Idol dominates but Touch falters | None | Uncle Barky's Bytes

powered by FreeFind

Apple iTunes

Archives

Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Jan. 25) -- Idol dominates but Touch falters

By ED BARK
Wednesday night's sneak-preview of Fox's Touch capitalized minimally on a big American Idol lead-in, particularly among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers craved by both advertisers and networks.

Idol hit prime-time running, amassing 535,153 D-FW viewers in the 7 p.m. to crush reruns on CBS and ABC, and NBC's ratings-parched new episodes of Whitney and Are You There, Chelsea?

Touch, marking Kiefer Sutherland's return to prime-time after eight seasons of 24, dropped to 291,286 viewers to run second at 8 p.m. behind CBS' new hour of Criminal Minds (352,253 viewers).

In the all-important 18-to-49 demographic, Touch had just 92,867 viewers after inheriting 243,375 from the last quarter-hour of Idol. That put it behind both Criminal Minds and ABC's 8 p.m. repeat of Modern Family. Touch is slated to return on March 19th, in a Monday night slot following House.

CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation then said farewell to Marg Helgenberger's Catherine Willows. The episode drew 345,479 total viewers, swamping Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast and repeats of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and ABC's Revenge. CSI also won easily among 18-to-49-year-olds, with Fox4's news again second.

Wednesday's local news derby results had something for everyone. CBS11 ran first at 10 p.m. in total viewers but NBC5 edged Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds, the favored advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m., with WFAA8's Daybreak continuing to show some momentum with a close third place finish in total viewers and a solid silver medal among 25-to-54-year-olds. With the start of the February ratings "sweeps" a week away, WFAA8 has at least an outside chance to move ahead of NBC5 in this key demographic.

Fox4 added a 6 p.m. win in total viewers while WFAA8 took the 25-to-54 gold. At 5 p.m., Fox4 and NBC5 shared first place in total viewers, with Fox4 and WFAA8 tying for the top spot among 25-to-54-year-olds.
|