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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Oct. 1-3) -- Redskins-Eagles edge Texas-OU among weekend's pigskin productions

By ED BARK
Deprived of the Cowboys, D-FW football addicts ganged around two showy games over the weekend. And in something of an upset, Texas-OU wasn't the biggest draw.

Sunday afternoon's late afternoon game on Fox -- Donovan McNabb's Washington Redskins vs. Michael Vick's Philadelphia Eagles -- averaged 692,570 viewers while Saturday's annual Texas-OU clash on ABC drew 651,016 viewers.

NBC's Sunday Night Football matchup between the Giants and Bears had the weekend's third largest football audience -- 457,096 viewers. Fox's early afternoon Sunday game between the Saints and Panthers drew 297,805 viewers while CBS was right behind with 290,879 for its competing Steelers-Ravens game.

The Texas Rangers' final regular season game before beginning post-season play drew scant interest on Fox Sports Southwest. A meaningless home loss to the Angels on Sunday afternoon managed 76,183 viewers opposite the NFL.

Texas next will play Tampa Bay Wednesday at 12:37 p.m. (central) on TBS. The Rangers and the Rays are scheduled to begin their first three games in afternoon hours, with Game 3 the latest starting at 4:07 p.m. on TBS (which has all of the opening round AL and NL matchups). That kinda sucks. But if their opponent instead were the marquee Yankees, you'd see the Rangers in prime-time. Games 1 and 3 of the NY-Minnesota series are at night, and Game 2 also starts later than the Rangers -- at 5:07 p.m.

Elsewhere in Sunday's ratings, CBS' Undercover Boss and ABC's Desperate Housewives battled for non-sports dominance in the 8 p.m. hour. They tied in total viewers with 367,062 apiece while also matching each other's totals among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

CBS' CSI: Miami, in its first 9 p.m. Sunday outing, then beat ABC's competing Brothers & Sisters in total viewers. But those finishes were reversed in the 18-to-49 demographic.

The second episode of CBS' Blue Bloods topped all Friday night programming in total viewers while also narrowly winning its 9 p.m. slot with 18-to-49-year-olds. But NBC's two-hour Dateline had the most viewers in that key demographic.

Fox's made-in-Dallas The Good Guys ran fourth at 8 p.m. in total viewers with 76,183 but did manage to almost double the audience of the network's 7 p.m. House rerun (41,554 viewers). Good Guys climbed a rung to third place at 8 p.m. among 18-to-49-year-olds, outdrawing CBS' CSI: NY. In the national Nielsens, though, Good Guys was no match for CSI: NY in either audience measurement.

In Friday's local news derby festivities, CBS11 won at 10 p.m. in total viewers while Fox4 inched to the top spot with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming) in an exceedingly close four-way battle.

NBC5 nipped Fox4 for the 6 a.m. gold in total viewers, but those finishes were reversed with 25-to-54-year-olds before the 7 to 9 a.m. portion of Fox4's Good Day again whipped the three network morning shows in that demographic.

WFAA8 ran the table at 6 p.m. and also took first at 5 p.m. in total viewers. NBC5 had the 5 p.m. edge among 25-to-54-year-olds.
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