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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Feb. 10-12) -- Grammys top the million mark

Infused by the death of Whitney Houston and a Beach Boys reunion, Sunday night's annual Grammy Awards on CBS hit high notes beyond all expectations.

The three-and-a-half-hour ceremony averaged a mega-sized 1,022,889 D-FW viewers, a figure in league with some Dallas Cowboys games this past season. At its high point, 1,158, 371 viewers watched between 9 and 9:15 p.m.

CBS11's delayed 10:30 p.m. newscast, with its A-team anchors and meteorologist in the saddle, drew 589,347 viewers, its biggest audience in recent memory. Over on ABC, new episodes of Once Upon a Time and Desperate Housewives were left for dead with 128,708 and 162,578 viewers respectively opposite the Grammys.

AMC's 8 p.m. return of The Walking Dead had more viewers -- 182,901 -- than either of the ABC series. But the premiere of AMC's Comic Book Men then plunged to a meager 27,096 viewers.

CBS and the Grammys also soared with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, amassing 496,357 viewers in this age range.

On Friday night, WFAA8's ballyhooed comedy weather segment with Rangers pitcher Derek Holland failed to give the station a lift among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Instead the station ran fourth in this key demographic while losing viewers from its ABC lead-in, 20/20. NBC5 took the gold by a comfortable margin while runnerup CBS11 doubled WFAA8's haul and third place Fox4 nearly doubled it. At the seven weekday mark of the 20-day sweeps, the Peacock still leads all competitors in what would be a major upset.

In the 10 p.m. total viewers race, CBS11 remained firmly in control of first place, thumping second place WFAA8 while benefiting from a sizable lead-in advantage from CBS Blue Bloods. But Blue Bloods and 20/20 ran neck-and-neck with 25-to-54-year-olds, giving WFAA8 no credible excuse for its Holland-themed shortfall in that key measurement.

The other local news derby competitions found NBC5 running first at 6 a.m. in total viewers and tying Fox4 for the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds.

The Peacock also swept the 5 p.m. races while the 6 p.m. golds were split between CBS11 in total viewers and Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds.