GMT (24,000), Jerry Springer (21,000) and Today (18,000).
Two longtime syndicated potentates are still cruising in the D-FW ratings. Oprah on Belo8 and Wheel of Fortune on CBS11 continue to outdraw competing shows by wide margins.
NBC tightened its grip on the late night and early morning news races Thursday while Belo8 continued to separate itself from the pack at 5 p.m.
But the race is still on at 6 p.m., where Belo8 and CBS11 are battling in total homes and Fox4 is in contention to win among 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming.
NBC5 made two big hauls at 10 p.m. The Peacock-owned station drew 266,560 homes in spanking runnerup Belo8 (192,780). And NBC5 had double the number of 25-to-54-year-olds, pulling in 248,776 to Belo8's 115,907.
The 6 a.m. competition has seen the usually strong Fox4 falter this week. On Thursday, its Good Day managed only a third place finish among 25-to-54-year-olds, with Belo8 slowly gaining ground in trying to dig out of third place. That likely won't happen in this sweeps period, where six of the 20 weekdays now have been counted. But the ABC station is showing a little momentum of late in the early morning.
On the entertainment front, it's still a pitched battle at 9 a.m. among Belo8's homegrown Good Morning Texas and four well-funded outsiders. On Thursday, CBS11's Rachael Ray narrrowly won in total homes with 59,500. GMT (57,120) was right behind, followed by Fox4's Live with Regis & Kelly (54,740), the last hour of NBC's Today (52,360) and Jerry Springer on Ch. 33 (28,560).
It got even tighter in the fight for 18-to-49-year-olds, the key demographic for entertainment programming. Rachael Ray and R&K led the way (27,000). Then came GMT (24,000), Jerry Springer (21,000) and Today (18,000).
Two longtime syndicated potentates are still cruising in the D-FW ratings. Oprah on Belo8 and Wheel of Fortune on CBS11 continue to outdraw competing shows by wide margins.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Wed., Nov. 8)
11/09/06 05:49 PM
By ED BARK
Terrell Owens is fair game in this town. He's seen to that. But is Belo8's Dale Hansen being even remotely fair to him?
Sports reporting took center stage on Night 5 of the November "sweeps," with all four D-FW newscasts devoting considerable time to the T.O. Cowboys. Hansen's choice words for Owens and his choice of locker room interview snippets were an out-of-bounds contrast to what the other three stations reported. Hansen is entitled to his freewheeling opinions. They're his "unplugged" trademark. What he's doing to Owens, though, seems more like a vendetta.
Viewers who watched the 10 p.m. sports reports on Fox4, NBC5 or CBS11 saw Owens take full responsibility for a big pass drop that contributed heavily to last Sunday's stomach-turning defeat in Washington.
"That's a play that I should make and I didn't make it, and, you know, I feel bad," he told a gaggle of reporters. "I honestly feel like I let the team down and this loss is really on my shoulders."
That's a side of Owens that's not shown very often. On Fox4, sports anchor Mike Doocy followed up with what he termed the "surprising" results of a station web poll. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said that signing Owens was a good idea. Doocy then said he shared that opinion, but didn't think the poll would be so overwhelmingly in favor of Owens.
NBC5 and CBS11 also played portions of Owens' apologia, with the latter station's Steve Dennis telling viewers that Owens "has become the popular scapegoat for this team's disappointment" despite his 44 catches and six touchdowns in eight games.
Belo8's Cowboys story, by Joe Trahan, was titled "CSI: Search for Identity." Hansen set it up by saying, "Cowboys need to figure out who and what they are, and a win this week won't do it."
Owens' blame-taking didn't make Trahan's story. Instead the receiver was used to reinforce its theme. "Right now we're kinda all over the board," Owens said after Coach Bill Parcells declined to talk about any team identity crisis.
Then Hansen lowered the boom.
"Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens stuns me almost every time he opens his mouth," Hansen told viewers. "Just when I think he can't possibly say anything dumber than he already has, he does."
The station next played a clip of Owens pledging to "have fun" at games. He also said he didn't know that fake-sleeping in the end zone while using a football as a pillow would be flagged for an automatic 15-yard penalty.
Hansen of course had a rejoinder: "Owens says he didn't know it was a penalty? Now he's either lying about that and daring the Cowboys to do something about it, or the Cowboys coaches are incredibly incompetent not to have told him about the rules. It's one or the other. Pick one. They bring refs to training camp for just that reason. But maybe Owens slept through that meeting."
This prompted the now prototypical, off-camera hee-haw from anchor Gloria Campos. But is this really a laughing matter? Maybe Hansen should be flagged on occasion for ignoring other elements of a story. Owens in fact blamed himself for the Cowboys loss, an admission that obviously doesn't come easily for a man with his ego. In fairness, Belo8 at least should have put those comments in play before Hansen clotheslined him. But no. You had to watch a rival station's 10 p.m. newscast to get that side of the Owens story. Hansen's agenda demanded it.
In other news, Fox4 was the only station to give any full, detailed attention to the Democrats' stunning sweep of contested Dallas County judicial races. Reporter James Rose also noted that many of the losing Republican judges didn't show up in court Wednesday morning, leaving citizens in the lurch.
Just one station -- CBS11 -- led with the Democrats' complete recapturing of Congress after the down-to-the-wire Virginia Senate race went to Democrat Jim Webb, according to the Associated Press. The station followed with the day's other stunner, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation and President Bush's decision to replace him with Texas A&M president Robert Gates.
NBC5 brushed those stories off as largely inconsequential, waiting until 10:07 p.m. to reel off two news briefs read by anchor Mike Snyder. Deemed more important in the night's pecking order were accounts of a Euless ice cream store robbery, three apartment burglaries and an array of other crime stories that have become NBC5's stock in trade.
The station made a huge deal of two would-be bank robbers who ran through a Plano neighborhood before being caught.
"And sirens and police cars everywhere, and everything was gettin' all taped," said an elderly woman, referring to one of NBC5's money shots -- yellow police tape.
Reporter Scott Gordon waited until the end of his story to tell viewers that, oh yeah, the men were carrying fake guns. On Fox4, which downplayed the story, anchor Clarice Tinsley said right up top that the weapons were fake.
Wednesday night also marked the first "sweeps" appearances of three old time religion warhorses whose reports invariably are on solid ground.
Belo8 investigative reporter Byron Harris had an eye-opening story on the increased frequency with which airline pilots are dead tired enough to fall asleep in flight.
CBS11's Robert Riggs, formerly of Belo8, reported on the long road in Iraq from the perspective of Navy Admiral Patrick Walsh, a Jesuit High School graduate who had a speaking engagement in Dallas that other stations ignored on their 10 p.m. news.
And Fox4's Fil Alvarado talked to soldiers arriving at D-FW Airport for a couple of week leave before returning to combat in Iraq.
These aren't sexy, sensational or crime-infused topics. But they are stories of import and substance. Contrast all three with NBC5's breathless lead story of a Coppell teenager who had fallen off a car trunk and then was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Reporter Scott Friedman said the patient had been stabilized, but had no further information.
Anchor Jane McGarry termed it one of "three big stories we're working on tonight," the others being those would-be robbers with fake guns and the area's unseasonably warm weather.
But NBC5 still holds the top spot in the 10 p.m. Nielsen ratings. So whadda I know?
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Nov. 8)
11/09/06 05:13 PM
By ED BARK
Some readers have wondered how the Mavs are doing. Answer: horrible on the court, not bad in the Nielsen ratings.
Wednesday's latenight Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Clippers game had the largest audience in town from 11 p.m. to midnight, easily whipping a wide variety of network talk shows in both total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. The Ch. 21 telecast, which saw the home team wither down the stretch again, drew 106,505 homes in its final hour. It also scored with the advertiser-craved 18-to-49 set, luring 74,916 of 'em to beat Ch. 33's runnerup combo of Friends and Sex & the City repeats (48,059).
The local news derby, in its fifth day of November "sweeps" competition, again came up aces for NBC5 at 10 p.m. The station took first place in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the key demographic for news programming. NBC5's 218,960 haul in homes made the station's 10 p.m. newscast its most-watched program of the day. Overall top honors Wednesday went to ABC's Dancing with the Stars results show (395,080 homes), which sent former Cowboys running star Emmitt Smith to next week's finale against Mario Lopez.
Fox4 won the 6 a.m. battle in total homes and tied NBC5 for first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 cemented its firm grip on first place at 5 p.m. with a win in total homes and a tie with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds. The ABC station also won convincingly in both ratings measurements at 6 p.m., widening what had been a narrow lead over CBS11 and Fox4.
Some readers have wondered how the Mavs are doing. Answer: horrible on the court, not bad in the Nielsen ratings.
Wednesday's latenight Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Clippers game had the largest audience in town from 11 p.m. to midnight, easily whipping a wide variety of network talk shows in both total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. The Ch. 21 telecast, which saw the home team wither down the stretch again, drew 106,505 homes in its final hour. It also scored with the advertiser-craved 18-to-49 set, luring 74,916 of 'em to beat Ch. 33's runnerup combo of Friends and Sex & the City repeats (48,059).
The local news derby, in its fifth day of November "sweeps" competition, again came up aces for NBC5 at 10 p.m. The station took first place in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the key demographic for news programming. NBC5's 218,960 haul in homes made the station's 10 p.m. newscast its most-watched program of the day. Overall top honors Wednesday went to ABC's Dancing with the Stars results show (395,080 homes), which sent former Cowboys running star Emmitt Smith to next week's finale against Mario Lopez.
Fox4 won the 6 a.m. battle in total homes and tied NBC5 for first with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Belo8 cemented its firm grip on first place at 5 p.m. with a win in total homes and a tie with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds. The ABC station also won convincingly in both ratings measurements at 6 p.m., widening what had been a narrow lead over CBS11 and Fox4.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Tues., Nov. 7)
11/08/06 04:31 PM
By ED BARK
Election nights are litmus tests of technology, reporting skills and overall organization. It's a delicate juggling act from start to finish. Mistakes happen. You just don't want to make any major ones.
In that context, Belo8 made a huge, night-long gaffe while NBC5 played bait and switch with its principal reporters in the field. That left the laurels to Fox4 and CBS11, both of which were rock-solid. The edge, however, goes to Fox4, which had the night's most extensive, comprehensive coverage.
NBC5's 10 p.m. show offered the least election news, although viewers were led to expect much more at the very top of the program. Above-pictured reporters Brett Johnson, Ken Kalthoff, Susan Risdon and Grant Stinchfield introduced themselves from the "watch party" headquarters of the four principal gubernatorial candidates. Then they were neither seen nor heard from again. Nor were losing candidates Chris Bell, Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman. NBC5 carried only the live victory speech of Republican governor Rick Perry before soon turning to business as usual -- a collection of crime stories.
In the station's defense, it did have a three-hour, prime-time election webcast anchored by Kevin Cokely. But in reality, how many people watched that? The big tuna in this market is still the 10 p.m. newscast. So unless you really mean it, don't tell viewers you're going to have reporters "fanning out" all over Texas. On election night at least, perhaps NBC5 could have dispensed with the "Purse Ploy" story by Scott Friedman or the "Copper crooks" piece by Nigel Wheeler. Or even reporter Meredith Land's dispatch on a Dallas sandwich shop's inconsequential "Penny Ban." Another night, another infomercial.
At least NBC5 got the gubernatorial returns right. With 38 percent of precincts reporting at 10 p.m., Perry had 39 percent of the vote, followed by Bell (30 percent), Strayhorn (18 percent) and Friedman (12 percent).
CBS11 and Fox4 also executed this elementary election night exercise. But Belo8 inexplicably screwed it up from start to finish despite using the same percentage of precincts reporting. The station's graphic gave Perry 49 percent of the vote, a level he never came close to attaining. Bell was listed at 36 percent, Strayhorn, 14 percent and Friedman, 1 percent. Belo8 never audibly or visually corrected those numbers. It also put up a graphic that had candidates for attorney-general receiving 0 percent of the vote. But anchors John McCaa and Gloria Campos quickly caught that one, noting that Republican incumbent Greg Abbott easily had won that race.
Belo8 did make an all-out effort with its election night correspondents, who capably reported live from eight locations. But the station self-destructed when it came to dispensing bottom-line factual information on the state's biggest race.
CBS11 covered most of the election night bases and had knowledgeable analysis from veteran John Weekley. The station also made good use of "sister station" (KTXA/Ch. 21) reporters Chris Salcedo and Kaushal Patel, who respectively outlined Texas congressional results and various ballot propositions.
Two victorious candidates, Perry and Abbott, were still running campaign commercials during the CBS11 newscast. That's either piling on or worth a refund. It also was the only station to make room for a sports segment, although anchor Babe Laufenberg really needn't have bothered. An old clip of a rambling Don Meredith talking about being elected governor "in my drinking days" preceded a lame CBS11 web poll on which former Dallas Cowboys QB should be the state's chief executive. Roger Staubach had 75 percent of the vote in early returns.
Fox4 stayed with election coverage for its entire newscast. It was the only station to fully capture audio and video of Perry's wife, Anita, who had a crazed Howard Dean moment while introducing her husband to a cheering crowd in Austin.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great night to be a Republican in Texas!" she screamed while gyrating full-tilt. It belongs somewhere on YouTube.
Fox4 also had some very lively analysis from the political odd couple of Mark Davis and John Wiley Price.
The Democratic gains nationally mark "a return to sanity and some centrality," Price declared.
Davis countered that Nancy Pelosi will make a terrible Speaker of the House and that the new Democratic leadership will fail with "whatever impeachment pipe dream they might have."
Later, Fox4 landed the only live interview with Dallas County district attorney candidate Craig Watkins, who was poised to pull what turned out to be a mega-upset over incumbent Republican Toby Shook. Reporter Lynn Kawano was more than a bit too giddy in Watkins' presence, but at least she had a coup.
Minutes before the 10 p.m. newscast, Fox4 lived dangerously with a live broadcast of candidate Friedman's remarks to supporters in Austin. The Kinkster began by saying, "Allegations that I had sex with a male masseuse are entirely false."
The station then thought better of staying the course, with anchor Steve Eagar telling viewers, "I think we worried about what he was gonna do there."
We've heard considerably worse -- on various Fox entertainment shows.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Nov. 7)
11/08/06 03:26 PM
By ED BARK
Not that many people cared to watch election returns Tuesday night, either on the networks or D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts.
But Fox4's 9 p.m. local news won in a very big way. It thumped competing national campaign coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming. Here's a telescoped look:
Fox 4
Homes -- 199,920
25-54-year-olds -- 144,177
ABC
Homes -- 125,545
25-54-year-olds -- 70,675
NBC
Homes -- 92,820
25-54-year-olds -- 53,713
CBS
Homes -- 78,540
25-54-year-olds -- 48,059
At 10 p.m. NBC5 was the top draw, but drew just 154,700 homes. Last Tuesday, Belo 8 led the pack with 202,300 homes, edging NBC5 (197,540).
Cable news network ratings weren't immediately available, but it's a safe bet they attracted a good share of political junkies. Still, politics is seldom if ever a ratings magnet, even on an off-year election night of considerable import.
In the other local news matchups, NBC5 again won at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements. Through the first four days of the November "sweeps," it's opened up a slim but growing lead over arch-rival Fox4.
Belo8 won at 5 and 6 p.m. in total homes, but NBC5 bested the ABC station at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. They tied at 5 p.m. with younger viewers.
Hopes continued to fade for the Austin-made Friday Night Lights, a high school football series that can't get untracked even in football-crazy D-FW. Tuesday's latest episode ran fifth in total homes in the 7 to 8 p.m. slot.
Not that many people cared to watch election returns Tuesday night, either on the networks or D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts.
But Fox4's 9 p.m. local news won in a very big way. It thumped competing national campaign coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target for news programming. Here's a telescoped look:
Fox 4
Homes -- 199,920
25-54-year-olds -- 144,177
ABC
Homes -- 125,545
25-54-year-olds -- 70,675
NBC
Homes -- 92,820
25-54-year-olds -- 53,713
CBS
Homes -- 78,540
25-54-year-olds -- 48,059
At 10 p.m. NBC5 was the top draw, but drew just 154,700 homes. Last Tuesday, Belo 8 led the pack with 202,300 homes, edging NBC5 (197,540).
Cable news network ratings weren't immediately available, but it's a safe bet they attracted a good share of political junkies. Still, politics is seldom if ever a ratings magnet, even on an off-year election night of considerable import.
In the other local news matchups, NBC5 again won at 6 a.m. in both ratings measurements. Through the first four days of the November "sweeps," it's opened up a slim but growing lead over arch-rival Fox4.
Belo8 won at 5 and 6 p.m. in total homes, but NBC5 bested the ABC station at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. They tied at 5 p.m. with younger viewers.
Hopes continued to fade for the Austin-made Friday Night Lights, a high school football series that can't get untracked even in football-crazy D-FW. Tuesday's latest episode ran fifth in total homes in the 7 to 8 p.m. slot.
A good guy lands on his feet
11/07/06 04:55 PM
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Mon., Nov. 6)
11/07/06 02:44 PM
By ED BARK
An election eve presidential visit to Dallas doesn't necessarily have to lead the 10 p.m. newscast. But you really should have something substantial if it doesn't. Here's who did what Monday on Night 3 of the November "sweeps."
CBS11 and Fox4 made President Bush's stop at Reunion Arena their top story. Each station had reporters on the scene to cover both the campaign event and a protest rally that attracted roughly 200 to 300 people. CBS11 reporter Jack Fink noted that the Republican Party's local get-out-the-vote phone banks were shut down during the rally.
Dallas County GOP chairman Kenn George agreed that this might seem counterproductive. Still, "You can see the crowd," he enthused. "They're gonna get infectious."
He probably didn't mean to say it quite that way.
Belo8 instead led with a story on a Dateline NBC sting operation that triggered the suicide of former Kaufman County district attorney Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. He shot himself in his home while police tried to serve an arrest warrant for soliciting sex with a minor. Conradt had responded to an online solicitation from a decoy posing as a 13-year-old. It's all part of the NBC program's "To Catch a Predator" segments, in which offenders are lured to a hidden camera-equipped "bait house" to be confronted by correspondent Chris Hansen.
Some residents of Murphy, where the bait house was set up, were angered that their neighborhood had been used as a magnet for child molesters during the course of a four-day sting. Channel 8 reporter Dan Ronan asked Murphy Mayor Brett Baldwin whether they deserved an apology. Yes, he thought they did.
This is a story of no small import, and it's defensible to lead with it. Would Belo8 have been as aggressive, though, had an ABC news program such as 20/20 been been behind the bait house?
NBC5 not surprisingly downplayed the Dateline NBC aspect in its considerably less detailed report. The station's top story, accompanied by chilling Bride of Chucky-esque music, concerned a North Texas mother who mistakenly received another woman's prescription at a pharmacy. She noticed the mistake in time, so no one was harmed. That didn't stop NBC5 from stationing reporter Susan Risdon live outside the offending pharmacy chain.
Anchor Mike Snyder noted that the aggrieved woman had contacted the station through its website. He encouraged other viewers to do likewise if they have a news story to tell. Be forewarned. NBC5's next top-of-the-newscast shocker could be about a consumer who almost bit into a health-threatening brown spot on a banana.
As for President Bush, NBC5 waited until 10:09 p.m. to note his visit in a brief reader by anchor Jane McGarry. The accompanying protest was dismissed in less than five seconds. NBC5 gave far more time to reporter Kristi Nelson's hard-hitting report on area residents who put up their Christmas lights early.
Belo8 got around to Bush about four minutes earlier, after reporter Rebecca Lopez's story on a middle-aged woman who had been "living in filth" and hadn't been fed in days. The woman's caregiver, her daughter, said she was depressed and unable to work. As proof, the daughter talked to Lopez while laying in bed and poking her head out from the covers. It's a sorry situation, all right. But is it really a bigger story than a presidential visit? And lest we forget, this is the country's sixth-largest TV market, not Smallville..
Meanwhile, Belo8 anchor Gloria Campos seemed over-caffeinated again. She yelled out this tease to viewers: "Women, are you looking to reignite your love life?! Men have Viagra. What about us!"
The subsequent "story," which ran for 20 seconds or so, said that 43 percent of women report "some type of libido issue." But alas, the only FDA-approved product available to them is something called Estratest.
CBS11 hit the libido issue harder via reporter Shannon Hori's extended piece on a "passion patch" called Scentuelle. You put it on your wrist for that lovin' feelin'. Or as user Jennifer Parks put it, "I felt just generally really good. And just more sexy."
Fox4 has become positively sedate in comparison. Anchors Clarice Tinsley and Baron James present the news cooly and calmly, as do most of the station's reporters. Oh what a relief it is.
Leave it to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, though, to lather things up. He's in a spat with former Mavs coach Don Nelson, who claims that Cuban owes him several million dollars in back pay. Fox4 had the only interview with Cuban, who was sweating like a dog as part of his pre-game ritual of riding an exercise bike. What he said made sense only on Planet Cuban: "Nellie's just a drama queen. You know, he's got a crazy drama. If he's willing to put his money on the table, I'll sit down and go drink for drink, and have a great time."
Belo8 sports anchor Dale Hansen continues to twit both Cuban and Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells. So he enjoyed Nelson's Monday night win over the Mavericks as the new coach of the Golden State Warriors.
"Don Nelson's happy, Mark Cuban's not. And I'm happy now," said Hansen.
And as for Parcells' penalty-prone Cowboys, "The Teflon coach is finally getting some of the blame for this," Hansen said.
We'll close with a bit of Christmas poetry from Belo8 reporter Brad Hawkins, who said that holiday shopping at some major malls will be safer because of police "skywatch towers" in parking lots.
"Officers up above roof tops, much higher than a sleigh," he told viewers. "On four wheels and two, on horseback and a few undercover, too."
Three newscast nights out of the way, 17 more still in play.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Nov. 6)
11/07/06 02:00 PM
By ED BARK
Buoyed by a big lead-in audience from ABC's Country Music Association awards, Belo8's 10 p.m. newscast scored comfortable wins in both total homes and advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds on Day 3 of the November sweeps.
The station now is running neck-and-neck with NBC5 in both audience measurements. D-FW's Peacock has won every 10 p.m. sweeps competition since February 2002.
Belo8 also has comfortable leads at 5 p.m. and is still holding the fort at 6 p.m. against what look to be serious challenges from CBS11 and Fox4. In the early morning news race, NBC5 and Fox4 remain in a tight battle at 6 a.m., with Belo8's third place Daybreak losing considerable ground on Day 3.
Katie Couric's CBS Evening News, which has been struggling in D-FW, made a strong showing Monday. Couric placed second in total homes at 5:30 p.m., behind ABC's World News. And she resoundingly won the time period with 25-to-54-year-olds after finishing just third on Friday.
Ratings on the entertainment front were bad news again for Fox's Prison Break, which is being filmed entirely in North Texas. Monday's chapter ran an overall fourth in total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the target advertiser demographic for entertainment programming. And it was fifth from 7 to 8 p.m. with 18-to-34-year-olds, where the CW network's Everybody Hates Chris and All of Us took fourth.
Still, there's an upside. Prison Break, which had some queasily graphic content in its latest episode, was Fox4's most-watched program Monday in homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. It's in part being hurt in D-FW by low-rated lead-ins and lead-outs from the syndicated Access Hollywood and Fox's Justice.
Finally, let's look at how CW33's syndicated 6 p.m. repeats of Friends work their way up the demographic food chain in competition with local newscasts. Friends placed fourth on Monday with 25-to-54-year-olds, beating Fox4's newscast but trailing the three others. It moved up to third place with 18-to-49-year-olds, outdrawing both Fox4 and CBS11. And it tied for first with Belo8 among 18-to-34-year-olds.
Youth shall be served, and they don't much like dinner hour newscasts.
Buoyed by a big lead-in audience from ABC's Country Music Association awards, Belo8's 10 p.m. newscast scored comfortable wins in both total homes and advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds on Day 3 of the November sweeps.
The station now is running neck-and-neck with NBC5 in both audience measurements. D-FW's Peacock has won every 10 p.m. sweeps competition since February 2002.
Belo8 also has comfortable leads at 5 p.m. and is still holding the fort at 6 p.m. against what look to be serious challenges from CBS11 and Fox4. In the early morning news race, NBC5 and Fox4 remain in a tight battle at 6 a.m., with Belo8's third place Daybreak losing considerable ground on Day 3.
Katie Couric's CBS Evening News, which has been struggling in D-FW, made a strong showing Monday. Couric placed second in total homes at 5:30 p.m., behind ABC's World News. And she resoundingly won the time period with 25-to-54-year-olds after finishing just third on Friday.
Ratings on the entertainment front were bad news again for Fox's Prison Break, which is being filmed entirely in North Texas. Monday's chapter ran an overall fourth in total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the target advertiser demographic for entertainment programming. And it was fifth from 7 to 8 p.m. with 18-to-34-year-olds, where the CW network's Everybody Hates Chris and All of Us took fourth.
Still, there's an upside. Prison Break, which had some queasily graphic content in its latest episode, was Fox4's most-watched program Monday in homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds. It's in part being hurt in D-FW by low-rated lead-ins and lead-outs from the syndicated Access Hollywood and Fox's Justice.
Finally, let's look at how CW33's syndicated 6 p.m. repeats of Friends work their way up the demographic food chain in competition with local newscasts. Friends placed fourth on Monday with 25-to-54-year-olds, beating Fox4's newscast but trailing the three others. It moved up to third place with 18-to-49-year-olds, outdrawing both Fox4 and CBS11. And it tied for first with Belo8 among 18-to-34-year-olds.
Youth shall be served, and they don't much like dinner hour newscasts.
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Fri., Nov. 3)
11/06/06 04:58 PM
By ED BARK
This never would have happened in the glory years. But it's a new day at Belo8, which increasingly is inclined to follow the tone and agenda of tabloid-infused, No.1-rated NBC5.
Friday's 10 p.m. Belo8 newscast ripped another page from its rival's playbook. The ABC station's top-of-the-newscast promo regurgitated an alleged story that NBC5 trumpeted on the previous night. It was all about that nefarious "sexy sign" for a Lewisville eat-drink-and-be-merry joint, with reporter Steve Stoler in the saddle.
It should be noted that Stoler is a capable veteran who's simply going where he's assigned. Increasingly, though, asinined ideas carry the day, in this case requiring Stoler to troll for outrage over a billboard showcasing two servers in tight tops and short shorts. Otherwise the come-on is "Beer-Burgers-Babes."
"As a woman I feel that it sets us back," said a denizen who really didn't seem to have her heart in her indignation. "You can see almost everything, and it doesn't leave very much to the imagination."
Belo8 of course provided a loving closeup, in which the two women almost looked like nuns compared to your basic Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.
"Sex sells, and that's the facts," a woman customer of the place told Stoler. "So they're just taking advantage of a marketing tool. You can't blame 'em for that."
What she's saying is resoundingly true -- about both Belo8 and NBC5. But you can blame 'em for that. This is the country's sixth-largest TV market. Aren't there matters of greater import?
Later in the diminished Belo8 newscast, co-anchor Gloria Campos got sophomorically suggestive with the weather.
"Well, I heard a four-letter word mentioned for the weekend -- RAIN," she told forecaster Pete Delkus.
Campos also asked, "Ladies, do have bat wings?" Viewers then were treated to brief footage of sagging underarm flesh, which can be stretched back into shape by a new surgical procedure or something.
Belo8 sports anchor Dale Hansen capped things off by being synergistically tardy with his reference to a Dallas Morning News report that receiver Terrell Owens was falling asleep at some team meetings. His Fox4 counterpart, Mike Doocy, had linked Owens and the DMN story a night earlier. At least Hansen has his priorities straight. To his credit and probably to his eventual downfall, he's never been a corporate man.
Over at NBC5, it was business as usual -- a fast-paced passel of crime stories. They included anchor Mike Snyder's dramatic reading of a wanted man who's been exposing himself before asking, "Have you seen this?"
Then anchor Jane McGarry asked, "Do you feel safe at home?" as a tease to reporter Carol Wang's piece on a new home security system. Anyone watching a typical NBC5 newscast can be forgiven for assuming that D-FW is almost unfit for human habitation. Then again, those daring enough to venture outside closed doors can always shop the bargains. In that realm, the station presented a thinly disguised infomercial on behalf of a Fort Worth woman who supposedly sells home furnishings at fabulous prices.
"$500 for this bed? That's crazy," reporter Brian Curtis dutifully marveled.
D-FW's two anchoring mainstays, CBS11's Tracy Rowlett and Fox4's Clarice Tinsley, closed their respective newscasts on intriguing notes.
Tinsley clearly wasn't thrilled with a kicker about an inebriated couple that strode nude into a Nashville greasy spoon. The displeased look on her face spoke volumes. Suggested caption: "Of all the stories in this wide, wide world, is that the best we could do as a sign-off?"
Rowlett watched closing footage of a "raging bull" running rampant in Newark, NJ before being subdued and hauled off. He noted that the creature was sedated, not euthanized.
"I get nervous, too. I hope they don't do that to me," he then told co-anchor Karen Borta.
"You never know," she said, laughing.
"Well, you would," Rowlett rejoined.
Translation: Rowlett might know whereof he speaks. His extended contract with CBS11 runs until July 2008. But there's speculation that he may be taken off the 10 p.m. newscasts, whose ratings still are falling well short of the popular "lead-in" programming provided on most nights by the CBS network. In this view it would be a mistake to confine Rowlett to the station's early evening newscasts. He remains a topflight anchor and the reigning Walter Cronkite of D-FW news. Still, it's rumored that a change could be made sometime next year.
There was some good work, too, including the following:
***NBC5's Derek Castillo is the market's most underappreciated sports reporter. His weekly showcase is the station's "Big Game Friday Night" high school football report, clearly the best in the market. Castillo's enthusiasm is contagious, not off-putting. He's a strong communicator, whether in the field or occasionally behind the anchor desk.
***Shelly Slater, up-and-coming newcomer at Belo8, had a sobering report on Salvia, a hallucinogenic herb that's been banned in some states but can still be purchased legally and cheaply in Texas. She did so, buying a bag for $20 at an herb shop. The springboard for the story was a teenager who committed suicide while on Salvia. Supposedly one hit is the equivalent of drinking six beers at once.
***In the same vein, CBS11's Ginger Allen reported on the legal prescription drug Ambien, which is supposed to be a sleeping aid. Instead some teens are getting high on what they call "Zombie pills."
***All four stations reported on the Arlington man who shot and wounded an intruder that had broken into his home. But Fox4's Brandon Todd went the extra mile, obtaining a tape of a frantic 911 call to police from the shooter's wife. It vividly brought the story home.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., Nov. 3)
11/06/06 04:05 PM
By ED BARK
D-FW television watchers mostly took Friday off. So much so that the most-watched program of the entire broadcast day was Wheel of Fortune on CBS11, which lured 185,640 homes with a 7.8 Nielsen rating. That's the closest any show came to cracking a double-digit rating.
In the news derby, Day 2 of the November "sweeps" played out well for Belo8, which won in homes and advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds at both 10 and 5 p.m. Fox 4 returned to the winner's circle in both measurements at 6 a.m. in what likely will be another nip-tuck battle with NBC5. At 6 p.m., Belo8 won in total homes and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds. Through the first two weekdays (Nov. 2-3), here how it looks in the four major local news faceoffs:
10 p.m. (total homes)
NBC5 -- 173,740
Belo8 -- 161,840
CBS11 -- 126,140
Fox4 -- 79,730
10 p.m. (25-to-54)
NBC5 -- 127,215
Belo8 -- 113,080
CBS11 -- 67,848
Fox4 -- 43,819
6 a.m. (total homes)
Fox4 -- 111,860
NBC5 -- 111,860
Belo8 -- 80,920
CBS11 -- 42,840
6 a.m. (25-to-54)
Fox4 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 59,367
Belo8 -- 59,367
CBS11 -- 24,030
6 p.m. (total homes)
Belo8 -- 129,710
CBS11 -- 124,950
NBC5 -- 82,110
Fox4 -- 82,110
6 p.m. (25-to-54)
Belo8 -- 62,194
Fox4 -- 57,954
CBS11 -- 56,540
NBC5 -- 33,924
5 p.m. (total homes)
Belo8 -- 141,610
Fox4 -- 101,150
NBC5 -- 96,390
CBS11 -- 73,780
5 p.m. (25-to-54)
Belo8 -- 66,435
Fox4 -- 39,578
NBC5 -- 38,165
CBS11 -- 36,751
D-FW television watchers mostly took Friday off. So much so that the most-watched program of the entire broadcast day was Wheel of Fortune on CBS11, which lured 185,640 homes with a 7.8 Nielsen rating. That's the closest any show came to cracking a double-digit rating.
In the news derby, Day 2 of the November "sweeps" played out well for Belo8, which won in homes and advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds at both 10 and 5 p.m. Fox 4 returned to the winner's circle in both measurements at 6 a.m. in what likely will be another nip-tuck battle with NBC5. At 6 p.m., Belo8 won in total homes and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds. Through the first two weekdays (Nov. 2-3), here how it looks in the four major local news faceoffs:
10 p.m. (total homes)
NBC5 -- 173,740
Belo8 -- 161,840
CBS11 -- 126,140
Fox4 -- 79,730
10 p.m. (25-to-54)
NBC5 -- 127,215
Belo8 -- 113,080
CBS11 -- 67,848
Fox4 -- 43,819
6 a.m. (total homes)
Fox4 -- 111,860
NBC5 -- 111,860
Belo8 -- 80,920
CBS11 -- 42,840
6 a.m. (25-to-54)
Fox4 -- 65,021
NBC5 -- 59,367
Belo8 -- 59,367
CBS11 -- 24,030
6 p.m. (total homes)
Belo8 -- 129,710
CBS11 -- 124,950
NBC5 -- 82,110
Fox4 -- 82,110
6 p.m. (25-to-54)
Belo8 -- 62,194
Fox4 -- 57,954
CBS11 -- 56,540
NBC5 -- 33,924
5 p.m. (total homes)
Belo8 -- 141,610
Fox4 -- 101,150
NBC5 -- 96,390
CBS11 -- 73,780
5 p.m. (25-to-54)
Belo8 -- 66,435
Fox4 -- 39,578
NBC5 -- 38,165
CBS11 -- 36,751
This just in: A night in the lives of D-FW's 10 p.m. newscasts (Thurs., Nov. 2)
11/03/06 03:30 PM
By ED BARK
Car porn, "dirty purses" and an allegedly naughty "Beer-Burgers-Babes" billboard for an area watering hole.
It smells like a ratings "sweeps" period, and it is. The four-week November shootout started Thursday night, with D-FW's 10 p.m. weeknight newscasts the main repositories for showy stories that might "shock" or "surprise" you. It sounds like a job for unclebarky.com, which will be tracking all the non-weather related lows and highs in the country's sixth-largest TV market. We begin with Thursday night, Nov. 2, when all four stations led with chilly weather forecasts before things heated up.
CBS11 and NBC5 must have gotten their station consultants tangled. Both had ludicrous and lengthy stories on the health dangers posed by women's handbags.
"Did you ever stop to think where your purse goes during the day?" asked CBS11 anchor Karen Borta, also the reporter on this pseudo-shocker. The station commissioned a microbiologist to test the ratty things for bacteria content. Turning up: E-coli, salmonella, and, in one case, "vomit and fecal matter." All can pose serious health risks, viewers were told. If so, imagine the horrors of men's wallets.
"OK, Karen," a grinning Tracy Rowlett responded after successfully suppressing a giggle fit. Mind-readers must have had a field day.
Over on NBC5, reporter Meredith Land handled the "Purse Alert" story. Setting out with 22 medical swabs from Baylor Medical Center, she vetted purses both inside and out. A pathology lab then made "several disgusting discoveries." But unlike CBS11, no fecal material showed up. It's tough getting scooped like that.
Belo8 countered with reporter Rebecca Lopez's prominently played "exclusive story" on a man who was ticketed for playing a porn movie in his car while driving. The alleged offender, Robert Nelson, said it would be really difficult for any other motorists to see much of anything. But Lopez found someone willing to take umbrage, which is a flimsy, dime-a-dozen staple of stories like these.
"Ruby Salazar says she would be offended if her four-year-old son, Gordon, saw something like that while driving down the road," Lopez told viewers.
Even more easily offended was Heather Duffie of Lewisville, a mother with two young children who complained to NBC5 about that aforementioned "Beer-Burgers-Babes" billboard that displays two servers in short shorts and form-fitting tops. This merited a thin-soup story by reporter Susan Risdon, even though the outfits were barely daring at best.
Television stations love to present the illusion of a scared or aggrieved citizenry, even it it's only one or two people who just want to be on TV. NBC5 reporter Scott Friedman's story on missing police badges, IDs and uniforms had some interesting information in it. But it was marred by those mike-in-the-face snippets from everyday people who seemingly are coached to say what the story demands.
"Me a single mother. Anything can happen," said one interviewee about the prospect of fake policemen running amuck.
"Oh, you're kidding me, really?" said another supposedly concerned citizen who might just as easily have been commenting on those nefarious dirty purses.
NBC5 continues to present a fast, furious and still No.1-rated newscast characterized by high story counts and a heavy emphasis on crime. Thursday's 10 p.m. program raced through 28 stories, not including the weather and sports segments. Also, if you go to NBC5's website, you can "hear what a whooping cough sounds like," advised anchor Mike Snyder.
There was some good work, too, including the following:
***Fox4 reporter Jeff Crilley had a sturdy, suitably understated report on a sensational topic -- a 14-year-old high school girl who admittedly made a mistake by posing nude for her boyfriend. Now her pictures are all over the Internet and on cell phones, causing the girl to switch schools to no avail.
***Belo8's Jim Douglas had a substantial story on sex offenders trying to rehabilitate themselves while others of their ilk run "rampant" through the community in one camouflaged offender's view.
***CBS11 consumer reporter Bennett Cunningham offered an interesting if overly gimmicky expose on companies that keep their complaining customers at bay with interminable phone waits. He has the direct lines for many of those companies, and they're available on the CBS11 website.
***And Belo8 medical reporter Janet St. James did a followup story on an intriguing "Before, During and After" diet regimen that requires copious water-drinking.
Old reliable Snyder had the blooper of the night after NBC5 reported on a study that said eating out too much can make you heavier. In fact, it can cause "1,200 pounds in weight gain every year," he told viewers before co-anchor Jane McGarry nudged him. Make that 12 pounds, Snyder amended.
Finally, Belo8 tried to milk Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban's mocking reference to sports anchor Dale Hansen. In a piece on the NBA's new conduct rules, Cuban told reporter Gary Reaves, "Dale, I'm sorry. Whatever you want me to do, please just tell me and I'll follow the Hansen code of conduct."
Anchor John McCaa encouraged viewers to stay tuned for Hansen's response. But it only amounted to this: "Mark Cuban deserves an Emmy, by the way, for acting like he listens to me or likes me."
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Nov. 2)
11/03/06 02:50 PM
By ED BARK
Free-falling can be great if you're skydiving but a disaster for a prime-time series with ratings woes. On the first night of the four-week November "sweeps," the new series Six Degrees demonstrated exactly why it's helping to kill the late night news ratings for ABC stations, including Belo8 in D-FW.
Consider this: The last 15 minutes of ABC's Grey's Anatomy (8:45 to 9 p.m.) drew 402,220 homes locally. The closing quarter hour of Six Degrees (9:45 to 10 p.m.) was seen in 92,820 homes. Stations behind that 8-ball don't do well with their followup local newscasts, and Belo8 is no exception. Its 10 p.m. presentation lagged in second place behind NBC5's, which had more than double the lead-in audience from ER. NBC5 also easily won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the advertiser target audience for news programming.
Belo8 had a brighter day in the early morning, where its 6 a.m. Daybreak took first place with 25-to-54-year-olds instead of finishing its usual third. NBC5 otherwise won in total homes, with Fox4 in second place.
CBS11's lone bright spot is still at 6 p.m., where it won in total homes and tied Belo8 for first in the 25-to-54 demo. Belo8 won at 5 p.m. in both audience measurements, leaving Fox4 with a goose egg on the first day of the sweeps.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Free-falling can be great if you're skydiving but a disaster for a prime-time series with ratings woes. On the first night of the four-week November "sweeps," the new series Six Degrees demonstrated exactly why it's helping to kill the late night news ratings for ABC stations, including Belo8 in D-FW.
Consider this: The last 15 minutes of ABC's Grey's Anatomy (8:45 to 9 p.m.) drew 402,220 homes locally. The closing quarter hour of Six Degrees (9:45 to 10 p.m.) was seen in 92,820 homes. Stations behind that 8-ball don't do well with their followup local newscasts, and Belo8 is no exception. Its 10 p.m. presentation lagged in second place behind NBC5's, which had more than double the lead-in audience from ER. NBC5 also easily won among 25-to-54-year-olds, the advertiser target audience for news programming.
Belo8 had a brighter day in the early morning, where its 6 a.m. Daybreak took first place with 25-to-54-year-olds instead of finishing its usual third. NBC5 otherwise won in total homes, with Fox4 in second place.
CBS11's lone bright spot is still at 6 p.m., where it won in total homes and tied Belo8 for first in the 25-to-54 demo. Belo8 won at 5 p.m. in both audience measurements, leaving Fox4 with a goose egg on the first day of the sweeps.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Nov. 1)
11/02/06 03:25 PM
By ED BARK
Off we go into the wild 'n' wacky November "sweeps," which begin Thursday night (Nov. 2) and promise to be filled with news you can use, unless you really think about it.
During the relative calm of sweeps eve, CBS11 provided a case study in the value of a high-powered network entertainment "lead-in" to the 10 p.m. newscast. Even so, CBS11 just about coughed up a win at 10 that should have been a breeze. Let's telescope the chicken feed sent to Fox4, NBC5 and Belo8 on Wednesday night, and the banquet delivered to CBS11.
CBS11
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from CSI: NY -- 309,400 homes
10 p.m. newscast -- 199,920 homes
NBC5
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from Dateline NBC -- 128,520 homes
10 p.m. news -- 190,400 homes
Belo8
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from The Nine -- 135,660 homes
10 p.m. news -- 149,940 homes
Fox4
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from local newscast -- 128,520 homes
10 p.m. news -- 121,380 homes
Again, this doesn't speak to the quality of CBS11's latenight newscast. In fact, it may be too good for its own good. If so, that's a sad commentary. But unclebarky.com will be watching closely throughout the sweeps to see exactly what you're getting from these four battlebots.
CBS11's big, built-in advantage at 10 p.m. wasn't enough to propel a second victory among 25-to-54-year-olds, the key newscast demographic for advertisers. NBC5 won that one handily, with CBS11 second and Belo8 an unaccustomed last.
NBC5 otherwise notched victories at 6 a.m. in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. It also won in this demo at 5 p.m. and tied with Belo8 at 6 p.m.
Wednesday's other two local news wins went to Belo8 in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m.
Belo8's homegrown Good Morning Texas had a very good day at 9 a.m., winning in homes, 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds in competition with the last hour of NBC's Today and syndicated heavyweights Rachael Ray, Live With Regis & Kelly and Jerry Springer.
The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's locally produced Good Day also took the top spot in all three audience measurements. It's a rare day when Good Day doesn't beat the high-priced network morning shows on NBC, ABC and CBS.
Off we go into the wild 'n' wacky November "sweeps," which begin Thursday night (Nov. 2) and promise to be filled with news you can use, unless you really think about it.
During the relative calm of sweeps eve, CBS11 provided a case study in the value of a high-powered network entertainment "lead-in" to the 10 p.m. newscast. Even so, CBS11 just about coughed up a win at 10 that should have been a breeze. Let's telescope the chicken feed sent to Fox4, NBC5 and Belo8 on Wednesday night, and the banquet delivered to CBS11.
CBS11
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from CSI: NY -- 309,400 homes
10 p.m. newscast -- 199,920 homes
NBC5
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from Dateline NBC -- 128,520 homes
10 p.m. news -- 190,400 homes
Belo8
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from The Nine -- 135,660 homes
10 p.m. news -- 149,940 homes
Fox4
9:45 to 10 p.m. lead-in from local newscast -- 128,520 homes
10 p.m. news -- 121,380 homes
Again, this doesn't speak to the quality of CBS11's latenight newscast. In fact, it may be too good for its own good. If so, that's a sad commentary. But unclebarky.com will be watching closely throughout the sweeps to see exactly what you're getting from these four battlebots.
CBS11's big, built-in advantage at 10 p.m. wasn't enough to propel a second victory among 25-to-54-year-olds, the key newscast demographic for advertisers. NBC5 won that one handily, with CBS11 second and Belo8 an unaccustomed last.
NBC5 otherwise notched victories at 6 a.m. in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds. It also won in this demo at 5 p.m. and tied with Belo8 at 6 p.m.
Wednesday's other two local news wins went to Belo8 in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m.
Belo8's homegrown Good Morning Texas had a very good day at 9 a.m., winning in homes, 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds in competition with the last hour of NBC's Today and syndicated heavyweights Rachael Ray, Live With Regis & Kelly and Jerry Springer.
The 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's locally produced Good Day also took the top spot in all three audience measurements. It's a rare day when Good Day doesn't beat the high-priced network morning shows on NBC, ABC and CBS.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Oct. 31)
11/01/06 03:53 PM
By ED BARK
Infused by former Cowboy Emmitt Smith's mambos and rumbas, ABC's Dancing with the Stars keeps piling up big numbers in D-FW.
Tuesday's performance edition lured 376,040 homes, more than doubling the audience for every network prime-time show except NBC's Law & Order: SVU (214,200). Also hitting it big was Tuesday's second Wheel of Fortune show from North Texas, which equaled Monday's performance with 247,520 homes. That's a nice uptick from the 188,020 homes for the previous Tuesday's garden variety Wheel.
The big "lead-out" audience from Pat and Vanna helped CBS11's 6 p.m. newscast, which tied Belo8 in total homes and finished a strong second to Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds, the target advertiser audience for news programming.
Belo8 won the 5 p.m. faceoff in both audience measurements, took the 10 p.m. news competition in total homes and tied NBC5 at that hour in the 25-to-54 demo. The other news victories went to NBC5, which won twice at 6 a.m.
Austin-made Friday Night Lights got sacked with a 7 p.m. repeat of the episode that aired just 22 hours earlier in a special Monday slot on NBC. Lights attracted just 66,640 homes, falling short even of the 69,020 that tuned in to the 5 to 6 a.m. news on NBC5. It's darkest before the dawn.
Infused by former Cowboy Emmitt Smith's mambos and rumbas, ABC's Dancing with the Stars keeps piling up big numbers in D-FW.
Tuesday's performance edition lured 376,040 homes, more than doubling the audience for every network prime-time show except NBC's Law & Order: SVU (214,200). Also hitting it big was Tuesday's second Wheel of Fortune show from North Texas, which equaled Monday's performance with 247,520 homes. That's a nice uptick from the 188,020 homes for the previous Tuesday's garden variety Wheel.
The big "lead-out" audience from Pat and Vanna helped CBS11's 6 p.m. newscast, which tied Belo8 in total homes and finished a strong second to Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds, the target advertiser audience for news programming.
Belo8 won the 5 p.m. faceoff in both audience measurements, took the 10 p.m. news competition in total homes and tied NBC5 at that hour in the 25-to-54 demo. The other news victories went to NBC5, which won twice at 6 a.m.
Austin-made Friday Night Lights got sacked with a 7 p.m. repeat of the episode that aired just 22 hours earlier in a special Monday slot on NBC. Lights attracted just 66,640 homes, falling short even of the 69,020 that tuned in to the 5 to 6 a.m. news on NBC5. It's darkest before the dawn.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Oct. 30)
10/31/06 02:29 PM
By ED BARK
Toting the pigskin for the first and maybe last time on a special Monday night playing field, NBC's Friday Night Lights gained at least a little ground in D-FW.
The acclaimed, Austin-made high school football series had higher Nielsen numbers than it did last week in the show's regular Tuesday slot. It also lured more viewers than Monday's latest episode of Fox's Prison Break, which still can't seem to catch a break in the local ratings despite being filmed entirely in North Texas. Here's a telescoped replay from three angles:
Friday Night Lights (9 p.m. Monday)
Total homes -- 145,180 (third in time period)
18-to-49-year-olds -- 96,000 (tied for second)
Friday Night Lights (7 p.m. Tues., Oct. 24)
Total homes -- 97,580 (fourth)
18-to-49-year-olds -- 78,000 (second)
Prison Break (7 p.m. Monday)
Total homes -- 135,660 (third)
18-to-49-year-olds -- 78,000 (second in first half-hour, third in second half-hour)
Prison Break fared even worse with one of its prime target audiences, 18-to-34-year-olds. It finished fifth Monday in D-FW, but was No. 1 nationally in this demographic. That's a puzzlement.
The local news wars saw all four major stations in winners' circles. NBC5 and CBS11 tied for first in total homes at 10 p.m., with the Peacock winning among 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime target audience for news programming.
Belo8 won at 5 and 6 p.m. in homes, and also notched a victory with 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m.
Fox4 took the 6 a.m. race in both ratings measurements and had another win at 6 p.m. with younger viewers.
The four-week November ratings "sweeps" begin on Thursday. It should be quite a battle, with heavy reinforcements of stories that supposedly will either "shock" or "surprise" you.
Look for the straight dope on all of this at unclebarky.com. You won't find it elsewhere.
Toting the pigskin for the first and maybe last time on a special Monday night playing field, NBC's Friday Night Lights gained at least a little ground in D-FW.
The acclaimed, Austin-made high school football series had higher Nielsen numbers than it did last week in the show's regular Tuesday slot. It also lured more viewers than Monday's latest episode of Fox's Prison Break, which still can't seem to catch a break in the local ratings despite being filmed entirely in North Texas. Here's a telescoped replay from three angles:
Friday Night Lights (9 p.m. Monday)
Total homes -- 145,180 (third in time period)
18-to-49-year-olds -- 96,000 (tied for second)
Friday Night Lights (7 p.m. Tues., Oct. 24)
Total homes -- 97,580 (fourth)
18-to-49-year-olds -- 78,000 (second)
Prison Break (7 p.m. Monday)
Total homes -- 135,660 (third)
18-to-49-year-olds -- 78,000 (second in first half-hour, third in second half-hour)
Prison Break fared even worse with one of its prime target audiences, 18-to-34-year-olds. It finished fifth Monday in D-FW, but was No. 1 nationally in this demographic. That's a puzzlement.
The local news wars saw all four major stations in winners' circles. NBC5 and CBS11 tied for first in total homes at 10 p.m., with the Peacock winning among 25-to-54-year-olds, the prime target audience for news programming.
Belo8 won at 5 and 6 p.m. in homes, and also notched a victory with 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m.
Fox4 took the 6 a.m. race in both ratings measurements and had another win at 6 p.m. with younger viewers.
The four-week November ratings "sweeps" begin on Thursday. It should be quite a battle, with heavy reinforcements of stories that supposedly will either "shock" or "surprise" you.
Look for the straight dope on all of this at unclebarky.com. You won't find it elsewhere.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., Oct. 27)
10/31/06 10:18 AM
By ED BARK
D-FW's topsy turvy local newscast ratings stayed true to form Friday, with Belo8 scoring an exceedingly rare early morning victory in the key audience demographic.
The ABC station won among advertiser-craved 25-to-54-year-olds, edging the usual first place finisher, Fox4. Belo8's newscast also was tops at 10 p.m. in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds. But Fox's concluding fifth game of the World Series was the overall top draw between 10 and 10:30 p.m., with 253,470 homes.
That was an uncommon victory for baseball in D-FW. But the Cards-Tigers were no match for Sunday night's Cowboys-Panthers game on NBC5. It lured 802,060 homes with a 33.7 Nielsen rating that was second nationally only to Charlotte's 34 rating. Shame on us.
Back to Friday's local news programming, where NBC5 won comfortably at 5 and 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds, and also had the edge at 5 p.m. in total homes. Belo8 and Fox4 respectively took the total homes crowns at 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Also of note are those wacky syndicated court shows on KTXA-TV (Channel 21). They're consistently quite a force between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., particularly among 18-to-49-year-olds, the key advertiser target for entertainment programming. A procession of Judge Mathis, the People's Court, Judge Mathis again and Judge Maria Lopez beat all competition except ABC's 1 to 3 p.m. soap duo of One Life to Live and General Hospital.
Talk about your guilty pleasures.
D-FW's topsy turvy local newscast ratings stayed true to form Friday, with Belo8 scoring an exceedingly rare early morning victory in the key audience demographic.
The ABC station won among advertiser-craved 25-to-54-year-olds, edging the usual first place finisher, Fox4. Belo8's newscast also was tops at 10 p.m. in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds. But Fox's concluding fifth game of the World Series was the overall top draw between 10 and 10:30 p.m., with 253,470 homes.
That was an uncommon victory for baseball in D-FW. But the Cards-Tigers were no match for Sunday night's Cowboys-Panthers game on NBC5. It lured 802,060 homes with a 33.7 Nielsen rating that was second nationally only to Charlotte's 34 rating. Shame on us.
Back to Friday's local news programming, where NBC5 won comfortably at 5 and 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds, and also had the edge at 5 p.m. in total homes. Belo8 and Fox4 respectively took the total homes crowns at 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Also of note are those wacky syndicated court shows on KTXA-TV (Channel 21). They're consistently quite a force between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., particularly among 18-to-49-year-olds, the key advertiser target for entertainment programming. A procession of Judge Mathis, the People's Court, Judge Mathis again and Judge Maria Lopez beat all competition except ABC's 1 to 3 p.m. soap duo of One Life to Live and General Hospital.
Talk about your guilty pleasures.
Rolling, rolling rolling: Wheel of Fortune begins 3-week tour of Dallas
10/29/06 04:19 PM
By ED BARK
The thrill of victory and, for the first time, the agony of high-def. Wheel of Fortune has both going for it this fall, which makes the show's two longrunning stars just a little camera-shy.
Vanna White, who will hit the half-century mark on Feb. 18, isn't ready for those kinds of closeups. Pat Sajak, who turned 60 last Thursday, would just as soon be shot the old-school way. They talked about putting their pores on the line during a recent stop in Dallas to tape three weeks worth of Texas-themed shows that begin rolling out Monday (6:30 p.m. on CBS11 locally).
"No. No, of course I'm not ready for it," White says without batting an eyelash. "It shows every line and wrinkle in your face. Makes you look 20 times older than you are!"
But how does she really feel?
"They apply the makeup differently because every little thing shows. Everything. Every follicle. I'm scared to look at it. I don't think I'm going to watch the show for a while. All these years people say, 'You look so much better in person.' But now I'm afraid what they're going to say."
Sajak spoke with clarity, too. So to speak.
"Boy, I'm not a fan of HD personally. I'd like some Barbra Streisand gauze...I want the Barbara Walters soft-focus. You can barely see Barbara anymore. People may be completely repulsed and say, 'Who's this new host that we have here -- Quasimodo?' I want low-def. Low, lower and lowest def."
They're otherwise doing just fine. Sajak is in his 25th year of hosting Wheel, which is very nice work if you can get it. The hours aren't long, the pay is super-sweet and Wheel is still the No. 1-rated show in syndication, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"It's a show that defies logic in some ways," Sajak says. "There's an old-fashioned nature to it that's kind of counter to what's going on in television. If I went to pitch this show to a network today, I wouldn't get past 30 seconds. But somewhere along the line we became part of the popular culture. Even if you don't watch the show every day, it's kind of comforting to know it's out there. It's like the sunset."
White, who began turning heads and letters in 1982, has both a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as "Television's Most Frequent Clapper." She supposedly averages 720 claps a show and more than 28,000 a season.
"What did they do, slow the camera down and count each one?" she wonders.
She's never replicated a dress on the air, and now has worn more than 5,000 different outfits. But White's briefly stumped when asked to name the first letter she ever turned (according to official Wheel press materials).
"Let me guess. N?"
"No."
"T?"
"Yes."
"OK. All right. I should have remembered that one."
She'd rather have people forget her upcoming 50th birthday.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I need to figure out something. It's going to be here before I know it."
She then says "yikes" in a whisper, prompting her even older interviewer to blurt, "Don't get depressed."
"No? I kind of am," White says. "I am depressed. There's something about it. It just sounds so old. But it's only the way we feel, right? I'm going to be as good as I can when I turn that age on my next birthday. I refuse to say it."
Let's end on a brighter, perkier vowel. Sajak is a master of self-deprecation, it turns out. At the time of our interview, he hadn't yet read a Rolling Stone profile on Wheel creator Merv Griffin. But this did cause him to remember what Rolling Stone once said about him. The writer first referenced the movie The Fly. Then he said that if Dick Clark and a chipmunk entered its experimental machine together, Pat Sajak would emerge.
High-def at least won't do that to him.
In performance: Craig Ferguson at the Granada
10/29/06 02:21 PM
By ED BARK
Craig Ferguson gave up his desk job Friday night, stopping in Dallas to be a standup guy both onstage and for charity.
The Scottish host of CBS' Late Late Show found himself a bit at odds with the British-themed "Community a Go-Go" event at the Granada Theater. The stage was back-dropped with three big Union Jacks, prompting Ferguson to ad lib, "When I see a flag like this, I think I'm in court."
Wearing faded jeans, white sneakers and a hang-out black tee, Ferguson held court for 55 minutes on behalf of Community Partners of Dallas, which aids abused and neglected children. His TV show also got into the act. A VIP package that includes a backstage tour of Late Late Show fetched the night's top bid of $2,600 at a concluding live auction. In comparison, a "celebrity mountain bike" autographed by Jessica Simpson, Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson had a tough road to just $700.
Ferguson, who mostly eschews cue cards during his TV monologues, resorted to well-practiced material at the Granada. Still, he threw himself into it, winning the crowd over with his exuberance as much as his jokes. He gabbed about his youthful years in Glasgow ("a medieval Starsky & Hutch"), his "odd" mother, his own rehabbing from drug and alcohol abuse, Tom Cruise ("the apex of success and crazy") and most notably, fellow Scotsman Sean Connery.
"He's a walking cadaver!" Ferguson said of Connery, 76. But in his view, Connery remains "the sexiest man alive" and the consummate James Bond. No offense to latter day 007 Pierce Brosnan, but he's merely "cute in a sort of Orlando Bloom way. I can do Orlando Bloom, but Sean Connery can do me."
Ferguson, who's been doing Late Late Show since January 2005, recalled first visiting America as a 13-year-old during the 1976 Bicentennial. He and his parents came over on a "tramp steamer, which has nothing to do with Paris Hilton."
He vividly remembers America's vibrant colors and gleaming teeth from that year. Plus he got to see Blue Oyster Cult with his cousins at a concert where they "all had to share the same cigarette." This convinced him that one had to do some sort of drug at a rock concert. But when Deep Purple came to Glasgow, he inadvertently knocked himself out with an artificial stimulant that turned out to be chloroform. The moral of that story: "Just say no to chloroform."
But seriously, folks, he's been sober, by his count, for 14 years. And that's even though "you're encouraged to be crazy in L.A."
Ferguson knows where he stands, though. He's just a slug on a TV talk show, a mere mortal who bows to the goddess of the genre.
"Oprah is the world's last superpower," he declares. "I love Oprah. I have to. I'm in show business."
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Oct. 26)
10/27/06 03:39 PM
By ED BARK
The World series finally scored a few ratings runs Thursday night -- but only against reruns.
Game 4 of the fall classic came within a half-step of being D-FW's most-watched program from 9 to 10 p.m. The tightly fought Cards-Tigers contest on Fox drew 226,100 homes, just shy of the 228,480 taking in ABC's Grey's Anatomy rerun at that hour. Baseball did handily beat repeats of CBS' Shark (183,260 homes) and NBC's ER (119,000).
The up-and-down four major local newscast races again gave each station at least one reason to put on a happy face. Significantly, CBS11 seems to be making genuine progress at 6 p.m. while continuing to struggle at 10 p.m. The station won for the second time this week among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for news programming. Helping are strong "lead outs" at 6:30 p.m. from Wheel of Fortune, which Belo8 gave up on last fall. It should only get better for CBS11 in the next three weeks, with Wheel airing 15 shows that were recently taped in Dallas.
Belo8 nipped CBS11 by just one-tenth of a rating point in total homes at 6 p.m. But the ABC station won by comfortable margins at 10 p.m. in both ratings measurements.
Fox4 again controlled the 6 a.m. slot in total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds. That left NBC5 with dual wins at 5 p.m.
Despite Katie Couric's exclusive interview with Michael J. Fox, the CBS Evening News slid back into fourth place in D-FW after recording a rare win Wednesday in total homes.
The World series finally scored a few ratings runs Thursday night -- but only against reruns.
Game 4 of the fall classic came within a half-step of being D-FW's most-watched program from 9 to 10 p.m. The tightly fought Cards-Tigers contest on Fox drew 226,100 homes, just shy of the 228,480 taking in ABC's Grey's Anatomy rerun at that hour. Baseball did handily beat repeats of CBS' Shark (183,260 homes) and NBC's ER (119,000).
The up-and-down four major local newscast races again gave each station at least one reason to put on a happy face. Significantly, CBS11 seems to be making genuine progress at 6 p.m. while continuing to struggle at 10 p.m. The station won for the second time this week among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for news programming. Helping are strong "lead outs" at 6:30 p.m. from Wheel of Fortune, which Belo8 gave up on last fall. It should only get better for CBS11 in the next three weeks, with Wheel airing 15 shows that were recently taped in Dallas.
Belo8 nipped CBS11 by just one-tenth of a rating point in total homes at 6 p.m. But the ABC station won by comfortable margins at 10 p.m. in both ratings measurements.
Fox4 again controlled the 6 a.m. slot in total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds. That left NBC5 with dual wins at 5 p.m.
Despite Katie Couric's exclusive interview with Michael J. Fox, the CBS Evening News slid back into fourth place in D-FW after recording a rare win Wednesday in total homes.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Oct. 25)
10/26/06 01:37 PM
By ED BARK
Let's leave the main ratings arenas for a moment and spend a few paragraphs on the poor side of town. For instance, who's winning the hardly titanic struggle from 7 to 9 p.m. between Channel 21's fledgling local newscast and the new MyNetworkTV's pair of English language telenovelas on Channel 27?
On Wednesday, as on most days, it's the news in a breeze, even though the numbers are tiny compared to the major networks' prime-time programming. Here's a snapshot of the results in total homes, 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds:
Homes
TXA 21 News -- 27,370
Desire -- 7,140
Fashion House -- 2,380
25-to-54-year-olds
TXA 21 News -- 14,135
Desire -- 5,654
Fashion House -- "hashmarks" (no measureable rating)
18-to-49-year-olds
TXA 21 News -- 15,000
Desire -- 9,000
Fashion House -- hashmarks
Across the dial in the penthouse suite, ABC's Dancing with the Stars results show was Wednesday's top attraction with 273,700 homes in D-FW. But Dancing ranked No. 3 with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for entertainment programming. ABC's Lost led the way, luring 258,000 younger viewers, followed by CBS' CSI: NY (195,000) and Dancing (153,000).
In the news-go-round, Belo8 had a second straight bad day. Only a tie at 10 p.m. in total homes, with NBC5, kept the once dominant ABC station from being an also-ran across the board. Fox4 had the overall best showing. It won at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the favored advertiser audience for news programming.
Fox4 also triumphed at 6 p.m with 25-to-54-year-olds, with NBC5 winning at 10 p.m. in that demo. CBS11 won in homes at 6 p.m., helped by a rare win from Katie Couric's preceding CBS Evening News.
The November ratings "sweeps" start a week from today, with NBC5 likely to continue a 10 p.m. winning streak that dates to the February 2002 sweeps. The three other major news time periods have no prohibitive favorite, although Fox4 would be the best bet to prevail at 6 a.m. in what likely will be another tight fight with NBC5.
Let's leave the main ratings arenas for a moment and spend a few paragraphs on the poor side of town. For instance, who's winning the hardly titanic struggle from 7 to 9 p.m. between Channel 21's fledgling local newscast and the new MyNetworkTV's pair of English language telenovelas on Channel 27?
On Wednesday, as on most days, it's the news in a breeze, even though the numbers are tiny compared to the major networks' prime-time programming. Here's a snapshot of the results in total homes, 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds:
Homes
TXA 21 News -- 27,370
Desire -- 7,140
Fashion House -- 2,380
25-to-54-year-olds
TXA 21 News -- 14,135
Desire -- 5,654
Fashion House -- "hashmarks" (no measureable rating)
18-to-49-year-olds
TXA 21 News -- 15,000
Desire -- 9,000
Fashion House -- hashmarks
Across the dial in the penthouse suite, ABC's Dancing with the Stars results show was Wednesday's top attraction with 273,700 homes in D-FW. But Dancing ranked No. 3 with 18-to-49-year-olds, the prime advertiser target for entertainment programming. ABC's Lost led the way, luring 258,000 younger viewers, followed by CBS' CSI: NY (195,000) and Dancing (153,000).
In the news-go-round, Belo8 had a second straight bad day. Only a tie at 10 p.m. in total homes, with NBC5, kept the once dominant ABC station from being an also-ran across the board. Fox4 had the overall best showing. It won at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the favored advertiser audience for news programming.
Fox4 also triumphed at 6 p.m with 25-to-54-year-olds, with NBC5 winning at 10 p.m. in that demo. CBS11 won in homes at 6 p.m., helped by a rare win from Katie Couric's preceding CBS Evening News.
The November ratings "sweeps" start a week from today, with NBC5 likely to continue a 10 p.m. winning streak that dates to the February 2002 sweeps. The three other major news time periods have no prohibitive favorite, although Fox4 would be the best bet to prevail at 6 a.m. in what likely will be another tight fight with NBC5.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Oct. 24)
10/25/06 04:31 PM
By ED BARK
The World Series is a big sporting event, but so is ABC's Dancing with the Stars, which creamed baseball's showcase both nationally and in D-FW.
Dancing's local ratings aren't hurt, of course, by the continued strong showing of latter day mambo king Emmitt Smith. His latest floor show was watched in 371,280 homes locally; the first 90 minutes of Fox's Series coverage were a comparative bunt single (143,990 homes).
NBC's ratings-starved Friday Night Lights, also in play between 7 and 8 p.m., placed fourth with 97,580 homes. But the Austin-made freshman series perked up a bit with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, finishing a distant second to Dancing.
The local news wars were dominated by NBC5, which won the key 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. time periods in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming. NBC also took first at 6 p.m. in homes and at 5 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demographic. Fox4 chipped in with a 6 p.m. victory among 25-to-54-year-olds, but finished fourth in total homes at that hour. And Fox 4's 7 to 9 a.m. portion of the locally produced Good Day continued to whip the high-priced network spreads on NBC, ABC and CBS.
That left scraps for once dominant Belo8, which edged NBC5 in homes at 5 p.m. Winless CBS11 fared worse. Its homegrown 6 a.m. show ran fifth, falling short of the syndicated Daily Buzz on sister station KTXA-TV (Channel 21) in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds.
The World Series is a big sporting event, but so is ABC's Dancing with the Stars, which creamed baseball's showcase both nationally and in D-FW.
Dancing's local ratings aren't hurt, of course, by the continued strong showing of latter day mambo king Emmitt Smith. His latest floor show was watched in 371,280 homes locally; the first 90 minutes of Fox's Series coverage were a comparative bunt single (143,990 homes).
NBC's ratings-starved Friday Night Lights, also in play between 7 and 8 p.m., placed fourth with 97,580 homes. But the Austin-made freshman series perked up a bit with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, finishing a distant second to Dancing.
The local news wars were dominated by NBC5, which won the key 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. time periods in both total homes and 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for news programming. NBC also took first at 6 p.m. in homes and at 5 p.m. in the 25-to-54 demographic. Fox4 chipped in with a 6 p.m. victory among 25-to-54-year-olds, but finished fourth in total homes at that hour. And Fox 4's 7 to 9 a.m. portion of the locally produced Good Day continued to whip the high-priced network spreads on NBC, ABC and CBS.
That left scraps for once dominant Belo8, which edged NBC5 in homes at 5 p.m. Winless CBS11 fared worse. Its homegrown 6 a.m. show ran fifth, falling short of the syndicated Daily Buzz on sister station KTXA-TV (Channel 21) in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Oct. 23)
10/24/06 03:32 PM
By ED BARK
Hmm, something really suppressed the 10 p.m. newscast ratings Monday night. Wonder what it might have been?
Oh yeah, the T.O. Cowboys were playing the New York Giants on ESPN's Monday Night Football, with Channel 21 the broadcast outlet in D-FW. ESPN's ratings weren't immediately available, but Channel 21 had a 10.7 rating (254,660 homes) for the game. That was good enough to whip everything in its path from 7:30 to 10:45 p.m. Here's a snapshot of what the four 10 p.m. local newscasts did against the Cowboys and on the previous Monday (Oct. 16):
CBS11
147,560 homes (down 28,560)
NBC5
99,960 homes (down 66,640)
Belo8
97,580 homes (down 73,780)
Fox4
71,400 (down 23,800)
That 's a shortfall of 192,780 homes from the previous Monday. And it's an unaccustomed spot for Belo8, an ABC affiliate whose network had Monday Night Football for 36 years until punting it to ESPN this season.
NBC5 took first place at 10 p.m. with advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds, but drew 65,021 few of them than on the previous Monday. Fox4 again topped the 6 a.m. ratings in both measurements. The 5 and 6 p.m. faceoffs were split three ways. Belo8 won in total homes in both time periods, while NBC5 and CBS11 respectively were tops among younger viewers at 5 and 6 p.m.
Fox's Prison Break, returning from a three-week layoff in deference to baseball, continued to have a tough time drawing big crowds on its home turf. Filmed entirely in North Texas this season, PB ranked third in total homes from 7 to 8 p.m. It dropped a notch to fourth among 18-to-49-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for non-news programming.
PB will have its "fall finale" on Nov. 27 before taking an anticipated lengthy hiatus. Last year, in its first season, the series didn't resume until May 5. But sources at Fox say that PB likely will be back sooner this time.
Hmm, something really suppressed the 10 p.m. newscast ratings Monday night. Wonder what it might have been?
Oh yeah, the T.O. Cowboys were playing the New York Giants on ESPN's Monday Night Football, with Channel 21 the broadcast outlet in D-FW. ESPN's ratings weren't immediately available, but Channel 21 had a 10.7 rating (254,660 homes) for the game. That was good enough to whip everything in its path from 7:30 to 10:45 p.m. Here's a snapshot of what the four 10 p.m. local newscasts did against the Cowboys and on the previous Monday (Oct. 16):
CBS11
147,560 homes (down 28,560)
NBC5
99,960 homes (down 66,640)
Belo8
97,580 homes (down 73,780)
Fox4
71,400 (down 23,800)
That 's a shortfall of 192,780 homes from the previous Monday. And it's an unaccustomed spot for Belo8, an ABC affiliate whose network had Monday Night Football for 36 years until punting it to ESPN this season.
NBC5 took first place at 10 p.m. with advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds, but drew 65,021 few of them than on the previous Monday. Fox4 again topped the 6 a.m. ratings in both measurements. The 5 and 6 p.m. faceoffs were split three ways. Belo8 won in total homes in both time periods, while NBC5 and CBS11 respectively were tops among younger viewers at 5 and 6 p.m.
Fox's Prison Break, returning from a three-week layoff in deference to baseball, continued to have a tough time drawing big crowds on its home turf. Filmed entirely in North Texas this season, PB ranked third in total homes from 7 to 8 p.m. It dropped a notch to fourth among 18-to-49-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for non-news programming.
PB will have its "fall finale" on Nov. 27 before taking an anticipated lengthy hiatus. Last year, in its first season, the series didn't resume until May 5. But sources at Fox say that PB likely will be back sooner this time.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., Oct. 20)
10/23/06 02:25 PM
By ED BARK
Sign of the apocalypse? The most-watched TV show in D-FW Friday was NBC's new 1 vs 100, the knucklehead, big-money game show hosted by Bob Saget.
This only encourages the network to act all that much faster on announced plans to begin de-emphasizing scripted programming. Shudder, it's easy to envision a second edition of 1 vs 100 leading off either Tuesday or Wednesday nights, where NBC has been dying this fall in the Nielsens with three new scripted shows.
1 vs 100 attracted 185,640 homes locally on NBC5, edging Belo8's 10 p.m. newscast (183,260) as Friday's overall top draw. Belo8's news programming fared well throughout the day, also winning the 10 p.m. race among advertiser-craved 25-to-54-year-olds. It likewise took first place in both measurements at 5 and 6 p.m., although CBS11 shared the lead at 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.
At 6 a.m., Fox4's Good Day took the two ratings crowns, with Belo8 a competitive second in the 25-to-54 demo.
NBC5, which usually enjoys at least slice or two of the first-place pie, went home hungry Friday.
Sign of the apocalypse? The most-watched TV show in D-FW Friday was NBC's new 1 vs 100, the knucklehead, big-money game show hosted by Bob Saget.
This only encourages the network to act all that much faster on announced plans to begin de-emphasizing scripted programming. Shudder, it's easy to envision a second edition of 1 vs 100 leading off either Tuesday or Wednesday nights, where NBC has been dying this fall in the Nielsens with three new scripted shows.
1 vs 100 attracted 185,640 homes locally on NBC5, edging Belo8's 10 p.m. newscast (183,260) as Friday's overall top draw. Belo8's news programming fared well throughout the day, also winning the 10 p.m. race among advertiser-craved 25-to-54-year-olds. It likewise took first place in both measurements at 5 and 6 p.m., although CBS11 shared the lead at 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.
At 6 a.m., Fox4's Good Day took the two ratings crowns, with Belo8 a competitive second in the 25-to-54 demo.
NBC5, which usually enjoys at least slice or two of the first-place pie, went home hungry Friday.
Weathering a technical meltdown
10/23/06 09:12 AM
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Oct. 19)
10/20/06 04:17 PM
By ED BARK
NBC5 and CBS11 made most of the noise in Thursday's local newscast battles, with the latter station coming up a rare winner at 6 p.m. in both total homes and advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds.
Otherwise NBC5 wore the party hats, winning across the board in D-FW's two most important local news time periods, 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The station also notched a win in total homes at 5 p.m., with Belo8 prevailing at that hour with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4 had an all-around bad day, and that even goes for Good Day, which finished an unaccustomed third at 6 a.m. with younger viewers. But the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of the show again bested the three network offerings in both ratings measurements. That remains one of the market's most impressive feats.
On the entertainment front, ABC continues to struggle with Six Degrees, its 9 p.m. followup act to the super-hot Grey's Anatomy. The hospital drama had another smashing win, attracting 411,740 homes opposite CBS' runnerup CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (266,560 homes). NBC's Deal or No Deal lagged in third place with 140,420 homes.
Audiences then flowed to the amazingly resilient ER, transforming NBC5 from least-watched to most-watched locally. ER hauled in 278,460 homes to dominate both Six Degrees (166,600) and CBS' Shark (188,020). The audience lead-in from ER then sparked NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast, which cruised to another easy Thursday night win.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
NBC5 and CBS11 made most of the noise in Thursday's local newscast battles, with the latter station coming up a rare winner at 6 p.m. in both total homes and advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds.
Otherwise NBC5 wore the party hats, winning across the board in D-FW's two most important local news time periods, 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The station also notched a win in total homes at 5 p.m., with Belo8 prevailing at that hour with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Fox4 had an all-around bad day, and that even goes for Good Day, which finished an unaccustomed third at 6 a.m. with younger viewers. But the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of the show again bested the three network offerings in both ratings measurements. That remains one of the market's most impressive feats.
On the entertainment front, ABC continues to struggle with Six Degrees, its 9 p.m. followup act to the super-hot Grey's Anatomy. The hospital drama had another smashing win, attracting 411,740 homes opposite CBS' runnerup CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (266,560 homes). NBC's Deal or No Deal lagged in third place with 140,420 homes.
Audiences then flowed to the amazingly resilient ER, transforming NBC5 from least-watched to most-watched locally. ER hauled in 278,460 homes to dominate both Six Degrees (166,600) and CBS' Shark (188,020). The audience lead-in from ER then sparked NBC5's 10 p.m. newscast, which cruised to another easy Thursday night win.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Oct. 18)
10/19/06 04:55 PM
By ED BARK
NBC had fabuloso 10 p.m. ratings Wednesday night, beating Belo8 in both total homes and with advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds, the main target for news programming.
Speaking of Fabuloso, Belo8 loaded its prime-time promotional windows with a tease that went like this: "We're exposing the toxic lookalikes. Is this poisonous mix in your house?" Medical reporter Janet St. James' expose convincingly showed how the brightly colored cleaning agent, which is sold in clear bottles, easily could be mistaken for Gatorade or other energy drinks. There was just one problem. NBC5 did virtually the exact same story several days earlier, also after a barrage of on-air promotions. And they probably got the idea from a months-old Consumer Reports alert.
Some of us can remember the days when Belo8 took pride in beating a competitor into submission with exclusive stories and investigations. Now the station is drinking NBC5's Fabuloso -- which by the way looks like Kool-Aid, too.
Back in the ratings realm, CBS11's 10 p.m. news just can't hold a CSI lead-in, whether it's Monday's Miami version or Wednesday's NY hour. The station again squandered another substantial lead-in advantage to finish a distant third at 10 p.m. in both ratings measurements. In the key 25-to-54 demographic, CBS11 inherited 226,160 viewers from the last 15 minutes of CSI: NY. Its newscast held on to only 104,600 of them.
In Wednesday's three other major local news face-offs, Fox4 won at 6 a.m. on both scorecards and also took first at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 prevailed with the younger viewers at 5 p.m. while Belo8 was tops in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m.
NBC had fabuloso 10 p.m. ratings Wednesday night, beating Belo8 in both total homes and with advertiser-courted 25-to-54-year-olds, the main target for news programming.
Speaking of Fabuloso, Belo8 loaded its prime-time promotional windows with a tease that went like this: "We're exposing the toxic lookalikes. Is this poisonous mix in your house?" Medical reporter Janet St. James' expose convincingly showed how the brightly colored cleaning agent, which is sold in clear bottles, easily could be mistaken for Gatorade or other energy drinks. There was just one problem. NBC5 did virtually the exact same story several days earlier, also after a barrage of on-air promotions. And they probably got the idea from a months-old Consumer Reports alert.
Some of us can remember the days when Belo8 took pride in beating a competitor into submission with exclusive stories and investigations. Now the station is drinking NBC5's Fabuloso -- which by the way looks like Kool-Aid, too.
Back in the ratings realm, CBS11's 10 p.m. news just can't hold a CSI lead-in, whether it's Monday's Miami version or Wednesday's NY hour. The station again squandered another substantial lead-in advantage to finish a distant third at 10 p.m. in both ratings measurements. In the key 25-to-54 demographic, CBS11 inherited 226,160 viewers from the last 15 minutes of CSI: NY. Its newscast held on to only 104,600 of them.
In Wednesday's three other major local news face-offs, Fox4 won at 6 a.m. on both scorecards and also took first at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 prevailed with the younger viewers at 5 p.m. while Belo8 was tops in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Oct. 17)
10/18/06 02:15 PM
By ED BARK
D-FW is said to be a football-crazed market, but most viewers are taking a pass on NBC's excellent, Austin-made Friday Night Lights.
Its Tuesday night ratings were punier than a Pee Wee League game, so don't be surprised if Lights' lights are turned out before the November "sweeps." The third episode was seen in just 73,700 homes locally, down from an already lowly 119,000 the previous week. In contrast, ABC's Emmitt Smith-infused Dancing with the Stars topped the 7 to 8 p.m. charts with 307,020 homes, with CBS' NCIS second (176,120) and CW's Gilmore Girls taking third (85,680). The fictional West Texas Dillon High Panthers did manage to nip the first hour of Fox's slumping Cardinals-Mets playoff game, but it was nearly close enough to call for a measurement.
Friday Night Lights also came up way short among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, the only audience demo NBC cares about for entertainment programming. Rubbing it in, Channel 33's 6:30 p.m. repeat of The Simpsons attracted more 18-to-49-year-olds than Lights. And the cartoon classic was D-FW's top draw at 6:30 p.m. with 18-to-34-year-olds, outdrawing the well-financed humans on Wheel of Fortune, Extra, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight.
In another sports arena, the Mavericks-Rockets preseason game on Channel 21 averaged a 2.8 rating in homes (66,640). That's roughly double the crowd being drawn by the station's fledgling 7 to 9 p.m. local newscast, which the Mavs supplanted Tuesday night.
The market's four major local news battlegrounds had something for everyone, except CBS11.
NBC5 continued to muscle up for the November sweeps, where it hasn't lost at 10 p.m. since November 2001's tri-annual news fistfight. The station had lopsided latenight wins in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for news programming. Fox4 was first at 6 a.m. in both audience measurements, and its Good Day show also continued its mastery over the 7 to 9 a.m. network morning shows.
Belo8 won across the board at 5 p.m., and also took the 6 p.m. face-off in total homes. NBC5 had the 6 p.m. edge with 25-to-54-year-olds.
D-FW is said to be a football-crazed market, but most viewers are taking a pass on NBC's excellent, Austin-made Friday Night Lights.
Its Tuesday night ratings were punier than a Pee Wee League game, so don't be surprised if Lights' lights are turned out before the November "sweeps." The third episode was seen in just 73,700 homes locally, down from an already lowly 119,000 the previous week. In contrast, ABC's Emmitt Smith-infused Dancing with the Stars topped the 7 to 8 p.m. charts with 307,020 homes, with CBS' NCIS second (176,120) and CW's Gilmore Girls taking third (85,680). The fictional West Texas Dillon High Panthers did manage to nip the first hour of Fox's slumping Cardinals-Mets playoff game, but it was nearly close enough to call for a measurement.
Friday Night Lights also came up way short among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, the only audience demo NBC cares about for entertainment programming. Rubbing it in, Channel 33's 6:30 p.m. repeat of The Simpsons attracted more 18-to-49-year-olds than Lights. And the cartoon classic was D-FW's top draw at 6:30 p.m. with 18-to-34-year-olds, outdrawing the well-financed humans on Wheel of Fortune, Extra, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight.
In another sports arena, the Mavericks-Rockets preseason game on Channel 21 averaged a 2.8 rating in homes (66,640). That's roughly double the crowd being drawn by the station's fledgling 7 to 9 p.m. local newscast, which the Mavs supplanted Tuesday night.
The market's four major local news battlegrounds had something for everyone, except CBS11.
NBC5 continued to muscle up for the November sweeps, where it hasn't lost at 10 p.m. since November 2001's tri-annual news fistfight. The station had lopsided latenight wins in both total homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for news programming. Fox4 was first at 6 a.m. in both audience measurements, and its Good Day show also continued its mastery over the 7 to 9 a.m. network morning shows.
Belo8 won across the board at 5 p.m., and also took the 6 p.m. face-off in total homes. NBC5 had the 6 p.m. edge with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Oct. 16)
10/18/06 02:46 AM
By ED BARK
Broken records don't play very well. Neither do CBS11's Monday 10 p.m. newscasts.
So this bears repeating. As noted last Tuesday, CBS11 should dominate the 10 p.m. ratings on a night when it reaps a huge lead-in advantage from the preceding CSI: Miami. Instead the station barely scraped by in total homes, edging arch rivals Belo8 and NBC5 by a whisker when it should have been a full beard. And CBS11 was routed in the key news demographic, 25-to-54-year-olds.
It should be noted that we're not judging quality here. In that realm, CBS11 matches or exceeds its opponents on most nights. But viewer rejection continues. Here's a telescoped look at Monday's audiences for the last 15 minutes of network entertainment shows and the 10 p.m. newscasts they fed into:
Homes
CSI: Miami -- 314,160
CBS11 News -- 176,120
What About Brian (ABC) -- 121,380
Belo8 News -- 171,360
Studio 60 (NBC) -- 109,480
NBC5 News -- 166,600
25-54
CSI: Miami -- 209,198
CBS11 News --- 90,464
What About Brian -- 79,156
Belo8 News -- 115,907
Studio 60 -- 110,258
NBC5 News -- 149,831
While calling paramedics for CBS11, let's note that Belo8 took the 5 p.m. news competition in both audience measurements and also won in total homes at 6 p.m. NBC5 swept the 6 a.m. faceoff and Fox4 had a win at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
On the entertainment front, NBC's Deal or No Deal joined CSI: Miami as Monday's only shows to crack a double-digit rating in total homes. But by 9 p.m., NBC's struggling Studio 60 had nearly shrunk from sight in D/FW. The Peacock network's Monday night scorecard looks like this:
Deal or No Deal -- 261,800 homes
Heroes -- 221,340
Studio 60 -- 114,240
That's too bad because Studio 60 had its best episode since the pilot. A guest appearance by Sting worked well, and there were some terrific scenes among Sarah Paulsen, Christine Lahti and Matt Perry. Creator/writer Aaron Sorkin also took at shot at Cowboys coach Bill Parcells during an exchange among network bosses played by Amanda Peete, Steven Weber and Ed Asner.
"If you want her to cook the meal, you've got to let her shop for the groceries," Asner told Weber.
Peete then asked Weber, "Who said that?"
"Bill Parcells," he told her.
"Who's that?"
"Football coach. He hasn't won a playoff game in nine years."
Actually, it hasn't been that long. Parcells' New York Jets beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-24 on Jan. 10, 1999 for his last post-season victory to date. If you want to cook the meal, Aaron, you've gotta do the research.
Broken records don't play very well. Neither do CBS11's Monday 10 p.m. newscasts.
So this bears repeating. As noted last Tuesday, CBS11 should dominate the 10 p.m. ratings on a night when it reaps a huge lead-in advantage from the preceding CSI: Miami. Instead the station barely scraped by in total homes, edging arch rivals Belo8 and NBC5 by a whisker when it should have been a full beard. And CBS11 was routed in the key news demographic, 25-to-54-year-olds.
It should be noted that we're not judging quality here. In that realm, CBS11 matches or exceeds its opponents on most nights. But viewer rejection continues. Here's a telescoped look at Monday's audiences for the last 15 minutes of network entertainment shows and the 10 p.m. newscasts they fed into:
Homes
CSI: Miami -- 314,160
CBS11 News -- 176,120
What About Brian (ABC) -- 121,380
Belo8 News -- 171,360
Studio 60 (NBC) -- 109,480
NBC5 News -- 166,600
25-54
CSI: Miami -- 209,198
CBS11 News --- 90,464
What About Brian -- 79,156
Belo8 News -- 115,907
Studio 60 -- 110,258
NBC5 News -- 149,831
While calling paramedics for CBS11, let's note that Belo8 took the 5 p.m. news competition in both audience measurements and also won in total homes at 6 p.m. NBC5 swept the 6 a.m. faceoff and Fox4 had a win at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
On the entertainment front, NBC's Deal or No Deal joined CSI: Miami as Monday's only shows to crack a double-digit rating in total homes. But by 9 p.m., NBC's struggling Studio 60 had nearly shrunk from sight in D/FW. The Peacock network's Monday night scorecard looks like this:
Deal or No Deal -- 261,800 homes
Heroes -- 221,340
Studio 60 -- 114,240
That's too bad because Studio 60 had its best episode since the pilot. A guest appearance by Sting worked well, and there were some terrific scenes among Sarah Paulsen, Christine Lahti and Matt Perry. Creator/writer Aaron Sorkin also took at shot at Cowboys coach Bill Parcells during an exchange among network bosses played by Amanda Peete, Steven Weber and Ed Asner.
"If you want her to cook the meal, you've got to let her shop for the groceries," Asner told Weber.
Peete then asked Weber, "Who said that?"
"Bill Parcells," he told her.
"Who's that?"
"Football coach. He hasn't won a playoff game in nine years."
Actually, it hasn't been that long. Parcells' New York Jets beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-24 on Jan. 10, 1999 for his last post-season victory to date. If you want to cook the meal, Aaron, you've gotta do the research.
Troy's autumn years mean summer departure
10/18/06 02:44 AM
By ED BARK
Troy Dungan, dean of Dallas' weathercasters, is forecasting his own future, too. He'll be hanging up his trademark bow ties on July 18, leaving WFAA-TV (Channel 8) after 31 years of taking our temperatures.
"I've done this enough," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I'll miss the people. You know how it is. It's a soap opera every day. There's always stuff going on."
Dungan also has been teaching Bible study classes on Wednesdays in the station's conference room. He'll miss that, too, he said.
Although he doesn't look it, he'll have a momentous birthday on November 17. But being 70 years old isn't a death sentence for those with sunny dispositions.
"My parents were looking for a casket to crawl into," Dungan said. "They got old before their time. I think it's a state of mind."
His wife, Janet, will be throwing him a black tie party at Dallas' Mercury Grill, where they have brunch on most Sundays. They're also fresh from a two-week vacation in Italy, where Dungan said he wore a tie just once -- a long tie -- on their last night before returning to Dallas Sunday.
Dungan already has lightened his workload, doing just the 6 p.m. newscasts since July 19, his 30th anniversary at Channel 8. His successor, meteorologist and former Minnesota Twins pitching prospect Pete Delkus, joined the station in June 2005, with Dungan playing a key role in recruiting him. He came from WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, which offered Delkus a lifetime contract in a last ditch effort to keep him.
"So we had at least a year for what we call the anointing process," Dungan said. "This market does not take to newcomers very well."
For five months they tried a two-headed weatherman gambit, cross-talking throughout their 10 p.m. segments in an effort to accustom viewers to ringing out the old, ringing in the new.
"That was not our favorite thing," Dungan said. "We didn't mind working together, but every night at 6:30 we said, 'What the heck are we going to do tonight?' It was a bit awkward."
Delkus now is fully in charge of the latenight newscasts, with "Delkus Delivers" promos getting heavy play on Channel 8. Dungan is content to fade into the background and get home early. In retirement, he'll still have a 25-days-a-year deal with Channel 8 to "do whatever we decide," he said. That might include weather specials, filling in for Delkus on occasion and a return to the "Santa's Helpers" charity drive that he's spearheaded for much of his tenure at Channel 8. "Just something to kind of keep me in the mix," he said.
Dungan said he'll also be free to do "commercials, voiceovers and other projects they wouldn't let us do at Channel 8." He might try writing a book, too.
"It'll just be nice to have that freedom," he said, after weathering a career that began in 1958 at KWTX-TV in Waco.
"I think I've worked about enough. I've worked in parts of six decades. I must be pretty old."
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., Oct. 13)
10/18/06 02:40 AM
Belo8's local newscasts had a merry, not scary Friday the 13th, winning six of the eight contested time periods while also making a respectable showing in the hard-fought early morning race.
The ABC affiliate swept the 10, 6 and 5 p.m. contests in total homes and with advertiser-favored 25-to-54-year-olds, although Fox4's usually competitive newscasts gave way to a baseball playoff game in the two early evening slots. At 6 a.m., NBC5 topped both ratings measurements, with Belo8 a reasonably close third in homes and tied for second with Fox4 among 25-to-54--year-olds.
CBS11's newscasts continued to struggle. But the station also continues to rebound at 6 p.m. from what now is becoming an expected poor ratings performance in D/FW by Katie Couric's struggling CBS Evening News. On Friday, for instance, CBS11's 6 p.m. newscast finished third with an average of 123,760 homes. Still, that was a considerable upswing from the 69,020 homes for Couric's preceding Evening News.
NBC5, the second-place finisher at 6 p.m. attracted 133,280 homes, down a bit from the 149,940 furnished by Brian Williams' NBC Nightly News. Belo8 had 147,560 homes at 6 p.m., a nice boost from the 114,240 drawn by Charles Gibson's World News on ABC.
In the entertainment derby, NBC's newest big-money game show for dummies, 1 vs 100, performed smartly in both total homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the target audience for non-news programming. The Bob Saget-hosted premiere edged CBS' Close to Home in homes and clubbed both it and ABC's Men In Trees in the 18-to-49-year-old faceoff.
Just one more thing -- and in newscast parlance, this might shock you. Eighty-two-year-old Bob Barker's The Price Is Right easily was 10 a.m's top dog among 18-to-49-year-olds. They thoroughly respect this elder, whose timeless game show doubled the 18-to-49-year-old crowd for its closest competitor, ABC's The View
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Oct. 12)
10/18/06 02:38 AM
By ED BARK
Finally a bit of good news for CBS11.
The station's 6 p.m. newscast topped Thursday's D/FW Nielsen ratings in both total homes and advertiser-favored 25-to-54-year-olds. That marked its first victory in any of the four major news combat zones since Oct. 4, when CBS11's 10 p.m. offering took first in total homes.
Otherwise NBC5 kept its momentum going, winning in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. while also finishing first in homes at 5 p.m. Belo8 hit the winner's circle at 5 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds while Fox4 sustained a rare, across-the-board shutout.
Belo8's bus touring 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts have been something of a bust this week. The ABC station's heavy promotional campaign and extra expense have paid off in only sporadic wins in time periods it dominated until this year. Through Thursday, here's a snapshot of the week's 16 early evening competitions in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds:
Belo8
First place finishes: 7 (including one tie with NBC5)
Second place: 5
Third place: 1
Fourth place: 3
NBC5
First place: 6 (including one tie with Belo8)
Second place: 6
Third place: 3
Fourth place: 1
Fox4
First place: 2
Second place: 2
Third place: 10
Fourth place: 2
CBS11
First place: 2
Second place: 2
Third place: 2
Fourth place: 10
On the entertainment front, ABC's new Six Degrees continued to dig a deep ratings hole for itself after the network's preceding smash hit, Grey's Anatomy. Here's the precipitous dropoff in total homes:
Grey's Anatomy -- averaged 392,700 from 8 to 9 p.m.
Six Degrees -- averaged 178,500 homes from 9 to 10 p.m.
Finally a bit of good news for CBS11.
The station's 6 p.m. newscast topped Thursday's D/FW Nielsen ratings in both total homes and advertiser-favored 25-to-54-year-olds. That marked its first victory in any of the four major news combat zones since Oct. 4, when CBS11's 10 p.m. offering took first in total homes.
Otherwise NBC5 kept its momentum going, winning in both homes and 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. while also finishing first in homes at 5 p.m. Belo8 hit the winner's circle at 5 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds while Fox4 sustained a rare, across-the-board shutout.
Belo8's bus touring 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts have been something of a bust this week. The ABC station's heavy promotional campaign and extra expense have paid off in only sporadic wins in time periods it dominated until this year. Through Thursday, here's a snapshot of the week's 16 early evening competitions in total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds:
Belo8
First place finishes: 7 (including one tie with NBC5)
Second place: 5
Third place: 1
Fourth place: 3
NBC5
First place: 6 (including one tie with Belo8)
Second place: 6
Third place: 3
Fourth place: 1
Fox4
First place: 2
Second place: 2
Third place: 10
Fourth place: 2
CBS11
First place: 2
Second place: 2
Third place: 2
Fourth place: 10
On the entertainment front, ABC's new Six Degrees continued to dig a deep ratings hole for itself after the network's preceding smash hit, Grey's Anatomy. Here's the precipitous dropoff in total homes:
Grey's Anatomy -- averaged 392,700 from 8 to 9 p.m.
Six Degrees -- averaged 178,500 homes from 9 to 10 p.m.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Oct. 11)
10/18/06 02:37 AM
By ED BARK
NBC's prime-time entertainment lineup, including two new sitcom premieres, fared poorly in D/FW Wednesday night. Still, NBC5's latenight newscast managed to score commanding ratings wins in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal news target audience for advertisers.
That's a very good sign if you're NBC5. With the November "sweeps" just three weeks away, it shows that significant numbers of viewers are navigating toward rather than away from you. That still leaves the unsolved mystery of veteran anchor Mike Snyder's appeal, but we'll leave that alone for now.
The Peacock opened the night with dismal ratings in D/FW for Tina Fey's 30 Rock and John Lithgow's 20 Good Years, both of which rated far behind ABC's top-drawing Dancing with the Stars and CBS' steadily performing Jericho.
NBC's losing ways continued at 8 and 9 p.m. with The Biggest Loser and the newly plugged in Dateline. The last 15 minutes of the latter program bequeathed 178,500 total homes and 127,215 younger viewers to the 10 p.m. news. NBC5 then upped those numbers to 259,420 homes and 240,295 viewers aged 25-to-54. Most of that audience seemed to come at the expense of CBS11's news, which again suffered significant dropoffs in both categories.
Second place Belo 8's 10 p.m. news added a marginal number of homes (16,660) at 10 p.m., but lost 45,232 of those advertiser-craved 25-to-54-year-olds.
Wednesday's other three major newscast bouts went like this:
*NBC5 won at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds, but just four-tenths of a rating point (11,308 viewers) separated the four stations at 6 p.m.
*Belo8 placed first in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m., and also was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m.
*Fox4 took total home honors at 6 a.m.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
NBC's prime-time entertainment lineup, including two new sitcom premieres, fared poorly in D/FW Wednesday night. Still, NBC5's latenight newscast managed to score commanding ratings wins in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal news target audience for advertisers.
That's a very good sign if you're NBC5. With the November "sweeps" just three weeks away, it shows that significant numbers of viewers are navigating toward rather than away from you. That still leaves the unsolved mystery of veteran anchor Mike Snyder's appeal, but we'll leave that alone for now.
The Peacock opened the night with dismal ratings in D/FW for Tina Fey's 30 Rock and John Lithgow's 20 Good Years, both of which rated far behind ABC's top-drawing Dancing with the Stars and CBS' steadily performing Jericho.
NBC's losing ways continued at 8 and 9 p.m. with The Biggest Loser and the newly plugged in Dateline. The last 15 minutes of the latter program bequeathed 178,500 total homes and 127,215 younger viewers to the 10 p.m. news. NBC5 then upped those numbers to 259,420 homes and 240,295 viewers aged 25-to-54. Most of that audience seemed to come at the expense of CBS11's news, which again suffered significant dropoffs in both categories.
Second place Belo 8's 10 p.m. news added a marginal number of homes (16,660) at 10 p.m., but lost 45,232 of those advertiser-craved 25-to-54-year-olds.
Wednesday's other three major newscast bouts went like this:
*NBC5 won at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds, but just four-tenths of a rating point (11,308 viewers) separated the four stations at 6 p.m.
*Belo8 placed first in total homes at 5 and 6 p.m., and also was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m.
*Fox4 took total home honors at 6 a.m.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Oct. 10)
10/18/06 02:35 AM
By ED BARK
This just in: Katie Couric's still fledgling CBS Evening News just isn't doing very well in D/FW. In fact it's faring terribly so far with the younger viewers it was designed to lure with an anchor who spent 14 years on Today. Here's a telescoped look at how her numbers diminished Tuesday in the three key Nielsen measurements -- total homes, 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds.
Total Homes
ABC World News -- 161,840
NBC Nightly News -- 149,940
Fox4 local news -- 90,440
CBS Evening News -- 76,160
25-to-54
World News -- 73,502
Nightly News -- 62, 194
Fox4 local news -- 59,367
According to Jim repeats (Ch. 33) -- 36,751
Evening News (tied with That '70s show repeats on Ch. 21) -- 19,789
18-to-49
World News -- 60,000
Nightly News -- 51,000
Fox4 local news -- 48,000
According to Jim -- 27,000
That '70s Show -- 21,000
Jose L-Censura (Ch. 29) -- 19,500
Evening News -- 9,000
CBS11's four major local newscasts fared little better Tuesday, finishing last at 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in competition with Fox4, NBC5 and Belo8. The 10 p.m. newscasts on CBS11 managed third-place finishes,, ahead of Fox4, in total homes and the key 25-to-54 news demographic.
Tuesday's local news winners
*NBC5 at 10 p.m. in both audience measurements, and at 6 p.m. in total homes. The station also tied for first at 6 a.m. with Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds
*Belo8 in both audience measurements at 5 p.m.
*Fox4 at 6 p.m. in the 25-54 demo.
This just in: Katie Couric's still fledgling CBS Evening News just isn't doing very well in D/FW. In fact it's faring terribly so far with the younger viewers it was designed to lure with an anchor who spent 14 years on Today. Here's a telescoped look at how her numbers diminished Tuesday in the three key Nielsen measurements -- total homes, 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds.
Total Homes
ABC World News -- 161,840
NBC Nightly News -- 149,940
Fox4 local news -- 90,440
CBS Evening News -- 76,160
25-to-54
World News -- 73,502
Nightly News -- 62, 194
Fox4 local news -- 59,367
According to Jim repeats (Ch. 33) -- 36,751
Evening News (tied with That '70s show repeats on Ch. 21) -- 19,789
18-to-49
World News -- 60,000
Nightly News -- 51,000
Fox4 local news -- 48,000
According to Jim -- 27,000
That '70s Show -- 21,000
Jose L-Censura (Ch. 29) -- 19,500
Evening News -- 9,000
CBS11's four major local newscasts fared little better Tuesday, finishing last at 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in competition with Fox4, NBC5 and Belo8. The 10 p.m. newscasts on CBS11 managed third-place finishes,, ahead of Fox4, in total homes and the key 25-to-54 news demographic.
Tuesday's local news winners
*NBC5 at 10 p.m. in both audience measurements, and at 6 p.m. in total homes. The station also tied for first at 6 a.m. with Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds
*Belo8 in both audience measurements at 5 p.m.
*Fox4 at 6 p.m. in the 25-54 demo.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Oct. 9)
10/18/06 02:33 AM
By ED BARK
The 10 p.m. newscast ratings on Mondays should be owned by CBS11. But the station continues to squander a major "lead-in" advantage locally from the last 15 minutes of CBS' CSI: Miami. Let's telescope what happened in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for newscasts.
Total Homes
CSI: Miami lead-in --- 249,900
CBS 11 News --- 166,600
NBC's Studio 60 lead-in -- 116,620
NBC5 News -- 176,120
ABC's What About Brian -- 116,620
Belo8 News -- 147,560
Fox4 News at Nine -- 130,900
Fox4 News at 10 -- 104,720
25-to-54-year-olds
CSI: Miami -- 186,582
CBS11 News -- 90,464
Studio 60 -- 98,945
NBC5 News -- 130,042
What About Brian -- 96,118
Belo8 News -- 96,118
Fox4 News at Nine -- 87,637
Fox4News at 10 -- 67,848
The significant audience dropoffs for CBS11's latenight newscast, coupled with audience gains by its two major competitors, are of major concern to management. The station won't win its first-ever "sweeps" victory at 10 p.m. until it can maximize the largesse of its network, particularly on Monday nights. Instead, a severely disadvantaged NBC5 won in both major audience measurements.
NBC5 also had a big day in the other major newscast competitions, winning at 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. for a clean sweep in total homes. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, NBC5 tied Fox4's Good Day at 6 a.m. and also matched Belo8's winning numbers at 5 p.m. Fox4 took the top spot at 6 p.m., with Belo8 dropping to fourth.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
The 10 p.m. newscast ratings on Mondays should be owned by CBS11. But the station continues to squander a major "lead-in" advantage locally from the last 15 minutes of CBS' CSI: Miami. Let's telescope what happened in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for newscasts.
Total Homes
CSI: Miami lead-in --- 249,900
CBS 11 News --- 166,600
NBC's Studio 60 lead-in -- 116,620
NBC5 News -- 176,120
ABC's What About Brian -- 116,620
Belo8 News -- 147,560
Fox4 News at Nine -- 130,900
Fox4 News at 10 -- 104,720
25-to-54-year-olds
CSI: Miami -- 186,582
CBS11 News -- 90,464
Studio 60 -- 98,945
NBC5 News -- 130,042
What About Brian -- 96,118
Belo8 News -- 96,118
Fox4 News at Nine -- 87,637
Fox4News at 10 -- 67,848
The significant audience dropoffs for CBS11's latenight newscast, coupled with audience gains by its two major competitors, are of major concern to management. The station won't win its first-ever "sweeps" victory at 10 p.m. until it can maximize the largesse of its network, particularly on Monday nights. Instead, a severely disadvantaged NBC5 won in both major audience measurements.
NBC5 also had a big day in the other major newscast competitions, winning at 6 a.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. for a clean sweep in total homes. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, NBC5 tied Fox4's Good Day at 6 a.m. and also matched Belo8's winning numbers at 5 p.m. Fox4 took the top spot at 6 p.m., with Belo8 dropping to fourth.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Oct. 6-8)
10/18/06 02:30 AM
By ED BARK
Guess what? Sunday's Cowboys-Eagles game did huge business on Fox4. Here's the scorecard in the three principal ratings categories:
Homes -- 811,580
18-to-49-year-olds -- 674,400
25-to-54-year-olds -- 673,674
Now how about that Friday night Texas governor's debate on Belo8? It placed third from 7 to 8 p.m. in all three major food groups. A comparison:
Homes -- 97,580
18-to-49-year-olds -- 39,000
25-to-54-year-olds -- 48,059
The Friday local newscast ratings also were less than sensational for Belo8. The ABC station rarely loses across the board with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key newscast demographic for advertisers. But on Friday, Belo8 was an uncommmon fourth at 10 p.m., third at 6 p.m. and second at 5 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The day's winners were NBC5 at 10 p.m. and 5 p.m., and Fox4 at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Still, there's a silver lining for Belo8 in the early morning race, which now is second only in importance to the 10 p.m. competition. The station's Daybreak slowly has been closing in on NBC5's waker-upper. On Friday, Belo8 finished second from 6 to 7 a.m. with both 25-to-54-year-olds and in households. Belo8 also has been gaining on NBC5 at 10 p.m., where the latter station's winning streak stretches to the Feb. 2002 "sweeps."
Simultaneously, though, Belo8's onetime strongholds at 5 and 6 p.m. are crumbling. So it should be a very interesting and competitive November sweeps race, with each of the four major newscast races up for grabs.
Guess what? Sunday's Cowboys-Eagles game did huge business on Fox4. Here's the scorecard in the three principal ratings categories:
Homes -- 811,580
18-to-49-year-olds -- 674,400
25-to-54-year-olds -- 673,674
Now how about that Friday night Texas governor's debate on Belo8? It placed third from 7 to 8 p.m. in all three major food groups. A comparison:
Homes -- 97,580
18-to-49-year-olds -- 39,000
25-to-54-year-olds -- 48,059
The Friday local newscast ratings also were less than sensational for Belo8. The ABC station rarely loses across the board with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key newscast demographic for advertisers. But on Friday, Belo8 was an uncommmon fourth at 10 p.m., third at 6 p.m. and second at 5 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The day's winners were NBC5 at 10 p.m. and 5 p.m., and Fox4 at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Still, there's a silver lining for Belo8 in the early morning race, which now is second only in importance to the 10 p.m. competition. The station's Daybreak slowly has been closing in on NBC5's waker-upper. On Friday, Belo8 finished second from 6 to 7 a.m. with both 25-to-54-year-olds and in households. Belo8 also has been gaining on NBC5 at 10 p.m., where the latter station's winning streak stretches to the Feb. 2002 "sweeps."
Simultaneously, though, Belo8's onetime strongholds at 5 and 6 p.m. are crumbling. So it should be a very interesting and competitive November sweeps race, with each of the four major newscast races up for grabs.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Oct. 5)
10/18/06 02:28 AM
By ED BARK
ABC's Grey's Anatomy again ruled the ratings roost in D/FW, but both the network and Belo8 have to be more than a trifle disappointed in the hit med drama's Thursday night supporting cast.
Grey's lured a highly impressive 372,000 advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds to thump CBS' competing CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (174,000). The 8 p.m. slot's other ostensible big cheese, NBC's Deal or No Deal, melted down to just 57,000 younger viewers.
Then the bottom fell out at 9 p.m., with ABC's new Six Degrees dropping two-thirds of its inherited 18-to-49 audience. Meanwhile, NBC's ER docs more than tripled Deal's punchless performance, drawing 213,000 younger viewers to spank second-place Six Degrees (126,000). CBS' new Shark also dropped the ball, sinking to 99,000 of those heavily courted 18-to-49-year-olds.
From 7 to 8 p.m., the second episode of ABC's Ugly Betty beat CBS' runnerup Survivor: Cook Islands in total homes (235,620 to 185,640). But the score dramatically changed with 18-to-49-year-olds. Here's a telescoped look:
The Office (NBC) -- 135,000
Survivor -- 132,000
Smallville (CW) -- 126,000
Ugly Betty -- 117,000
My Name is Earl (NBC) -- 96,000
Fox's Mets-Dodgers playoff game struck out in both ratings categories.
In the local newscast derby, NBC5 won at 10 p.m. in total homes and the advertiser-preferred 25-to-54-year-old target audience for non-entertainment programming. Belo8 took the 5 and 6 p.m. races in both competitions. And at 6 a.m., Fox4 won as usual with 25-to-54-year-olds while NBC5 claimed first in total homes.
ABC's Grey's Anatomy again ruled the ratings roost in D/FW, but both the network and Belo8 have to be more than a trifle disappointed in the hit med drama's Thursday night supporting cast.
Grey's lured a highly impressive 372,000 advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds to thump CBS' competing CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (174,000). The 8 p.m. slot's other ostensible big cheese, NBC's Deal or No Deal, melted down to just 57,000 younger viewers.
Then the bottom fell out at 9 p.m., with ABC's new Six Degrees dropping two-thirds of its inherited 18-to-49 audience. Meanwhile, NBC's ER docs more than tripled Deal's punchless performance, drawing 213,000 younger viewers to spank second-place Six Degrees (126,000). CBS' new Shark also dropped the ball, sinking to 99,000 of those heavily courted 18-to-49-year-olds.
From 7 to 8 p.m., the second episode of ABC's Ugly Betty beat CBS' runnerup Survivor: Cook Islands in total homes (235,620 to 185,640). But the score dramatically changed with 18-to-49-year-olds. Here's a telescoped look:
The Office (NBC) -- 135,000
Survivor -- 132,000
Smallville (CW) -- 126,000
Ugly Betty -- 117,000
My Name is Earl (NBC) -- 96,000
Fox's Mets-Dodgers playoff game struck out in both ratings categories.
In the local newscast derby, NBC5 won at 10 p.m. in total homes and the advertiser-preferred 25-to-54-year-old target audience for non-entertainment programming. Belo8 took the 5 and 6 p.m. races in both competitions. And at 6 a.m., Fox4 won as usual with 25-to-54-year-olds while NBC5 claimed first in total homes.
The Dallas two-step resumes
10/05/06 04:45 PM
By ED BARK
Yet another 11th hour development came at 10 p.m. earlier this week. That's when "the busiest woman in South Hollywood," a k a Dallas Film Commission director Janis Burklund, learned that the makers of a long-planned Dallas feature film want to reboot yet again. Now they'd prefer to shuck Louisiana and film the whole thing here in return for more "cheap or free" inducements.
"We've just got some more work to do to make it work for them," Burklund said in a telephone interview Thursday after talking to representatives of 20th Century Fox. "It's exhausting. We have to scrape. I have to constantly beg people for incentives. But we are Dallas. We have a look that's very hard to duplicate in Louisiana."
Production on the film, initially scheduled to start this month, has been pushed back to Feb. 5, Burklund said. And the shooting schedule has shrunk to 45 days, with John Travolta still the only confirmed star. He'd be J.R. Ewing, the role made famous by Larry Hagman more than a quarter-century ago.
Earlier this year, Burklund was told that the filmmakers would shoot roughly one-third of Dallas in Dallas, with tax incentive-rich Louisiana getting the bulk of the action. But now the game's on again, with Burklund and her thimble-sized staff scurrying to assure the film's bean-counters that Dallas can provide cheaper office space, more affordable location shoots and local crews that can go home at night rather than be fed dinner and put up in hotel rooms. Burklund figures she has a month before pre-production starts in mid-November.
"There are just all these little pieces to try to put this little jigsaw puzzle together," she said. "It's a shining example of why we need these state tax incentives. If we had them, we wouldn't be having these conversations with the film people. It would have been a given that Dallas would be made here."
Travolta's been cast for several months. But the movie's director and scriptwriters have changed, and the supporting cast remains up in the air. Shirley MacLaine and Luke Wilson supposedly are still negotiating to play Miss Ellie and Bobby Ewing, while Marcia Cross of Desperate Housewives is the latest actress rumored to be the new Pam Ewing.
Other reels are turning, too. Fox's Prison Break continues to shoot in North Texas while the show takes a three-week hiatus in deference to baseball's playoffs and World Series. And brief exterior shooting on the pilot for HBO's 12 Miles of Bad Road is scheduled for late October, with Lily Tomlin heading the cast as Dallas high-end realtor Amelia Shakespeare. Mary Kay Place is also in the mix in a dramedy created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason of Designing Women fame.
Burklund said that Denzel Washington also was in Dallas recently to scout locations for Great Debaters, a period drama set at Wiley College in Marshall, TX. Shooting on the feature film tentatively is set for next spring, with Dallas, Marshall and Shreveport, LA each getting part of the action under Washington's direction.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Oct. 4)
10/05/06 02:43 PM
By ED BARK
Lost was found -- big-time --- in D/FW Wednesday night.
Rarely does an entertainment show amass double-digit ratings among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. But the third season premiere of ABC's mind trip turned that corner with a 10.2 Nielsen number (a whopping 306,000 younger viewers). That's more than the combined 18-to-49-year-old audience for the four major networks' competing programs -- CBS' Criminal Minds, NBC's The Biggest Loser, Fox's repeat of House and CW's One Tree Hill.
Lost also was watched in a grand total of 357,000 D/FW homes. That's a home improvement of more than 25 percent over the preceding Dancing with the Stars, another ABC hit buoyed locally by contestant Emmitt Smith.
In the latenight arena, the 18-to-49-year-old crowd preferred Channel 33's 11 p.m.-midnight repeats of Friends and Sex & the City to any of the high-powered network comedy/talk shows on NBC, CBS and ABC.
Wednesday's local news wars gave each of the four combatants something nice to tell their sales reps. The key news demographic -- 25-to-54-year-olds -- yielded three winners. Belo8 triumphed at 10 p.m., but by just two-tenths of a rating point over NBC5. The ABC affiliate came close to squandering a huge lead-in advantage from ABC's preceding premiere of The Nine.
Belo8 also won at 5 p.m., while NBC5 and Fox4 respectively took the trophies at 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The total homes ratings gave CBS11 a win at 10 p.m. Fox4 was No. 1 at 6 a.m. and Belo8 topped the field at 5 and 6 p.m.
Katie Couric's 5:30 p.m. CBS Evening News remained a hard sell in D/FW. She tied for fourth in the 25-to-54 ratings (with Channel 33's rerun of According to Jim) and was a distant third in total homes.
Wednesday's dreaded "hashmark" honors (no measurable rating) go to the new MyNetworkTV's Desire at 7 p.m. on Çhannel 27. The translated telenovela had no pulse with 18-to-49-year-olds.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Lost was found -- big-time --- in D/FW Wednesday night.
Rarely does an entertainment show amass double-digit ratings among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. But the third season premiere of ABC's mind trip turned that corner with a 10.2 Nielsen number (a whopping 306,000 younger viewers). That's more than the combined 18-to-49-year-old audience for the four major networks' competing programs -- CBS' Criminal Minds, NBC's The Biggest Loser, Fox's repeat of House and CW's One Tree Hill.
Lost also was watched in a grand total of 357,000 D/FW homes. That's a home improvement of more than 25 percent over the preceding Dancing with the Stars, another ABC hit buoyed locally by contestant Emmitt Smith.
In the latenight arena, the 18-to-49-year-old crowd preferred Channel 33's 11 p.m.-midnight repeats of Friends and Sex & the City to any of the high-powered network comedy/talk shows on NBC, CBS and ABC.
Wednesday's local news wars gave each of the four combatants something nice to tell their sales reps. The key news demographic -- 25-to-54-year-olds -- yielded three winners. Belo8 triumphed at 10 p.m., but by just two-tenths of a rating point over NBC5. The ABC affiliate came close to squandering a huge lead-in advantage from ABC's preceding premiere of The Nine.
Belo8 also won at 5 p.m., while NBC5 and Fox4 respectively took the trophies at 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The total homes ratings gave CBS11 a win at 10 p.m. Fox4 was No. 1 at 6 a.m. and Belo8 topped the field at 5 and 6 p.m.
Katie Couric's 5:30 p.m. CBS Evening News remained a hard sell in D/FW. She tied for fourth in the 25-to-54 ratings (with Channel 33's rerun of According to Jim) and was a distant third in total homes.
Wednesday's dreaded "hashmark" honors (no measurable rating) go to the new MyNetworkTV's Desire at 7 p.m. on Çhannel 27. The translated telenovela had no pulse with 18-to-49-year-olds.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
The Belo guv debate: Self-serving or public service?
10/05/06 11:49 AM
By ED BARK
Are the powerbrokers at Belo Corp. playing monopoly with Friday night's one and only televised Texas gubernatorial debate?
Well, they're certainly playing hardball. But from this view, the bigger problems are the night, the format and the on-air exclusion of anyone not employed by Belo.
Here's the gist of "Belo's Rules for the Gubernatorial Debate," a document sent to various news outlets with an interest in the four-way face-off among Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Democrat Chris Bell and independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman:
1. No non-Belo stations in "Belo markets" (Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Austin) will be allowed to carry the debate live.
2. TV stations outside these markets can air the debate live, but can't stream it on their Web sites.
3. Spanish-language and PBS stations in Belo markets cannot carry the debate live, but can rebroadcast it later within a four-day window that will close at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
4. Radio stations in and outside Belo markets can air the debate live, but can't stream it on their Web sites.
5. All TV stations in Texas can air segments from the debate on their late night Friday newscasts.
This isn't the way it used to be done, although in practice not much will change in terms of the debate's overall TV and radio exposure. In recent years, gubernatorial debates were brokered by a consortium of Belo, PBS TV stations, the Texas Association of Broadcasters, the Texas State Radio Networks and Texas Monthly. That was the game plan again this year, with Thursday, Oct. 5 the original target date.
Then Belo stepped in and agreed to Perry's insistence that there be one debate only, and that it be scheduled on the eve of Saturday's Texas-Oklahoma game. Frankly, there's no use in having a debate without Perry, so he can pretty much call the tune.
Let's be honest. Even if Belo's rules permitted, rival broadcast stations would have next to no interest in preempting network entertainment programming for a Texas governor's debate. And anyone who wants to watch Perry et. al. instead of Ghost Whisperer presumably will have an opportunity to do so, either on live TV or on Belo-owned Web sites. It's not a perfect situation, but it's good enough for government work. In this case, that's doubly so.
Here are the potential pitfalls, though. First, it's a lousy night and time. Many potential viewers are still out and about at 7 p.m. on a Friday. Texas-OU weekend further drains the audience pool.
Belo also is relying solely on Belo-ites to both question the candidates and keep them in line during the one-hour debate. The corporation's four Texas TV properties are represented by moderator Greg Hurst (Houston's KHOU) and questioners John McCaa (Dallas' WFAA), Sarah Lucero (San Antonio's KENS) and Christine Haas (Austin's KVUE). The lone print interloper is easily the most knowledgeable participant. Veteran Austin bureau chief Wayne Slater of Belo's The Dallas Morning News knows Texas politics through and through.
McCaa is a quality anchor, but his slot should have been given to Brad Watson, the guy in the campaign trenches for Belo8. Hurst, Lucero and Haas are all anchors, too. Do they really know the ins and outs of the governor's race better than their respective stations' field reporters, who perhaps aren't as pretty?
One more thing: There's no slot this time for Texas Monthly's hard-hitting political junkie, Paul Burka. He doesn't work for Belo, so tough luck for him.
Oh well, it's a done deal, and we'll see how Friday's Belo-centric event plays out. For an objective review, check out unclebarky.com on Saturday morn.
Are the powerbrokers at Belo Corp. playing monopoly with Friday night's one and only televised Texas gubernatorial debate?
Well, they're certainly playing hardball. But from this view, the bigger problems are the night, the format and the on-air exclusion of anyone not employed by Belo.
Here's the gist of "Belo's Rules for the Gubernatorial Debate," a document sent to various news outlets with an interest in the four-way face-off among Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Democrat Chris Bell and independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman:
1. No non-Belo stations in "Belo markets" (Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Austin) will be allowed to carry the debate live.
2. TV stations outside these markets can air the debate live, but can't stream it on their Web sites.
3. Spanish-language and PBS stations in Belo markets cannot carry the debate live, but can rebroadcast it later within a four-day window that will close at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
4. Radio stations in and outside Belo markets can air the debate live, but can't stream it on their Web sites.
5. All TV stations in Texas can air segments from the debate on their late night Friday newscasts.
This isn't the way it used to be done, although in practice not much will change in terms of the debate's overall TV and radio exposure. In recent years, gubernatorial debates were brokered by a consortium of Belo, PBS TV stations, the Texas Association of Broadcasters, the Texas State Radio Networks and Texas Monthly. That was the game plan again this year, with Thursday, Oct. 5 the original target date.
Then Belo stepped in and agreed to Perry's insistence that there be one debate only, and that it be scheduled on the eve of Saturday's Texas-Oklahoma game. Frankly, there's no use in having a debate without Perry, so he can pretty much call the tune.
Let's be honest. Even if Belo's rules permitted, rival broadcast stations would have next to no interest in preempting network entertainment programming for a Texas governor's debate. And anyone who wants to watch Perry et. al. instead of Ghost Whisperer presumably will have an opportunity to do so, either on live TV or on Belo-owned Web sites. It's not a perfect situation, but it's good enough for government work. In this case, that's doubly so.
Here are the potential pitfalls, though. First, it's a lousy night and time. Many potential viewers are still out and about at 7 p.m. on a Friday. Texas-OU weekend further drains the audience pool.
Belo also is relying solely on Belo-ites to both question the candidates and keep them in line during the one-hour debate. The corporation's four Texas TV properties are represented by moderator Greg Hurst (Houston's KHOU) and questioners John McCaa (Dallas' WFAA), Sarah Lucero (San Antonio's KENS) and Christine Haas (Austin's KVUE). The lone print interloper is easily the most knowledgeable participant. Veteran Austin bureau chief Wayne Slater of Belo's The Dallas Morning News knows Texas politics through and through.
McCaa is a quality anchor, but his slot should have been given to Brad Watson, the guy in the campaign trenches for Belo8. Hurst, Lucero and Haas are all anchors, too. Do they really know the ins and outs of the governor's race better than their respective stations' field reporters, who perhaps aren't as pretty?
One more thing: There's no slot this time for Texas Monthly's hard-hitting political junkie, Paul Burka. He doesn't work for Belo, so tough luck for him.
Oh well, it's a done deal, and we'll see how Friday's Belo-centric event plays out. For an objective review, check out unclebarky.com on Saturday morn.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Oct. 3)
10/04/06 12:46 PM
By ED BARK
Local newscasts on Belo8 are starting to roll a bit in the ratings. They're not nearly the juggernauts they once were, but a little momentum is evident of late.
Most notable is Belo8's performance in the now feverishly competitive 6 to 7 a.m. hour, where the ABC affiliate's Daybreak lately has been reaching near-parity among advertiser-targeted 25-to-54-year-olds. On both Monday and Tuesday, the show finished a scant one-tenth of a rating point behind Fox4's Good Day, which usually has lots more breathing room. Local ratings are volatile of late, so this could change as soon as tomorrow. But for now, Belo8 is happy to get a vitamin B shot.
Belo8 also took the 5 and 10 p.m. newscast competitions among 25-to-54-year-olds, but dropped to third at 6 p.m., well behind Fox4 and NBC5. In total homes, Belo8 won in a walk at 5 and 6 p.m., while NBC5 and Fox4 respectively were tops at 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
On the entertainment front (where 18-to-49-year-olds are the key measurement), here's a snapshot of an interesting four-way fight at 3 p.m. among some of the country's top syndicated hours:
Ellen (NBC5) -- 27,000
Dr. Phil (CBS11) -- 24,000
Who Wants to be a Millionaire (Belo8) -- 18,000
Judge Alex (Fox4) -- 12,000
Ellen, on the other hand, ranked only third in total homes, where Millionaire easily outpointed Phil.
Tuesday's most-watched program, in a romp, was ABC's Emmitt Smith-fueled Dancing with the Stars. It easily won in all three major Nielsen measurements, drawing more than five times the audience for the first 90 minutes of Fox4's competing Yankees-Tigers playoff game. Dancing was watched in 326,060 homes, for instance, while baseball barely got to home plate (60,690).
Local newscasts on Belo8 are starting to roll a bit in the ratings. They're not nearly the juggernauts they once were, but a little momentum is evident of late.
Most notable is Belo8's performance in the now feverishly competitive 6 to 7 a.m. hour, where the ABC affiliate's Daybreak lately has been reaching near-parity among advertiser-targeted 25-to-54-year-olds. On both Monday and Tuesday, the show finished a scant one-tenth of a rating point behind Fox4's Good Day, which usually has lots more breathing room. Local ratings are volatile of late, so this could change as soon as tomorrow. But for now, Belo8 is happy to get a vitamin B shot.
Belo8 also took the 5 and 10 p.m. newscast competitions among 25-to-54-year-olds, but dropped to third at 6 p.m., well behind Fox4 and NBC5. In total homes, Belo8 won in a walk at 5 and 6 p.m., while NBC5 and Fox4 respectively were tops at 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
On the entertainment front (where 18-to-49-year-olds are the key measurement), here's a snapshot of an interesting four-way fight at 3 p.m. among some of the country's top syndicated hours:
Ellen (NBC5) -- 27,000
Dr. Phil (CBS11) -- 24,000
Who Wants to be a Millionaire (Belo8) -- 18,000
Judge Alex (Fox4) -- 12,000
Ellen, on the other hand, ranked only third in total homes, where Millionaire easily outpointed Phil.
Tuesday's most-watched program, in a romp, was ABC's Emmitt Smith-fueled Dancing with the Stars. It easily won in all three major Nielsen measurements, drawing more than five times the audience for the first 90 minutes of Fox4's competing Yankees-Tigers playoff game. Dancing was watched in 326,060 homes, for instance, while baseball barely got to home plate (60,690).
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Oct. 2)
10/03/06 01:57 PM
By ED BARK
Escapist entertainment? In D/FW, not so much. Prison Break's Nielsen ratings remain pretty dismal in these parts, even though the second season of the Fox series is being shot entirely in North Texas.
Monday night's seventh episode, the last before a three-week break for baseball, failed to arrest the attention of advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. Nationally, Prison Break placed first with that key target demographic. But on Fox4 in D/FW, it ran fifth! Here's a telescoped look, with the number of younger viewers shown in thousands:
Deal or No Deal (NBC5) -- 105,000
Wife Swap (ABC/Belo8) --- 102,000
The Class and How I Met Your Mother (CBS11) -- 84,000
7th Heaven (CW/Ch. 33) -- 78,000
Prison Break (Fox4) -- 75,000
Prison Break otherwise ran fourth in households locally, but most network advertisers focus solely on the 18-49 ratings. So consider the otherwise still hot Fox show an unaccountably big flop in D/FW. Why? It escapes me.
In the newscast wars, Belo8 had a big day with 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for non-entertainment programming. The ABC station won handily at 5 and 6 p.m. while nipping CBS11 by just one-tenth of a point at 10 p.m. Belo8 in turn trailed early morning's usual frontrunner, Fox4's Good Day, by just one-tenth of a point from 6 to 7 a.m.
It was a different story in total homes, with CBS11 winning at 10 p.m. while Belo8 notched wins at 5 and 6 p.m. Fox4 again prevailed at 6 a.m. over runnerup NBC5.
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, now in its fifth week, has been designed to have higher appeal with younger viewers. On Monday it was just the opposite in D/FW. Couric squeezed into second place at 5:30 p.m. in total homes, but ran fourth in the 25-54 and 18-49 races. In both cases, Fox4's local newscast took third place.
Monday's most-watched shows in the three major ratings competitions
Homes: CBS' CSI: Miami -- 276,080
25-to-54: CSI: Miami -- 206,371
18-to-49: CSI: Miami -- 198,000
Escapist entertainment? In D/FW, not so much. Prison Break's Nielsen ratings remain pretty dismal in these parts, even though the second season of the Fox series is being shot entirely in North Texas.
Monday night's seventh episode, the last before a three-week break for baseball, failed to arrest the attention of advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. Nationally, Prison Break placed first with that key target demographic. But on Fox4 in D/FW, it ran fifth! Here's a telescoped look, with the number of younger viewers shown in thousands:
Deal or No Deal (NBC5) -- 105,000
Wife Swap (ABC/Belo8) --- 102,000
The Class and How I Met Your Mother (CBS11) -- 84,000
7th Heaven (CW/Ch. 33) -- 78,000
Prison Break (Fox4) -- 75,000
Prison Break otherwise ran fourth in households locally, but most network advertisers focus solely on the 18-49 ratings. So consider the otherwise still hot Fox show an unaccountably big flop in D/FW. Why? It escapes me.
In the newscast wars, Belo8 had a big day with 25-to-54-year-olds, the principal advertiser target for non-entertainment programming. The ABC station won handily at 5 and 6 p.m. while nipping CBS11 by just one-tenth of a point at 10 p.m. Belo8 in turn trailed early morning's usual frontrunner, Fox4's Good Day, by just one-tenth of a point from 6 to 7 a.m.
It was a different story in total homes, with CBS11 winning at 10 p.m. while Belo8 notched wins at 5 and 6 p.m. Fox4 again prevailed at 6 a.m. over runnerup NBC5.
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, now in its fifth week, has been designed to have higher appeal with younger viewers. On Monday it was just the opposite in D/FW. Couric squeezed into second place at 5:30 p.m. in total homes, but ran fourth in the 25-54 and 18-49 races. In both cases, Fox4's local newscast took third place.
Monday's most-watched shows in the three major ratings competitions
Homes: CBS' CSI: Miami -- 276,080
25-to-54: CSI: Miami -- 206,371
18-to-49: CSI: Miami -- 198,000
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri., Sept. 29)
10/02/06 11:30 AM
By ED BARK
Let's take an up-close look at a largely unreported ratings phenomenon in D/FW. Virtually every day of the week. Fox4's homegrown Good Day whips the national networks' heavily promoted and financed morning shows from 7 to 9 a.m.
Friday's numbers were typical, with Good Day again winning handily in both total homes and the key newscast target audience of 25-to-54-year-olds. Note that each Nielsen rating point equals 23,800 homes and 28,270 viewers aged 25-to-54. And from now on, we're going to do the math for you. Here's a snapshot:
Homes
Good Day -- 97,580
Good Morning America (ABC) -- 85,680
Today (NBC) -- 69,020
The Early Show (CBS) -- 35,700.
25-54
Good Day -- 53,713
GMA -- 45,232
Today -- 28,270
Early show -- 24,030
Good Day also won at 6 a.m. in both categories opposite local morning shows on NBC5, Belo8 and CBS11. Otherwise the spoils were divided at 5,6 and 10 p.m.
Belo8 took the 10 p.m. crown Friday in both homes and 25-54. The ABC affiliate also won at 6 p.m. in homes, but placed third to Fox4 and NBC5 with younger viewers. At 5 p.m., it was Fox4 topping the field in homes while tying for first with Belo8 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Both of the early evening newscast competitions remain exceedingly close, particularly in homes. The winners' circles are changing day-to-day.
On the entertainment front, Megan Mullally's new talk show is a disaster area at 9 a.m. weekdays. Friday's edition on Channel 21 had the dreaded "hash marks" (no measurable rating) among 18-to-49-year-olds, the target advertiser demo for non-news programming. It was the same story in homes. This is not a good sign in a hotly contested time period in which the new Rachael Ray on CBS11 barely placed No. 1 in homes (61,880) while losing the 18-to-49 battle to Belo8's resilient, homegrown Good Morning Texas (31,097). Note: in the 18-49 demo, each rating point equals 30,000 viewers.
Friday's most-watched shows in the three major ratings competitions
Homes -- Wheel of Fortune on CBS11 (157,080)
25-54 -- ABC's 20/20 on Belo8 (104,599)
18-49 -- (tie) 20/20 and ABC's Men In Trees on Belo 8, and Numb3rs on CBS11 (75,000)
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Let's take an up-close look at a largely unreported ratings phenomenon in D/FW. Virtually every day of the week. Fox4's homegrown Good Day whips the national networks' heavily promoted and financed morning shows from 7 to 9 a.m.
Friday's numbers were typical, with Good Day again winning handily in both total homes and the key newscast target audience of 25-to-54-year-olds. Note that each Nielsen rating point equals 23,800 homes and 28,270 viewers aged 25-to-54. And from now on, we're going to do the math for you. Here's a snapshot:
Homes
Good Day -- 97,580
Good Morning America (ABC) -- 85,680
Today (NBC) -- 69,020
The Early Show (CBS) -- 35,700.
25-54
Good Day -- 53,713
GMA -- 45,232
Today -- 28,270
Early show -- 24,030
Good Day also won at 6 a.m. in both categories opposite local morning shows on NBC5, Belo8 and CBS11. Otherwise the spoils were divided at 5,6 and 10 p.m.
Belo8 took the 10 p.m. crown Friday in both homes and 25-54. The ABC affiliate also won at 6 p.m. in homes, but placed third to Fox4 and NBC5 with younger viewers. At 5 p.m., it was Fox4 topping the field in homes while tying for first with Belo8 among 25-to-54-year-olds.
Both of the early evening newscast competitions remain exceedingly close, particularly in homes. The winners' circles are changing day-to-day.
On the entertainment front, Megan Mullally's new talk show is a disaster area at 9 a.m. weekdays. Friday's edition on Channel 21 had the dreaded "hash marks" (no measurable rating) among 18-to-49-year-olds, the target advertiser demo for non-news programming. It was the same story in homes. This is not a good sign in a hotly contested time period in which the new Rachael Ray on CBS11 barely placed No. 1 in homes (61,880) while losing the 18-to-49 battle to Belo8's resilient, homegrown Good Morning Texas (31,097). Note: in the 18-49 demo, each rating point equals 30,000 viewers.
Friday's most-watched shows in the three major ratings competitions
Homes -- Wheel of Fortune on CBS11 (157,080)
25-54 -- ABC's 20/20 on Belo8 (104,599)
18-49 -- (tie) 20/20 and ABC's Men In Trees on Belo 8, and Numb3rs on CBS11 (75,000)
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Mark her for stardom
10/01/06 10:43 PM
Shelly Slater, News 8
By ED BARK
First impressions can be misleading, but not these.
Sparkling News 8 newcomer Shelly Slater, newly plucked from Fox-owned WDAF-TV in Kansas City, clearly is on a fast track to the top of the Dallas station's anchor hierarchy. No longer dominant at 10 p.m. or anywhere else, the Belo-owned station sorely needs a rising star with charm, smarts and sex appeal. In short, a beaming babe with brains. Sorry if that sounds sexist, but you can bet that station management is sold on exactly that combination.
Born in Plano, and currently anchoring weekends with Brad Hawkins, the University of Missouri-Columbia journalism major looks like a diamond in the not-so-rough. She already seems finely polished, a dynamite hire by a station that hasn't been No. 1 in the key 10 p.m. news wars since the November, 2001 "sweeps."
Slater prepped at WSAZ-TV in Charleston, West Virginia, where she was the 2003 Associated Press reporter of the year. She joined Kansas City's Fox station in 2004 as a general assignments reporter, soon becoming a weekend anchor. Now she's effortlessly assumed that same position at News 8. Her talent is apparent at first sight. Simply put, she clicks. Iola Johnson had that same kind of magic during her glory days at Channel 8 with co-anchor Tracy Rowlett.
Not that Slater's inevitable ascendance will happen overnight. Channel 8 obviously has a longtime incumbent anchor, Gloria Campos, at 10 p.m. weeknights. But there are ways of shuffling these decks without altogether dealing someone out.
Know this for sure, though. Belo8 is tired of losing ground to its network-owned rivals at Fox4, NBC5 and CBS11. Also, it's no longer enough to win in the household ratings anymore. Stations whose newscasts prosper with advertiser-coveted 25-to-54-year-olds are making the cash hauls these days. Belo8 isn't exactly a bullet on those charts, but that's where young gun Slater can help.
Prediction: By this time next fall, Shelly Slater will be a full-fledged player on one or more of Belo8's major weeknight newscasts. Not to put any undue pressure on her, but that's exactly why she was hired.
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Sept. 28
09/29/06 04:40 PM
By ED BARK
Only household ratings were immediately available for Thursday night programming in Dallas-Fort Worth. Advertiser-preferred demographics -- 25-to-54-year-olds for news, 18-to-49 for entertainment -- could not be obtained by the end of Friday's business day.
In the four major local newscast faceoffs, Fox4 continued to win at 6 a.m., with NBC5 second. NBC5 took the 10 p.m. matchup, but by just one-tenth of a rating point over Belo8 -- 8.8 to 8.7 -- despite a major lead-in advantage from the NBC network's preceding ER. Each rating points equals 23,800 homes in the D/FW viewing area.
CBS11 also edged Belo8 (ABC) at 6 p.m., again by just one-tenth of a point. Belo8 won at 5 p.m., with a six-tenth of a point margin over NBC5.
Katie Couric's CBS Evening News lately has fallen back to third place locally. On Thursday it looked like this:
NBC Nightly News -- 5.2
ABC's World News -- 4.4
CBS Evening News -- 3.3
In Thursday's fevered prime-time wars, ABC programming won the first two hours in D/FW with the premiere of Ugly Betty (12.0 rating) and Grey's Anatomy (16.7), easily the most-watched program of the day.
Local viewers then abandoned ABC for NBC, where ER had a winning 10.5 rating while ABC's new Six Degrees series plummeted to a 6.8 rating with its second episode.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Only household ratings were immediately available for Thursday night programming in Dallas-Fort Worth. Advertiser-preferred demographics -- 25-to-54-year-olds for news, 18-to-49 for entertainment -- could not be obtained by the end of Friday's business day.
In the four major local newscast faceoffs, Fox4 continued to win at 6 a.m., with NBC5 second. NBC5 took the 10 p.m. matchup, but by just one-tenth of a rating point over Belo8 -- 8.8 to 8.7 -- despite a major lead-in advantage from the NBC network's preceding ER. Each rating points equals 23,800 homes in the D/FW viewing area.
CBS11 also edged Belo8 (ABC) at 6 p.m., again by just one-tenth of a point. Belo8 won at 5 p.m., with a six-tenth of a point margin over NBC5.
Katie Couric's CBS Evening News lately has fallen back to third place locally. On Thursday it looked like this:
NBC Nightly News -- 5.2
ABC's World News -- 4.4
CBS Evening News -- 3.3
In Thursday's fevered prime-time wars, ABC programming won the first two hours in D/FW with the premiere of Ugly Betty (12.0 rating) and Grey's Anatomy (16.7), easily the most-watched program of the day.
Local viewers then abandoned ABC for NBC, where ER had a winning 10.5 rating while ABC's new Six Degrees series plummeted to a 6.8 rating with its second episode.
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Sept. 27)
09/28/06 04:55 PM
Everybody came up a winner except NBC5
Wednesday in what became a Terrell Owens fest on
D/FW's four major broadcast news stations.
Here's how it looked in the four big battlegrounds -- 6 a.m. and 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the target demo for newscast advertisers, Fox 4 won at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Belo-owned Channel 8 (ABC) and CBS 11 tied at 6 p.m. while 8 had a relatively wide victory margin over runnerup NBC 5 at 10 p.m.
Belo 8 also won at 5 and 10 p.m. in total homes. But CBS 11 nipped the ABC station by a smidgen at 6 p.m., and Fox 4 took the No. 1 spot at 6 a.m.
The 6 p.m. race, long dominated by Belo 8, is turning into a throw-a-blanket-over-'em, four-way war, with no station able to win consistently in either homes or 25-54.
On the entertainment front, it's become a five-way fight for supremacy among Belo 8's homegrown Good Morning Texas, three personality-driven syndicated shows and the last hour of NBC's Today. Here's a snapshot, with 18-to-49-year-olds considered the key advertiser demo for non-news programming:
18-to-49
Good Morning Texas -- 0.8
CBS 11's Rachael Ray and Fox 4's Live with Regis & Kelly -- 0.5
Channel 33's Jerry Springer -- 0.4
Today -- 0.3
Total Homes (23,800 per point)
GMT -- 2.3
Today -- 2.1
Rachael Ray -- 1.7
Regis & Kelly -- 1.4
Jerry Springer -- 1.3
Lost in the 9 a.m. shuffle is former Will & Grace star Megan Mullally's new talk show, carried on Channel 21. It had just a 0.3 rating in homes and a near-invisible 0.1 rating among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Wednesday's most-watched programs
Homes -- ABC's 20/20 special, with Barbara Walters interviewing "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's widow.
18-49 -- 20/20
25-54 -- 20/20
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Here's how it looked in the four big battlegrounds -- 6 a.m. and 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the target demo for newscast advertisers, Fox 4 won at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Belo-owned Channel 8 (ABC) and CBS 11 tied at 6 p.m. while 8 had a relatively wide victory margin over runnerup NBC 5 at 10 p.m.
Belo 8 also won at 5 and 10 p.m. in total homes. But CBS 11 nipped the ABC station by a smidgen at 6 p.m., and Fox 4 took the No. 1 spot at 6 a.m.
The 6 p.m. race, long dominated by Belo 8, is turning into a throw-a-blanket-over-'em, four-way war, with no station able to win consistently in either homes or 25-54.
On the entertainment front, it's become a five-way fight for supremacy among Belo 8's homegrown Good Morning Texas, three personality-driven syndicated shows and the last hour of NBC's Today. Here's a snapshot, with 18-to-49-year-olds considered the key advertiser demo for non-news programming:
18-to-49
Good Morning Texas -- 0.8
CBS 11's Rachael Ray and Fox 4's Live with Regis & Kelly -- 0.5
Channel 33's Jerry Springer -- 0.4
Today -- 0.3
Total Homes (23,800 per point)
GMT -- 2.3
Today -- 2.1
Rachael Ray -- 1.7
Regis & Kelly -- 1.4
Jerry Springer -- 1.3
Lost in the 9 a.m. shuffle is former Will & Grace star Megan Mullally's new talk show, carried on Channel 21. It had just a 0.3 rating in homes and a near-invisible 0.1 rating among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Wednesday's most-watched programs
Homes -- ABC's 20/20 special, with Barbara Walters interviewing "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's widow.
18-49 -- 20/20
25-54 -- 20/20
Source: Nielsen Media Research
Rush to Judgment?
09/27/06 04:58 PM
By ED BARK
Wednesday's kamikaze coverage of Terrell Owens' latest misadventure begs the question of whether people really live or die with what the Dallas Cowboys do or don't do.
Although totally unscientific, an NBC 5 online survey on the day's events and non-events perhaps should serve as a window on the real world.
"Do you think Terrell Owens tried to commit suicide?" the station asked. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, these were the answers:
Yes -- 122 (14%)
No -- 234 (27%)
I don't care -- 525 (60%)
Channel 5 also spotlighted the poll on some of its newscasts, perhaps prompting some viewers to laugh out loud. "I don't care" likely won't be reflected in Wednesday's local newscast ratings, which should spike upward. But some viewers perhaps quickly wearied of hyped-up logos such as "T.O. Turmoil" (on CBS 11) and "T.O. Troubles" (NBC 5). Suddenly lost in the T.O. shuffle was consummate gentleman and golf legend Byron Nelson, whose death at age 94 Tuesday prompted well-deserved tributes on all the stations. What a contrast the two of them make. But Nelson's impending funeral drew scant attention Wednesday. Instead we got the dirt on Owens, all day and into the night.
Channel 8 reporter Rebecca Lopez jump-started the story after obtaining an initial police report that showed Owens saying "Yes" when asked if he had attempted to harm himself by taking an overdose of prescription medication. The report's first sentence, later blacked out, used the words "attempting suicide."
Lopez can hardly be blamed for citing an official police report as the basis for what essentially then was reported as fact by the four major local TV news stations. So the chase was on to determine Owens' whereabouts, how this would affect the Cowboys, etc., etc. Then the story U-turned when the man himself held a 2:30 p.m. press conference carried live on Channels 4, 5, 8, 11 and 21, ESPN, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel.
"The rumor of me taking 35 pills is absurd," he said, blaming his hospital trip on a bad mix of fitness supplements and pain killers that left him "kinda out of it" in his words.
Owens flatly denied trying to commit suicide, and one had to believe him in this case. You don't participate in that afternoon's practice and then seem clear as a bell just 18 hours after what would have been a big-time overdose. Nor do you get released from the hospital that quickly. And this is coming from someone who as a college student witnessed plenty of overdoses during five years as an orderly in a Madison, Wis. emergency room.
"He looked in good spirits. He looked fine," ESPN's Michael Smith said minutes after the public comments from both Owens and his publicist, Kim Etheredge, who had phoned 911 in what apparently was a panic. "It sounds like a case of where amid the confusion of a rather intense situation there might have been some miscommunication."
Most of TV's never-ending stream of commentators seemed to share that assessment after assuming the very worst just hours earlier.
We do, of course, live in an age where the news cycle has been accelerated to Indy 500 speeds. Still, times like these cry out for local TV reporters with reasonably long memories. They might have warned viewers that not all police reports are what they seem, particularly when it concerns the Cowboys.
Rewind back to early 1997, when Dallas police reacted to a shoddy Channel 5 story by releasing a police report from a woman who had charged receiver Michael Irvin and lineman Erik Williams of gang-raping her at gunpoint while videotaping the assault. No charges had been filed against either Cowboys player, but that didn't stop the police and the media from essentially convicting them. The upshot: police determined months later that the supposed victim had made it all up. She then was charged with filing a false police report that police never should have released in the first place until thoroughly investigating her credibility.
Channel 8's always opinionated Dale Hansen, who sensitively eulogized Byron Nelson on Tuesday's 10 p.m. newscast, found himself being branded an insensitive enemy of the mentally ill for much of Wednesday. He had the temerity to say that he just didn't understand guys like Owens. Nor did he relate to the so-called mind-numbing pressures of today's millionaire athletes. People struggling to make ends meet are under far more duress, he said.
Actually, Hansen shouldn't have been put in that position. The foundation for Wednesday's saturation coverage -- Terrell Owens' suicide attempt -- had all but crumbled by nightfall. And a 6:30 p.m. update of that Channel 5 online poll shows that even more people just can't be bothered.
"Do you think Terrell Owens tried to commit suicide?"
Yes -- 159 (14%)
No -- 297 (25%)
I don't care -- 713 (61%)
Wednesday's kamikaze coverage of Terrell Owens' latest misadventure begs the question of whether people really live or die with what the Dallas Cowboys do or don't do.
Although totally unscientific, an NBC 5 online survey on the day's events and non-events perhaps should serve as a window on the real world.
"Do you think Terrell Owens tried to commit suicide?" the station asked. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, these were the answers:
Yes -- 122 (14%)
No -- 234 (27%)
I don't care -- 525 (60%)
Channel 5 also spotlighted the poll on some of its newscasts, perhaps prompting some viewers to laugh out loud. "I don't care" likely won't be reflected in Wednesday's local newscast ratings, which should spike upward. But some viewers perhaps quickly wearied of hyped-up logos such as "T.O. Turmoil" (on CBS 11) and "T.O. Troubles" (NBC 5). Suddenly lost in the T.O. shuffle was consummate gentleman and golf legend Byron Nelson, whose death at age 94 Tuesday prompted well-deserved tributes on all the stations. What a contrast the two of them make. But Nelson's impending funeral drew scant attention Wednesday. Instead we got the dirt on Owens, all day and into the night.
Channel 8 reporter Rebecca Lopez jump-started the story after obtaining an initial police report that showed Owens saying "Yes" when asked if he had attempted to harm himself by taking an overdose of prescription medication. The report's first sentence, later blacked out, used the words "attempting suicide."
Lopez can hardly be blamed for citing an official police report as the basis for what essentially then was reported as fact by the four major local TV news stations. So the chase was on to determine Owens' whereabouts, how this would affect the Cowboys, etc., etc. Then the story U-turned when the man himself held a 2:30 p.m. press conference carried live on Channels 4, 5, 8, 11 and 21, ESPN, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel.
"The rumor of me taking 35 pills is absurd," he said, blaming his hospital trip on a bad mix of fitness supplements and pain killers that left him "kinda out of it" in his words.
Owens flatly denied trying to commit suicide, and one had to believe him in this case. You don't participate in that afternoon's practice and then seem clear as a bell just 18 hours after what would have been a big-time overdose. Nor do you get released from the hospital that quickly. And this is coming from someone who as a college student witnessed plenty of overdoses during five years as an orderly in a Madison, Wis. emergency room.
"He looked in good spirits. He looked fine," ESPN's Michael Smith said minutes after the public comments from both Owens and his publicist, Kim Etheredge, who had phoned 911 in what apparently was a panic. "It sounds like a case of where amid the confusion of a rather intense situation there might have been some miscommunication."
Most of TV's never-ending stream of commentators seemed to share that assessment after assuming the very worst just hours earlier.
We do, of course, live in an age where the news cycle has been accelerated to Indy 500 speeds. Still, times like these cry out for local TV reporters with reasonably long memories. They might have warned viewers that not all police reports are what they seem, particularly when it concerns the Cowboys.
Rewind back to early 1997, when Dallas police reacted to a shoddy Channel 5 story by releasing a police report from a woman who had charged receiver Michael Irvin and lineman Erik Williams of gang-raping her at gunpoint while videotaping the assault. No charges had been filed against either Cowboys player, but that didn't stop the police and the media from essentially convicting them. The upshot: police determined months later that the supposed victim had made it all up. She then was charged with filing a false police report that police never should have released in the first place until thoroughly investigating her credibility.
Channel 8's always opinionated Dale Hansen, who sensitively eulogized Byron Nelson on Tuesday's 10 p.m. newscast, found himself being branded an insensitive enemy of the mentally ill for much of Wednesday. He had the temerity to say that he just didn't understand guys like Owens. Nor did he relate to the so-called mind-numbing pressures of today's millionaire athletes. People struggling to make ends meet are under far more duress, he said.
Actually, Hansen shouldn't have been put in that position. The foundation for Wednesday's saturation coverage -- Terrell Owens' suicide attempt -- had all but crumbled by nightfall. And a 6:30 p.m. update of that Channel 5 online poll shows that even more people just can't be bothered.
"Do you think Terrell Owens tried to commit suicide?"
Yes -- 159 (14%)
No -- 297 (25%)
I don't care -- 713 (61%)
Guy and dolls
09/24/06 07:33 PM
Brad Watson, Channel 8 news
By ED BARK
Most boys don't play with dolls. But one grown-up male TV reporter did in the interests of dramatizing the Texas governor's race.
"It's a little like throwing pasta at the wall. Let's see what sticks," Watson said of a much-talked about Labor Day story starring a Kinky Friedman talking "action figure" and Barbie-and-Ken mockups of his three opponents. Watson went behind-the-scenes by telephone from Love Field Sunday night while waiting to board a flight to Austin for Monday's joint campaign appearance by Friedman and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura.
The 27-year veteran of Belo-owned News 8 is known as a straight-ahead, impeccably dressed perfectionist who sometimes seems to have been born in a suit. But Watson went a little wild and crazy on Labor Day, with an assist from his two grade school-age daughters and one of their friends. For a look at what we're talking about, go here.
The intrepid reporter already had a Kinky action figure that he'd bought while covering the maverick candidate's campaign.
"I wanted to do something that was kind of innovative and clever...instead of just doing a campaign strategy piece that Wolf Blitzer might do," he said. "I wouldn't have done it if there hadn't of been the Kinky figure. So I wondered how we could do this without making it look cheesy or goofy. It had some nuggets of information in there and it got people's attention. The thing that's been remarkable to me is the voter apathy out there."
His two daughters, Eleanor, 9, and Emily, 7, were the principal costumers, with an assist from Eleanor's fourth-grade pal, Shannon Shiffer. First the Watson kids found a Ken "groom" doll, took his tuxedo off and put him in a dark suit and tie.
"He already had amazingly similar hair to (Republican governor) Rick Perry," Watson said.
Shannon then provided the Watsons with another Ken doll to impersonate Democrat Chris Bell. They painted his hair white. Presto.
Independent candidate Carol Keeton Strayhorn provided a tougher challenge. "There's not really a Barbie grandmother edition," Watson said.
They settled on Barbie's "Aunt Midge," described by Watson as "an older figure with an older woman's clothes, more loosely fitted, more full-figured, you might say." Her hair got a coat of white, too. Casting completed.
Watson said he had no trouble selling the one minute, 54-second piece to Channel 8 news management. On-camera, he held the figures at arm's length and also moved them around a makeshift Texas map while dispensing nuggets about their respective campaign strategies. The talking Kinky figure chipped in, too, by opining, "I can't screw things up any worse than they already are." His rivals remained mute.
Only one viewer complained directly to him, Watson said. She wondered how he dared to "depict our political leaders as dolls and figurines."
"But I got a dozen or more emails saying it was great," he said. One viewer wanted to buy the complete set of dolls to be auctioned off at a Frisco fundraiser.
The Friedman campaign predictably loved it, but he hasn't heard from other candidates, Watson said. "I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve in the weeks ahead."
Might that mean a sequel to his low-budget doll featurette?
"I suppose it's a possibility," he said. But candidates Bell and Strayhorn have returned to Shannon Shiffer's playroom, "and I'd have to ask her if she wants to part with them again."
Conservatively speaking, they loved Sean Hannity
09/22/06 11:41 PM
By ED BARK
Lame of foot and lamer in the view of a loud, opinionated SMU crowd, Alan Colmes took another verbal pasting Friday night while sparring partner Sean Hannity was asked when he's going to run for president.
You might say that a packed house at McFarlin Auditorium tilted heavily to the right and toward Hannity, who knows how to exploit such situations.
"by the way, are there any liberals out there?" Colmes asked hopefully, drawing a mini-round of applause.
"No, Allen, no liberals. This is a crowd of normal Americans," Hannity retorted to boisterous acclamation.
Colmes couldn't catch a break, even though he at least didn't break an ankle during a recent running mishap that required him to wear a surgical boot onstage.
"You don't have a leg to stand on," a Hannity fan yelled at Colmes.
It was all part of the warmup for a live telecast of Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes tied to the all-news network's 10th anniversary on Oct. 6. Dallas was the first in a 10-city stop, with a colorful touring bus proclaiming, "Thank you America. For Making Us #1. The Most Powerful Name in News."
At a pre-game VIP reception, Hannity came upon former Northern Exposure star Janine Turner, whose politics are simpatico. They both admitted to having crushes on each other before the now Dallas-based Turner asked her eight-year-old daughter, Juliette, "You know what we have on every night?"
"Fox News," the kid responded.
Colmes also had an actress ally in SMU's own Morgan Fairchild, who agreed to do Friday's show at his request. Fairchild, Turner and former Dallas Cowboys star Randy White later teamed up for a "Lone Star All-Stars" panel in the second half of the show.
"Morgan, you are hot!" an audience member blurted during a commercial break.
"I didn't know conservatives had those feelings," Colmes shot back. But he was shot down again by a crowd-pleaser from the crowd: "Why do you think there are so many of us?"
The audience also treated scandal-ridden former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Houston as a conquering hero. Both DeLay and Hannity predicted that Republicans would rally to keep control of the House despite polls predicting a likely Democratic takeover.
"The base is coming back, and the Republicans are enjoying it," DeLay said.
Before entering the lion's den, Colmes said his decade as Hannity's partner has "been a great opportunity for me to walk on a stage figuratively and do interviews with world leaders and talk about politics in a venue that's heavily watched. It's a dream job. There's no better place to do it."
Others see him as Hannity's hapless punching bag, but Colmes said that "more independents and Democrats watch us than the other two (cable news) networks combined because of the size of our audience...We have a large number of people of all political stripes watching us and working at Fox, believe it or not. There's no political litmus test to work in our newsroom."
But Hannity has become one of political conservatism's reigning rock stars while Colmes still plays a banjo.
"I don't feel anything but gratitude for having an opportunity to work here and to really grow in this field of journalism that I love," Hannity said. "Honestly."
Whatever the political climate, "people miss the secret of the success of our show," he said. "We talk about the news. We give information that you're not going to get elsewhere. We do it in an entertaining way and we've always got a smile on our face. So that's really the formula, but don't tell anybody."
Actually he was kidding -- about not telling anybody. But it's easier to be on top of your game when an audience is roughly 95 percent behind you, which was the case Friday night.
Hannity's oft-deployed impression of Bill Clinton got big laughs, as did virtually anything he said at Colmes' expense. The latter kept on punching, though. "Bill Clinton. All right, he screwed women," Colmes acknowledged. "George W. Bush is screwing the country."
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
It just wasn't his night.
Local ratings report: Monday (Sept. 18)
09/19/06 05:15 PM
By ED BARK
Support your local fugitives from justice? Fox's Prison Break, despite its North Texas origins, is having trouble getting arrested in the Dallas-Fort Worth Nielsens.
Monday night's fifth episode of the show's second season managed just a fourth place finish locally in both households and among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The second season return of NBC's Deal or No Deal not surprisingly topped the ratings. But PB also was whipped in both categories by CBS' two comedies (newcomer The Class and returnee How I Met Your Mother) and even by ABC's Wife Swap.
The premiere of Rachael Ray (9 a.m. on CBS 11) wasn't exactly a knockout either, lagging fourth in a potent 9 a.m. field behind the last hour of Today (NBC 5), Live with Regis & Kelly (Fox 4) and the locally produced Good Morning Texas (Channel 8). Ray managed to outpoint the competing premiere of Megan Mullally on Channel 21..
The first edition of Channel 21's new homegrown, nightly, prime-time TXA 21News ranked 6th in households and among the preferred newscast demographic of 25-to-54-year-olds. The 7 to 8 p.m. segment of the two-hour newscast did edge the new MyNetworkTV's English language telenovela Desire. But it couldn't quite beat MNTV's Fashion House, co-starring Dallas native Morgan Fairchild, in the 8 to 9 p.m. hour.
Fox 4 otherwise had a big day in three of the four longstanding local newscasts ratings wars, winning among 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 a.m. and at 5 and 6 p.m. But the station placed last at 10 p.m., with NBC 5 the winner.
Channel 8, locally owned by Belo Corp., had an especially tough time in the now feverishly competitive early morning race, sagging to fourth with both 25-to-54-year-olds and in households. The CBS 11 early show usually occupies those spots, but this time it outpointed Channel 8 by a smidgen.
Channel 8 did win at 5 p.m. in households, while Channel 5 won that race at 6 p.m. All stations agree, though, that the 25-to-54-year-old ratings represent the real fight for local news ad dollars. And Fox 4 had the best of it on Monday.
Support your local fugitives from justice? Fox's Prison Break, despite its North Texas origins, is having trouble getting arrested in the Dallas-Fort Worth Nielsens.
Monday night's fifth episode of the show's second season managed just a fourth place finish locally in both households and among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds. The second season return of NBC's Deal or No Deal not surprisingly topped the ratings. But PB also was whipped in both categories by CBS' two comedies (newcomer The Class and returnee How I Met Your Mother) and even by ABC's Wife Swap.
The premiere of Rachael Ray (9 a.m. on CBS 11) wasn't exactly a knockout either, lagging fourth in a potent 9 a.m. field behind the last hour of Today (NBC 5), Live with Regis & Kelly (Fox 4) and the locally produced Good Morning Texas (Channel 8). Ray managed to outpoint the competing premiere of Megan Mullally on Channel 21..
The first edition of Channel 21's new homegrown, nightly, prime-time TXA 21News ranked 6th in households and among the preferred newscast demographic of 25-to-54-year-olds. The 7 to 8 p.m. segment of the two-hour newscast did edge the new MyNetworkTV's English language telenovela Desire. But it couldn't quite beat MNTV's Fashion House, co-starring Dallas native Morgan Fairchild, in the 8 to 9 p.m. hour.
Fox 4 otherwise had a big day in three of the four longstanding local newscasts ratings wars, winning among 25-to-54-year-olds at 6 a.m. and at 5 and 6 p.m. But the station placed last at 10 p.m., with NBC 5 the winner.
Channel 8, locally owned by Belo Corp., had an especially tough time in the now feverishly competitive early morning race, sagging to fourth with both 25-to-54-year-olds and in households. The CBS 11 early show usually occupies those spots, but this time it outpointed Channel 8 by a smidgen.
Channel 8 did win at 5 p.m. in households, while Channel 5 won that race at 6 p.m. All stations agree, though, that the 25-to-54-year-old ratings represent the real fight for local news ad dollars. And Fox 4 had the best of it on Monday.
Local ratings report: Friday-Sunday (Sept. 15-17)
09/18/06 03:12 PM
By ED BARK
This is the first in a hoped-for daily report on various local ratings races in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. We'll be highlighting high-profile entertainment programs and the heated battles among local newscasts.
But first, maybe you're wondering how big of a ratings score the Dallas Cowboys rolled up in their nationally televised game against the Washington Redskins Sunday night. NBC's second big telecast under its new deal with the NFL averaged a super-charged 34.3 household rating on Channel 5. Each point is worth 23,800 homes, which gives us a grand total of 816,340 of 'em, not including sports bars. The closest competing program, ABC's 8 to 9 p.m. edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on Channel 8, staggered in with a 7.2 rating (171,360 homes).
Friday's edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric ran fourth in households, losing to its ABC and NBC network rivals as well as Channel 4's homegrown 5:30 p.m. newscast. But the race was pretty close, and Ms. Couric fared better with the newscasts' advertiser-targeted demo audience, tying for second with NBC among 25-to-54-year-olds behind first-place Channel 4.
Channels 5 and 8 tied for first at 5 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, with Channel 4 just one-tenth of a point behind. At 6 p.m., Channel 4 more than doubled the 25-to-54 audience of its closest competitor. The 6 a.m. demo derby also saw a comfortable win for Channel 4.
Channel 11, making slow gains with its previously trampled-on early evening newscasts, continues to prosper with Wheel of Fortune at 6:30 p.m. Channel 8, which had Wheel for 18 years, dumped the show last fall on the grounds its audience had gotten too old. Instead it's still pretty spry, winning across-the-board night after night against Channel 8's Entertainment Tonight and shows of the same ilk on Channels 4 and 5.
On Friday, Wheel pulled a 7.0 overall rating (166,600 homes), whipping ET (92,820 homes), Channel 4's Access Hollywood (76,160) and Channel 5's Extra (49,980).
Pat and Vanna, respectively approaching their 60th and 50th birthdays, also were tops with 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds.
Take that, whippersnappers.
This is the first in a hoped-for daily report on various local ratings races in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. We'll be highlighting high-profile entertainment programs and the heated battles among local newscasts.
But first, maybe you're wondering how big of a ratings score the Dallas Cowboys rolled up in their nationally televised game against the Washington Redskins Sunday night. NBC's second big telecast under its new deal with the NFL averaged a super-charged 34.3 household rating on Channel 5. Each point is worth 23,800 homes, which gives us a grand total of 816,340 of 'em, not including sports bars. The closest competing program, ABC's 8 to 9 p.m. edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on Channel 8, staggered in with a 7.2 rating (171,360 homes).
Friday's edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric ran fourth in households, losing to its ABC and NBC network rivals as well as Channel 4's homegrown 5:30 p.m. newscast. But the race was pretty close, and Ms. Couric fared better with the newscasts' advertiser-targeted demo audience, tying for second with NBC among 25-to-54-year-olds behind first-place Channel 4.
Channels 5 and 8 tied for first at 5 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, with Channel 4 just one-tenth of a point behind. At 6 p.m., Channel 4 more than doubled the 25-to-54 audience of its closest competitor. The 6 a.m. demo derby also saw a comfortable win for Channel 4.
Channel 11, making slow gains with its previously trampled-on early evening newscasts, continues to prosper with Wheel of Fortune at 6:30 p.m. Channel 8, which had Wheel for 18 years, dumped the show last fall on the grounds its audience had gotten too old. Instead it's still pretty spry, winning across-the-board night after night against Channel 8's Entertainment Tonight and shows of the same ilk on Channels 4 and 5.
On Friday, Wheel pulled a 7.0 overall rating (166,600 homes), whipping ET (92,820 homes), Channel 4's Access Hollywood (76,160) and Channel 5's Extra (49,980).
Pat and Vanna, respectively approaching their 60th and 50th birthdays, also were tops with 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-49-year-olds.
Take that, whippersnappers.
Mini-mom to Major Market
09/17/06 12:29 PM
By ED BARK
(Note from writer: This was to have been the first in a recurring series with the umbrella title "Tele-types: Eye-catchers in Local TV News." Written in January 2006, it was "tabled" more than five months later by upper management at The Dallas Morning News. This is the article in its entirety. "Tele-types" now will be a recurring feature on unclebarky.com.)
Being a boss in the country's sixth-largest television market is in some ways the same old story for KDFW-TV (Channel 4) news director Maria Barrs. As the oldest daughter in a brood of 13 children, she has long been an authority figure.
"I was pretty much a little mom when I was 5 years old," Barrs says from the Fox-owned station's offices in downtown Dallas. "I could change diapers back in the days of pins and cloth. I was always in charge of the younger kids. My three older brothers, of course, had no responsibilities in the home at all. But they were boys. I think that's one of the things that helped me learn to manage a little bit at an early age."
Her mom is Filipino and her dad came from a poor coal-mining family in West Virginia. They met in the Philippines near the end of World War II before settling in San Francisco, where Maria was born. The family moved around constantly, living for long periods in a school bus converted into a mobile home. It got old in a hurry.
"My parents instilled a strong sense of responsibility, of right and wrong," she says. "I didn't always agree. I've always had a little problem with authority. I was supposed to be a good example for the little kids. I think for the most part I was, until I became a teenager."
She went off on her own at age 15, leaving the "controlled chaos" of home life to work at a string of low-paying jobs. Waitressing and house cleaning weren't for her, but "I was a pretty good nurse's aide."
Four years later, she and a girlfriend sold everything they had to finance a vagabond jaunt through Europe. They parted ways in Spain after an argument, with Maria journeying on her own to Morocco for a month before she returned to California with a new resolve to chart a better future.
Loving to read and eager to write, she enrolled in journalism school at a community college in Salinas, where she met her future husband in English class. Then a representative of KSBW-TV (the last three call-letters stand for "Salad Bowl of the World") visited the school in search of off-camera volunteers on election night. It changed her life.
"I couldn't believe how exciting it was for me," Barrs recalls. " just fell in love with TV."
"A newfound career path took her to TV stations in Sacramento and Redding, Calif., before she returned to Salinas and KSBW as a full-fledged reporter. Complications with her second pregnancy led to a supposedly "less stressful" job on the assignments desk, where her managerial strengths kicked in for good.
"I found I was better suited to that," she says. "I was never very comfortable being live on TV."
After three-and-a-half years at a St. Louis station, she returned for a third time to KSBW in Salinas, becoming news director in 1991. Her hires included anchor-reporter Dina Ruiz, who married Clint Eastwood in 1996. They still keep in touch with Christmas cards.
Barrs came to Channel 4 in 1994, initially as managing editor. The station quickly switched from CBS to Fox affiliation before Fox bought it outright in 1997. She survived both transitions after promising her husband that they'd stay in one place until their two children finished high school.
"So I was not in a position to up and leave, and I didn't," she says matter-of-factly.
Instead she moved up to her current position as news director in 1998. It's a big job. Channel 4 has more local news hours a day -- seven-and-a-half -- than any other Dallas-Fort Worth station.
"I take real seriously the 'Big J' (for journalism) stuff," Barrs says. "I care a lot about serving the community. I know that's corny, but we can make a big difference. We do all the time ... I"m not at all burned out. The big thing is not to feel that everything is on your shoulders."
Her newsroom office has nodding heads on plaster shoulders. Barrs' growing collection of bobbleheads includes characters from the movie "Anchorman," Ozzy Osbourne, Ronald McDonald, Simon Cowell, George W. Bush and Steve Nash and Michael Finley in their old Dallas Mavericks uniforms.
"They just started accumulating," she says. "People have started giving them to me for Christmas."
That's not a bad way to please or placate the boss. But Barrs says she's easier on her newshounds than with the siblings for whom she once played junior mom.
"I'm not a yeller, shouter and kicker. I mean, I've been known to, but that's real unusual. I don't like to intimidate or scare people into doing their jobs.
"I really try to encourage a democratic -- small 'd' newsroom. I'm real proud of the people here. And I like them."
Name: Maria Barrs
Position: News director, KDFW-TV (Channel 4)
Born: June 26, 1956, in San Francisco.
Home base: Married to Jon Kemp, with children Patrick, 22, and Christina, 19.
Unwinds with: "Yoga. It clears your head."
Favorite book: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and "any good detective or courtroom thriller."
Favorite album: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.
Favorite movie: "Anything with Fred Astaire dancing. And I'm sorry there's not another Lord of the Rings movie in the works."
Favorite food: Mexican
Closing thought: "I don't like the image of the stuffy broadcaster, the Ted Baxter type. There are some people, you put them on TV and they talk in an entirely different way than they do in real life. To me, that's building a wall."
Photo by Joe Kozlowski
(Note from writer: This was to have been the first in a recurring series with the umbrella title "Tele-types: Eye-catchers in Local TV News." Written in January 2006, it was "tabled" more than five months later by upper management at The Dallas Morning News. This is the article in its entirety. "Tele-types" now will be a recurring feature on unclebarky.com.)
Being a boss in the country's sixth-largest television market is in some ways the same old story for KDFW-TV (Channel 4) news director Maria Barrs. As the oldest daughter in a brood of 13 children, she has long been an authority figure.
"I was pretty much a little mom when I was 5 years old," Barrs says from the Fox-owned station's offices in downtown Dallas. "I could change diapers back in the days of pins and cloth. I was always in charge of the younger kids. My three older brothers, of course, had no responsibilities in the home at all. But they were boys. I think that's one of the things that helped me learn to manage a little bit at an early age."
Her mom is Filipino and her dad came from a poor coal-mining family in West Virginia. They met in the Philippines near the end of World War II before settling in San Francisco, where Maria was born. The family moved around constantly, living for long periods in a school bus converted into a mobile home. It got old in a hurry.
"My parents instilled a strong sense of responsibility, of right and wrong," she says. "I didn't always agree. I've always had a little problem with authority. I was supposed to be a good example for the little kids. I think for the most part I was, until I became a teenager."
She went off on her own at age 15, leaving the "controlled chaos" of home life to work at a string of low-paying jobs. Waitressing and house cleaning weren't for her, but "I was a pretty good nurse's aide."
Four years later, she and a girlfriend sold everything they had to finance a vagabond jaunt through Europe. They parted ways in Spain after an argument, with Maria journeying on her own to Morocco for a month before she returned to California with a new resolve to chart a better future.
Loving to read and eager to write, she enrolled in journalism school at a community college in Salinas, where she met her future husband in English class. Then a representative of KSBW-TV (the last three call-letters stand for "Salad Bowl of the World") visited the school in search of off-camera volunteers on election night. It changed her life.
"I couldn't believe how exciting it was for me," Barrs recalls. " just fell in love with TV."
"A newfound career path took her to TV stations in Sacramento and Redding, Calif., before she returned to Salinas and KSBW as a full-fledged reporter. Complications with her second pregnancy led to a supposedly "less stressful" job on the assignments desk, where her managerial strengths kicked in for good.
"I found I was better suited to that," she says. "I was never very comfortable being live on TV."
After three-and-a-half years at a St. Louis station, she returned for a third time to KSBW in Salinas, becoming news director in 1991. Her hires included anchor-reporter Dina Ruiz, who married Clint Eastwood in 1996. They still keep in touch with Christmas cards.
Barrs came to Channel 4 in 1994, initially as managing editor. The station quickly switched from CBS to Fox affiliation before Fox bought it outright in 1997. She survived both transitions after promising her husband that they'd stay in one place until their two children finished high school.
"So I was not in a position to up and leave, and I didn't," she says matter-of-factly.
Instead she moved up to her current position as news director in 1998. It's a big job. Channel 4 has more local news hours a day -- seven-and-a-half -- than any other Dallas-Fort Worth station.
"I take real seriously the 'Big J' (for journalism) stuff," Barrs says. "I care a lot about serving the community. I know that's corny, but we can make a big difference. We do all the time ... I"m not at all burned out. The big thing is not to feel that everything is on your shoulders."
Her newsroom office has nodding heads on plaster shoulders. Barrs' growing collection of bobbleheads includes characters from the movie "Anchorman," Ozzy Osbourne, Ronald McDonald, Simon Cowell, George W. Bush and Steve Nash and Michael Finley in their old Dallas Mavericks uniforms.
"They just started accumulating," she says. "People have started giving them to me for Christmas."
That's not a bad way to please or placate the boss. But Barrs says she's easier on her newshounds than with the siblings for whom she once played junior mom.
"I'm not a yeller, shouter and kicker. I mean, I've been known to, but that's real unusual. I don't like to intimidate or scare people into doing their jobs.
"I really try to encourage a democratic -- small 'd' newsroom. I'm real proud of the people here. And I like them."
Name: Maria Barrs
Position: News director, KDFW-TV (Channel 4)
Born: June 26, 1956, in San Francisco.
Home base: Married to Jon Kemp, with children Patrick, 22, and Christina, 19.
Unwinds with: "Yoga. It clears your head."
Favorite book: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and "any good detective or courtroom thriller."
Favorite album: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.
Favorite movie: "Anything with Fred Astaire dancing. And I'm sorry there's not another Lord of the Rings movie in the works."
Favorite food: Mexican
Closing thought: "I don't like the image of the stuffy broadcaster, the Ted Baxter type. There are some people, you put them on TV and they talk in an entirely different way than they do in real life. To me, that's building a wall."
Photo by Joe Kozlowski
New news outbreak
09/17/06 12:28 PM
By ED BARK
Stripped of UPN programming, KTXA-TV (Channel 21) will chart its own course in prime-time with two hours of local news a night.
TXA 21 News: First in Prime launches Monday at 7 p.m. in a new studio with newly hired anchors save for incumbent sports provider Gina Miller, formerly of WFAA-TV (Channel 8).
Channel 21 station manager Gary Schneider promises "hyper-local, content-rich" newscasts from an ethnically diverse news team. Principal newcomers are news anchors Kenneth Taylor, Tracy Kornet, Chris Salcedo and Kaushal Patel, meteorologist Garry Seith, weathercaster Amanda Sanchez and sports anchor/reporter Chuck Fisher.
Channel 21 is the sister station of KTVT-TV (Channel 11). Both are under the wing of CBS Corporation, which now has 39 stations nationwide, 21 of them tied to the CBS network.
Stripped of UPN programming, KTXA-TV (Channel 21) will chart its own course in prime-time with two hours of local news a night.
TXA 21 News: First in Prime launches Monday at 7 p.m. in a new studio with newly hired anchors save for incumbent sports provider Gina Miller, formerly of WFAA-TV (Channel 8).
Channel 21 station manager Gary Schneider promises "hyper-local, content-rich" newscasts from an ethnically diverse news team. Principal newcomers are news anchors Kenneth Taylor, Tracy Kornet, Chris Salcedo and Kaushal Patel, meteorologist Garry Seith, weathercaster Amanda Sanchez and sports anchor/reporter Chuck Fisher.
Channel 21 is the sister station of KTVT-TV (Channel 11). Both are under the wing of CBS Corporation, which now has 39 stations nationwide, 21 of them tied to the CBS network.
Katie's clout
09/17/06 12:28 PM
By ED BARK
Katie Couric's ratings have come down to earth since her mega-publicized Sept. 5 debut on The CBS Evening News. Her impact on local newscast ratings is still being felt, though. Let's look at the Couric carryover on Dallas-Fort Worth's 6 p.m. news shows.
Nielsen Media Research's ratings for the August "book" had Channel 8 narrowly on top in households with a 5.4 rating, followed by Channel 5 (4.8), Channel 11 (4.5) and Channel 4 (4.1). Each ratings point equals 23,800 homes.
But among 25-to-54-year-olds, the target newscast demo for advertisers, Channel 4 led the pack with a 2.4 rating, besting Channel 8 (2.1), Channel 5 (1.9) and Channel 11 (1.4).
For that same period in D/FW, Bob Schieffer's 5:30 p.m. CBS Evening News had 3.7 household rating and a 1.4 rating in the 25-to-54 demo.
OK, moving right along now to Ms. Couric's debut week (Sept. 5-8). She had a notably improved 6.2 rating in households and a 2.6 with 25-to-54-year-olds. That helped propel Channel 11's 6 p.m. newscasts to a first-place finish in households (6.1 rating). The station also fared much better with target viewers, moving from last to first with a 2.3 rating that barely nipped Channel 4's second-place 2.2.
Nothing lasts forever, though. Ms. Couric's Evening News numbers sank last week. From Monday-Thursday -- Friday wasn't immediately available -- she averaged just a 3.9 household rating in Dallas-Fort Worth. That dropped the Evening News to third place locally, behind ABC's World News (5.3 rating) and the NBC Nightly News (4.6). Worse yet, Ms. Couric also finished third with 25-to-54-year-olds, an audience that CBS hopes to expand with her more feature-y approach.
Absent those robust ratings for Ms. Couric's first week, Channel 11's 6 p.m. newscasts also took a hit. The CBS station's 4.5 household rating was identical to its performance in August. It landed Channel 11 in second place last week, behind Channel 8 (6.2 rating) and ahead of Channel 4 (4.2) and Channel 5 (3.8).
Among 25-to-54-year-olds, Channel 11 fell back to last place with a 1.5 rating. Channel 4 returned to the top spot (2.1 rating), also besting Channel 8 (2.0) and Channel 5 (1.8).
These early returns show that Ms. Couric sprinted out of the gate but quickly became winded on the second lap of what will be a maratthon race. Now comes Week 3. Can she run any faster?
We're No. 6! We're No. 6!
09/17/06 12:28 PM
By Ed
Bark
Dallas-Fort Worth is up a notch and now ranks as the country's sixth largest TV market, says Nielsen Media Research.
The latest stats move D/FW ahead of Boston, which slipped two rungs from fifth to seventh. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose is the new No. 5 market, but likely not for long. D/FW now is less than 5,000 homes behind SF and company. Last year at this time, the margin was 19,500 homes.
So just how big is D/FW? Nielsen says there are 2,378,660 TV homes here, compared to 7,366,950 for top dog New York City. Los Angeles (5,611,110), Chicago (3,455,020), Philadelphia (2,941,450) and SF (2,383,570) round out the current top 5.
Katrina-ravaged New Orleans took the biggest hit among top 50 markets. In fact it's no longer in the top 50, dropping from 43rd to 54th place with a decline from 672,150 to 566,960 TV homes. That puts Austin ahead of New Orleans for the first time ever. It's 52nd with 602,340 homes.
Dinkiest of all the 210 markets is Glendive, Montana, with 3,980 TV homes. It's not exactly a growth center, dropping from 5,020 last year. That gives Glendive a whopping .004 percent of the country's grand total of 111,348,110 TV homes.
Dallas-Fort Worth is up a notch and now ranks as the country's sixth largest TV market, says Nielsen Media Research.
The latest stats move D/FW ahead of Boston, which slipped two rungs from fifth to seventh. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose is the new No. 5 market, but likely not for long. D/FW now is less than 5,000 homes behind SF and company. Last year at this time, the margin was 19,500 homes.
So just how big is D/FW? Nielsen says there are 2,378,660 TV homes here, compared to 7,366,950 for top dog New York City. Los Angeles (5,611,110), Chicago (3,455,020), Philadelphia (2,941,450) and SF (2,383,570) round out the current top 5.
Katrina-ravaged New Orleans took the biggest hit among top 50 markets. In fact it's no longer in the top 50, dropping from 43rd to 54th place with a decline from 672,150 to 566,960 TV homes. That puts Austin ahead of New Orleans for the first time ever. It's 52nd with 602,340 homes.
Dinkiest of all the 210 markets is Glendive, Montana, with 3,980 TV homes. It's not exactly a growth center, dropping from 5,020 last year. That gives Glendive a whopping .004 percent of the country's grand total of 111,348,110 TV homes.