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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., April 16) -- Mavs fall short but power up

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
The Dallas Mavericks’ 106-105 overtime loss at Memphis sends them into the San Antonio Spurs woodchipper for the first round of the NBA playoffs.

But while channeling UConn, the Mavs also can look back on a ratings victory during the final hour of Wednesday’s game on TXA21 and ESPN.

The 9 to 10 p.m. portion of Mavs-Grizzlies drew 205,938 D-FW viewers on TXA21 and added another 85,216 for the ESPN presentation. The 291,154 total easily commanded the 9 p.m. hour, with CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation rerun the runner-up (170,431 viewers).

For the entire game, Mavs-Grizzlies averaged 142,026 viewers on TXA21 and 71,013 on ESPN for a total of 213,039. Wednesday’s top prime-time draws, Fox’s two-hour American idol and CBS’ Survivor, each drew 220,140 viewers. But the Mavs’ last regular season game led all prime-time programming among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds.

Toiling in relative obscurity on Fox Sports Southwest, the Dallas Stars’ 4-3 loss at Anaheim in their opening game of the Stanley Cup playoffs averaged just 35,507 total viewers. The Stars trailed 4-0 halfway through the game, which likely suppressed the ratings a bit. Nielsen numbers for the Texas Rangers game, shifted over to FSS+, were not immediately available. The Rangers beat Seattle 3-2 with a 9th inning rally.

Here are Wednesday’s local news derby numbers.

Fox4 swept the 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. competitions in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

NBC5 won at 6 p.m. in total viewers while WFAA8 had the most 25-to-54-year-olds. The Peacock also had the most viewers at 5 p.m., with Fox4 and WFAA8 tying for first in the 25-to-54 demographic.

Also of note: CW33’s comedy-laced, Dallas-produced Eye Opener has been up and down in the early morning Nielsens. But Wednesday was a big up, particularly in the 5 to 6 a.m. results. Eye Opener ran second in that hour among 25-to-54-year-olds, easily outdrawing NBC5, WFAA8 and CBS11 while still trailing Fox4 by almost a full rating point.

Eye Opener also nipped NBC5, WFAA8 and CBS11 in total viewers during the 5 to 6 a.m. face-off.

Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net