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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., June 18) -- Fox is in and out of rough for inaugural U.S. Open telecast

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
A strong opening round by Dallas native Jordan Spieth and the continued pathetic play of Tiger Woods weren’t enough to make much of a ratings score for Fox’s inaugural telecast of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Still, there some birdies mixed in during the network’s wall-to-wall prime-time coverage.

Airing from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, the Open averaged 97,636 D-FW viewers and 28,384 in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic.

Golf’s first hour ran a distant fourth among the Big Four broadcast networks in total viewers, behind CBS’ competing rerun of The Big Bang Theory (209,220 viewers), NBC’s Dateline (153,428), CBS’ The Odd Couple repeat (146,454) and ABC’s launch of the drama series Astronaut Wives Club (139,480).

The 8 to 9 p.m. portion of the U.S. Open perked up to beat NBC’s Aquarius and ABC’s first hour of Mistresses while losing to CBS’ reprises of Mom and Mike & Molly.

Hour 3 of golf saved face by outdrawing all of the competing attractions on ABC, CBS and NBC. A new episode of the Peacock’s Hannibal again ranked as the hour’s loss leader, with just 27,896 total viewers.

In the key 18-to-49-year-old measurement, the U.S. Open ran fourth in the first hour, tied for an overall second from 8 to 9 p.m. and easily won the 9 p.m. hour.

Over on ESPN, TCU stayed alive in the college baseball World Series by beating LSU in prime-time. The game averaged 62,765 total viewers and 15,769 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.

Gannett8 won at 10 p.m. in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

NBC5 had the most total viewers at 6 a.m. while Fox4 took the cake with 25-to-54-year-olds.

The Peacock stayed solid in the early evenings with across-the-board wins at 5 and 6 p.m.

Also of note: CBS11 lately has shown signs of reverting back to the 25-to-54 demographic doldrums after sending co-anchor Jason Allen back to the reporting staff and dumping traffic anchor Tammy Dombeck. The replacements, both hired from out of state, are Russ McCaskey as co-anchor and Chelsey Davis doing the traffic. They started this month.

CBS11 beat Gannett8 among 25-to-54-year-olds in the May “sweeps,” marking the first time the station has ever finished better than fourth in the 6 a.m. segment. But Thursday’s ratings showed CBS11 with just 5,927 viewers in the 25-to-54 age range.

Fox4 topped the 25-to-54 field with 53,341 viewers, followed by NBC5 (41,488) and Gannett8 (20,744).

So did CBS11 ruin a good thing? Time will tell. But the station now has run fourth with 25-to-54-year-olds for five consecutive weekdays.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net