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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Aug. 1) -- Rangers miracle comeback still no match for Olympics

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
NBC's tape-delayed conclusion of the individual men's gymnastics competition went against a very live incredible comeback by the Texas Rangers late Wednesday night.

The Summer Games still prevailed by a wide margin, drawing 785,796 D-FW viewers in the 10 p.m. hour before NBC5's late-arriving local newscast had 447,091 viewers for its 11 to 11:15 p.m. segment.

Over on Fox Sports Southwest, the Rangers-Angels marathon (which ended at 11:10 p.m. with Elvis Andrus' game-winning hit) drew 230,319 viewers from 10 to 11:15 p.m. Measurements are only available in 15-minute increments.

Texas, which rallied from 7-1 and 10-7 deficits, perhaps was given up for dead by many fans, including this one. The game overall averaged 169,353 viewers while NBC's full four-hour Olympics telecast weighed in at 690,958 viewers. Absent the "Fab Five" women's gymnastics team and any gold medal finals for swimmer Michael Phelps, that's a significant drop from the 860,311 viewers who tuned in Tuesday night.

CBS' 7 p.m. hour of Big Brother 14 led the non-sports prime-time contingent with 155,804 viewers, 99,271 of whom were in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 motherlode. That's a considerably better percentage than the Olympics had. Of its 690,958 viewers, 320,230 were in the 18-to-49 age range.

The three 10 p.m. local newscasts competing against both the Olympics and the Rangers mostly went begging for attention. CBS11 led in total viewers with 121,934, with WFAA8 (67,741) and Fox4 (54,193) trailing.

Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming, Fox4 was tops at 10 p.m. with just 30,093, followed by CBS11 (24,074) and WFAA8 (18,056). From 10 to 10:30 p.m. opposite the newscasts, the Olympics pulled in 430,330 viewers of the 25-to-54 persuasion. Hardly seems fair.

In Wednesday's four-way local news derby competitions, NBC5 ran the table at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. while adding a 6 p.m. win in total viewers. But Fox4 withstood the Olympics afterglow to nip the Peacock at 6 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds.