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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Nov. 6) -- election night special

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Even three of the Big Four broadcast networks participated in full by clearing out their prime-time schedules Tuesday for the unusually consequential “off-year” elections.

But Fox News Channel still sat comfortably atop the heap during the most-watched 7 to 10 p.m. segments. In order of eyeballs, here are D-FW’s total viewer averages during those three hours.

Fox News Channel -- 217,908
NBC -- 175,733
ABC -- 140,586
CNN -- 119,498
MSNBC -- 84,352
CBS - 77,322
PBS -- 21,088

It’s no surprise that FNC led the parade. But for CBS and its once storied news division, finishing behind all three cable news nets plus NBC and ABC is a very hard fall into near irrelevance. (CBS’ coverage also ran third nationally behind NBC’s and ABC’s.)

The Fox broadcasting network ceded election coverage to its cable news cousin and instead offered new episodes of The Gifted and Lethal Weapon from 7 to 9 p.m. Neither fared very well, with The Gifted drawing 42,176 viewers before Lethal Weapon perked up to 77,322 viewers. Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast then doubled that crowd with 154,645 viewers, but was still outdrawn in the Big Four broadcast network universe by the closing prime-time hours of election coverage on both NBC and ABC.

Here are Tuesday’s local news derby results for the ninth weekday of the November “sweeps” ratings period.

NBC5 had the most total viewers at 10 p.m. and tied TEGNA8 for the top spot among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. and NBC5 did likewise at 5 p.m. The 6 p.m. golds went to TEGNA8 in total viewers and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net