Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., April 9-11) -- implosion palooza, plus The Masters
04/12/10 10:50 AM
By ED BARK
A lot of you were interested -- even during pre-dawn's early times. And when the big boom came, the ratings jumped as though they were on a pogo stick.
We're talking about Sunday morning's implosion of Texas Stadium, and its live coverage on Fox4, NBC5, WFAA8 and CBS11. The shopworn former home of the Dallas Cowboys took its final bow at 7:07 a.m., when its walls and roof came tumbling down in roughly a minute's time. Nielsen Media Research measures in 15-minute increments, so let's look first at the D-FW numbers from 7 to 7:15 a.m.
Fox4 -- 203,589 viewers
CBS11 -- 156,085 viewers
NBC5 -- 128,940 viewers
WFAA8 -- 108,581 viewers
Fox4 had the longest implosion special, from 6 to 8 a.m.. NBC5 began at the same hour and ended at 7:30 a.m. WFAA8 and CBS11 both went from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. Let's look the audiences for the complete shows:
Fox4 -- 142,512
NBC5 and CBS11 -- 88,222 apiece
WFAA8 -- 81,436
Fox4's coverage also had the most 25-to-54-year-old viewers, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. NBC5 slid to fourth in this demographic, with CBS11 the runnerup and WFAA8 third.
Plainly put, that's a triumph for Fox4 and a punch in the chops for WFAA8, which had announced its implosion special first and promoted it on all newscasts. Did WFAA8 err in not sending some of its more prominent news personalities to the scene, as Fox4 and CBS11 did? Do viewers care one way or the other -- or did they just want to see the big collapse?
Whatever the case, Fox4 clearly won the battle of the early morning extravaganzas. WFAA8's only upside Sunday was a commanding 10 p.m. newscast performance, in which it dominated with 339,315 total viewers.
Sunday's final round of The Masters on CBS averaged 325,742 viewers, peaking at an American Idol/Dancing With the Stars-sized 481,827 viewers between 4 and 4:15 p.m. Saturday afternoon's third round averaged a comparatively paltry 149,299 viewers.
On Friday night, TXA21's first of 25 weekly regular season Texas Rangers games had 108,581 viewers, good enough to finish third behind first-run entertainment programming on ABC and CBS.
Prime-time's most-watched attraction, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC, had 183,230 viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. The second episode of CBS' Miami Medical won at 9 p.m. with 176,444 viewers. But MM slid to fifth place with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, with the last part of the Rangers game placing a heady first. Who says baseball is mostly for old coots?
In Friday's local news derby results, WFAA8 ran the table at 10 p.m. among both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds.
NBC5 did likewise at 6 a.m., where it was strictly a two-station race between the Peacock and Fox4.
WFAA8 took both legs at 6 p.m., but lost by pencil-thin margins to Fox4 at 5 p.m.
A lot of you were interested -- even during pre-dawn's early times. And when the big boom came, the ratings jumped as though they were on a pogo stick.
We're talking about Sunday morning's implosion of Texas Stadium, and its live coverage on Fox4, NBC5, WFAA8 and CBS11. The shopworn former home of the Dallas Cowboys took its final bow at 7:07 a.m., when its walls and roof came tumbling down in roughly a minute's time. Nielsen Media Research measures in 15-minute increments, so let's look first at the D-FW numbers from 7 to 7:15 a.m.
Fox4 -- 203,589 viewers
CBS11 -- 156,085 viewers
NBC5 -- 128,940 viewers
WFAA8 -- 108,581 viewers
Fox4 had the longest implosion special, from 6 to 8 a.m.. NBC5 began at the same hour and ended at 7:30 a.m. WFAA8 and CBS11 both went from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. Let's look the audiences for the complete shows:
Fox4 -- 142,512
NBC5 and CBS11 -- 88,222 apiece
WFAA8 -- 81,436
Fox4's coverage also had the most 25-to-54-year-old viewers, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. NBC5 slid to fourth in this demographic, with CBS11 the runnerup and WFAA8 third.
Plainly put, that's a triumph for Fox4 and a punch in the chops for WFAA8, which had announced its implosion special first and promoted it on all newscasts. Did WFAA8 err in not sending some of its more prominent news personalities to the scene, as Fox4 and CBS11 did? Do viewers care one way or the other -- or did they just want to see the big collapse?
Whatever the case, Fox4 clearly won the battle of the early morning extravaganzas. WFAA8's only upside Sunday was a commanding 10 p.m. newscast performance, in which it dominated with 339,315 total viewers.
Sunday's final round of The Masters on CBS averaged 325,742 viewers, peaking at an American Idol/Dancing With the Stars-sized 481,827 viewers between 4 and 4:15 p.m. Saturday afternoon's third round averaged a comparatively paltry 149,299 viewers.
On Friday night, TXA21's first of 25 weekly regular season Texas Rangers games had 108,581 viewers, good enough to finish third behind first-run entertainment programming on ABC and CBS.
Prime-time's most-watched attraction, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC, had 183,230 viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. The second episode of CBS' Miami Medical won at 9 p.m. with 176,444 viewers. But MM slid to fifth place with advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, with the last part of the Rangers game placing a heady first. Who says baseball is mostly for old coots?
In Friday's local news derby results, WFAA8 ran the table at 10 p.m. among both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds.
NBC5 did likewise at 6 a.m., where it was strictly a two-station race between the Peacock and Fox4.
WFAA8 took both legs at 6 p.m., but lost by pencil-thin margins to Fox4 at 5 p.m.