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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Feb. 22)

By ED BARK
American Idol's first Thursday results show of the season easily won the 7 to 8 p.m. slot, but its numbers were no match for the night's ratings potentate, ABC's Grey's Anatomy

Idol amassed 314,160 homes in D-FW to easily best a second place Grey's rerun (214,200 homes) airing in place of Ugly Betty. But the Fox juggernaut fared much less impressively with advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, where it edged the Grey's repeat by a 177,000 to 153,000 margin.

At 8 p.m., a firstrun episode of Grey's made Idol's Nielsen numbers look relatively puny. The doc drama drew a whopping 490,280 homes and 447,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo.

Oprah Winfrey's 9 p.m. celebrity interview special then handily beat NBC's ER in both ratings measurements.

A busy night on the entertainment front also saw Fox's final episode of The O.C. turn up mostly DOA. Following Idol, it drooped to just 114,240 homes and 60,000 viewers in the 18-49 age range. That was good enough to outpoint NBC's competing Scrubs and 30 Rock in homes and 30 Rock with 18-to-49-year-olds. But O.C. otherwise got buried by Grey's and CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which limped to a distant second place finish in the time period.

On the news front, Belo8 scored two big victories at 10 p.m., beating archrival NBC5 in both homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target for news programming.

With just four weeknights remaining in the February sweeps, Belo8 is very well-positioned to end a Peacock winning streak in homes that dates to the February 2002 sweeps. It also has an outside chance to prevail with 25-to-54-year-olds, where NBC5 still has the edge.

NBC5 won in homes at 6 a.m. to solidify its lead over Fox4. In the key 25-to-54 demo, though, Belo8 edged the Peacock and looks like a solid bet to hit Wednesday's finish line in first place.

Belo8 won at 6 p.m. in both ratings measurements and split first-place finishes with NBC5 at 5 p.m. The ABC station won with 25-to-54-year-olds and the Peacock had a narrow victory in homes. All in all, February is shaping up as Belo8's best sweeps performance in several years.

The Dallas Mavericks also continue to enjoy robust ratings. Thursday's late-starting TNT-televised win against the Miami Heat averaged 164,220 homes from 9 to 11:30 p.m. The game's 161,840 homes from 10 to 10:30 p.m. ran second in the time period to Belo8's newscast (211,820 homes).
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