Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., March 14)
03/15/07 10:47 AM
By ED BARK
Yes, it's true. The final 45 minutes of Wednesday night's pulsating Dallas Mavericks-Phoenix Suns duel totaled more homes in D-FW than American Idol.
Available on both TXA21 and ESPN, the game drew 291,153 homes on the broadcast station and 118,207 on cable from 10:30 to 11:15 p.m. A handy pocket calculator says that's a grand total of 409,360, which beats the jumbo-sized 364,140 homes tuned to Idol's half-hour results show.
Overall, the marathon double-overtime, stomach-clenching, two-point loss to the Suns averaged 219,509 homes on TXA21 and an extra 81,286 on ESPN.
Near the end, I was telling anyone who would listen -- basically our two cats -- what Richie Whitt so bravely wrote this morning. Dirk Nowitzki again lost the MVP award to Steve Nash in a game where the little guy once more came up big and the big guy too often went clank in the clutch.
I sincerely hope we're both wrong. And it didn't help that Dirk got little love from the refs down the stretch while the bruising Amare Stoudemire seemed to get more free passes than attendees at a Joe Piscopo comedy festival.
Still, Nash made the big plays, hit the big shots and may well have clinched an MVP three-peat on a very grand stage for both teams. The guy makes so many things happen, even when falling on his ass. And was there a time all night when he shot over Dirk and didn't score? Any MVP voters on the fence surely were watching this one. And at game's end, it'd be hard to argue against putting another check mark next to Nash's name. Dirk's a helluva player. Just not quite as helluva as his old Mavs running mate.
In the local news derby, Belo8 came within a wisp of its second double grand slam in nine days. The ABC station swept the 6 a.m. and 5, 6 and 10 p.m. ratings races in homes. It also won at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
At 6 a.m., though, Belo8 shared the 25-54 laurels with Fox4. And if you shave it down to the very bare essentials, Fox4's 2.24 rating (64,288 persons) was just a hair better than Belo8's 2.20 rating (63,140). Statistically, though, that's really too close to call.
Yes, it's true. The final 45 minutes of Wednesday night's pulsating Dallas Mavericks-Phoenix Suns duel totaled more homes in D-FW than American Idol.
Available on both TXA21 and ESPN, the game drew 291,153 homes on the broadcast station and 118,207 on cable from 10:30 to 11:15 p.m. A handy pocket calculator says that's a grand total of 409,360, which beats the jumbo-sized 364,140 homes tuned to Idol's half-hour results show.
Overall, the marathon double-overtime, stomach-clenching, two-point loss to the Suns averaged 219,509 homes on TXA21 and an extra 81,286 on ESPN.
Near the end, I was telling anyone who would listen -- basically our two cats -- what Richie Whitt so bravely wrote this morning. Dirk Nowitzki again lost the MVP award to Steve Nash in a game where the little guy once more came up big and the big guy too often went clank in the clutch.
I sincerely hope we're both wrong. And it didn't help that Dirk got little love from the refs down the stretch while the bruising Amare Stoudemire seemed to get more free passes than attendees at a Joe Piscopo comedy festival.
Still, Nash made the big plays, hit the big shots and may well have clinched an MVP three-peat on a very grand stage for both teams. The guy makes so many things happen, even when falling on his ass. And was there a time all night when he shot over Dirk and didn't score? Any MVP voters on the fence surely were watching this one. And at game's end, it'd be hard to argue against putting another check mark next to Nash's name. Dirk's a helluva player. Just not quite as helluva as his old Mavs running mate.
In the local news derby, Belo8 came within a wisp of its second double grand slam in nine days. The ABC station swept the 6 a.m. and 5, 6 and 10 p.m. ratings races in homes. It also won at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
At 6 a.m., though, Belo8 shared the 25-54 laurels with Fox4. And if you shave it down to the very bare essentials, Fox4's 2.24 rating (64,288 persons) was just a hair better than Belo8's 2.20 rating (63,140). Statistically, though, that's really too close to call.
|