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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs.-Sun., July 2-5) -- World Cup runneth over

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The United States’ 5-2 rout of Japan in the Women’s World Cup Final made Fox look like a sports property-buying genius Sunday night.

Running from 6 to 7:50 p.m., the match blasted past the half-million viewers mark in D-FW, averaging 543,972. The peak crowd came during the 7:45 to 8 p.m. increment, when 788,062 viewers watched the U.S. clinch the win and then celebrate.

In the key advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-old demographic, U.S.-Japan averaged 230,227 viewers with a high of 312,226 in the 7:45 to 8 p.m. segment.

Fox’s post-match coverage, which ended at 8:40 p.m., also easily won its time slot with an average of 411,466 total viewers and 182,920 in the 18-to-49 age range.

Meanwhile on NBC, the Peacock went into a ratings tailspin with a NASCAR Coke Zero 400 race from Daytona that was delayed by rain throughout prime-time. The network kept vamping anyway, averaging just 48,818 total viewers from 6:30 to 10 p.m., with 18,923 hitting the 18-to-49 motherlode. The crash-pocked race finally got the checkered flag at 10:42 p.m., drawing 83,688 total viewers in the first full 15-minute increment.

The race ended at 1:41 a.m., with Dale Earnhardt the winner. By that time, 41,844 viewers were still tuned in -- or fast asleep with the TV still on.

NBC5 management eventually had the good sense to abandon plans to do a mega-delayed 10 p.m. newscast, allowing the late night crew to go home at midnight. It’s exceedingly rare when a scheduled 10 p.m. newscast is entirely wiped off the books, but this was one of those occurrences.

From 7 to 9 p.m. on the Fourth of July, NBC led the way with a Macy’s song-and-fireworks special that drew 132,506 total viewers and 40,999 in the 18-to-49 realm. The Texas Rangers’ home slaughtering at the hands of the Angels then won the 9 p.m. hour with 104,610 total viewers. TEGNA8’s locally produced Fourth of July special from Fair Park ran second with 90,662 total viewers, beating NBC’s condensed reprise of the Macy’s special (62,766 viewers).

Rangers-Angels also won from 9 to 10 p.m. among 18-to-49-year-olds while the TEGNA8 special and NBC tied for second.

Friday’s top prime-tie scorers were CBS’ 8 p.m. Hawaii Five-0 repeat in total viewers (132,506) and NBC’s 9 p.m. Dateline with 18-to-49-year-olds (37,846).

On Thursday, Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast and CBS 7 p.m. repeat of The Big Bang Theory tied for the most total viewers in prime-time (174,350). CBS’ 8 p.m. hour of Big Brother led all network programming in the 18-to-49 demographic with 72,537.

Here are Thursday’s local news derby results. (All four major competitors took Fourth of July holiday weekend exemptions on Friday.)

TEGNA8 led in total viewers at 10 p.m. and Fox4 drew the most 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 also swept the 6 a.m. competitions, had the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 p.m. and tied NBC5 for first in that demographic at 6 p.m.

NBC5 nipped Fox4 for the most total viewers at 5 p.m. and shared the total viewers gold at 6 p.m. with CBS11.

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