Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Feb. 20-22) -- Oscars take a tumble

Host Neil Patrick Harris: Who was he wearing? Photo: Ed Bark
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The 87th annual Oscars took a significant dip in the D-FW ratings Sunday night despite frigid, stay-at-home weather.

Running from 7:30 to 11:12 p.m. on ABC and hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, the ceremony tiptoed past the 1 million viewer mark with an overall average of 1,004,256. Among advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds, the Oscars averaged 428,917 viewers.

The 2014 Oscars, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, drew 1,164,613 total viewers and 547,126 in the 18-to-49 age range.

The Harris-hosted Oscars, his first such stint after two Emmy and four Tony outings, still outdrew the 2013 Oscars in total viewers. With Seth MacFarlane at the reigns, that edition had 922,483 D-FW viewers but nipped Sunday night’s latest ceremony among 18-to-49-year-olds with 430,569.

In recent D-FW ratings history, the lowest Oscar numbers by far came in 2009, when Hugh Jackman hosted. That one averaged just 677,580 total viewers and 291,176 in the 18-to-49 demographic.

(Your friendly content provider live-tweeted through out Sunday’s Oscar festivities. If you’d like to follow the Twitter thread, it’s right here.

Over on Fox Sports Southwest Sunday night, Amar’e Stoudemire’s debut as a Dallas Maverick had 132,506 total viewers and 59,922 within the 18-to-49 motherlode.

The most-watched broadcast station attraction opposite the Oscars, NBC5’s weather-fueled 10 p.m. local newscast, drew 348,700 total viewers and 138,767 in the 18-to-49 age range. Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast also did well with respective totals of 285,934 and 110,383 viewers.

But cable’s The Walking Dead, at 8 p.m. on AMC, ranked as Sunday’s overall runner-up among 18-to-49-year-olds with 170,305.

On Friday, CBS’ Blue Bloods again topped all prime-time programming with 258,038 total viewers. ABC’s Shark Tank and Fox4’s local news had the most 18-to-49-year-olds (85,153 apiece).

Here are Friday’s local news derby results for the 17th weekday of the February “sweeps,” which end on Wednesday.

CBS11 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. while Gannett8 ran first among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 notched another pair of 6 a.m. wins; the 6 p.m. firsts went to CBS11 in total viewers and NBC5 in the 25-to-54 measurement.

Gannett8 was tops in total viewers at 5 p.m. and shared the gold with NBC5 among 25-to-54-year-olds.

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