Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Feb. 19)
02/20/07 12:37 PM
By ED BARK
What turned out to be a strategic blunder kept Belo8 from capitalizing on a big 10 p.m. newscast win over NBC5 Monday night.
The ABC station won its ninth straight faceoff with the Peacock, this time by its biggest margin yet -- 90,440 homes. But both stations, unlike CBS11 and Fox4, decided ahead of time to "throw out" their late night newscasts in deference to the President's Day holiday, which some businesses observed. Nielsen Media Research allows such gamesmanship, which can backfire when a station miscalculates.
In this case, NBC5 made a good move, enhancing its increasingly unlikely chances to catch Belo8 and maintain a 10 p.m. winning streak dating to February 2002. Meanwhile, Belo8 squandered a great opportunity to widen the gap with seven weeknights now remaining before the sweeps end on Feb. 28.
Belo8's 10 p.m. newscasts also were tops with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming. But that won't count either, hurting the station's efforts to also dethrone NBC5 in this demographic.
NBC5 was the only station to throw out all of its four major newscasts -- 10 p.m., 6 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. So its narrow win in homes at 6 a.m. is inoperative. So is The Peacock's slim victory at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 finished second at 10 p.m. in both homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds. But the station again had a huge lead-in advantage from CBS' CSI: Miami, which delivered more than twice the audience of ABC's runnerup What About Brian.
On the entertainment front, NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was D-FW's least-watched prime-time program among the four major network stations (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox). It now will go on perhaps permanent hiatus, with a new crime drama, The Black Donnellys, stepping in on the final Monday of the sweeps.
Fox's Prison Break continued its season-long struggle in the local ratings despite being filmed here. It ran a poor fourth in both homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for entertainment programming. National Nielsens for Prison Break are considerably better.
Fox4's 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Good Day drew slightly more homes than Prison Break Monday, tying ABC's Good Morning America for first in that time slot.
From 8 to 9 p.m., CBS' comedy combo of Two and a Half Men and Rules of Engagement lured more D-FW homes than two hotly acclaimed competing serials, NBC's Heroes and Fox's 24.
What turned out to be a strategic blunder kept Belo8 from capitalizing on a big 10 p.m. newscast win over NBC5 Monday night.
The ABC station won its ninth straight faceoff with the Peacock, this time by its biggest margin yet -- 90,440 homes. But both stations, unlike CBS11 and Fox4, decided ahead of time to "throw out" their late night newscasts in deference to the President's Day holiday, which some businesses observed. Nielsen Media Research allows such gamesmanship, which can backfire when a station miscalculates.
In this case, NBC5 made a good move, enhancing its increasingly unlikely chances to catch Belo8 and maintain a 10 p.m. winning streak dating to February 2002. Meanwhile, Belo8 squandered a great opportunity to widen the gap with seven weeknights now remaining before the sweeps end on Feb. 28.
Belo8's 10 p.m. newscasts also were tops with 25-to-54-year-olds, the key advertiser target audience for news programming. But that won't count either, hurting the station's efforts to also dethrone NBC5 in this demographic.
NBC5 was the only station to throw out all of its four major newscasts -- 10 p.m., 6 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. So its narrow win in homes at 6 a.m. is inoperative. So is The Peacock's slim victory at 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 finished second at 10 p.m. in both homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds. But the station again had a huge lead-in advantage from CBS' CSI: Miami, which delivered more than twice the audience of ABC's runnerup What About Brian.
On the entertainment front, NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was D-FW's least-watched prime-time program among the four major network stations (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox). It now will go on perhaps permanent hiatus, with a new crime drama, The Black Donnellys, stepping in on the final Monday of the sweeps.
Fox's Prison Break continued its season-long struggle in the local ratings despite being filmed here. It ran a poor fourth in both homes and with 18-to-49-year-olds, the principal advertiser target audience for entertainment programming. National Nielsens for Prison Break are considerably better.
Fox4's 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Good Day drew slightly more homes than Prison Break Monday, tying ABC's Good Morning America for first in that time slot.
From 8 to 9 p.m., CBS' comedy combo of Two and a Half Men and Rules of Engagement lured more D-FW homes than two hotly acclaimed competing serials, NBC's Heroes and Fox's 24.
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