Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Oct. 4) -- Rangers clinch, get ready for prime-time

Afternoon delight. But relatively few saw Texas clinch. Photo: Ed Bark
By ED BARK
Good bye -- and good riddance -- to those daytime TBS games. The Texas Rangers now will mostly hit the prime-time stage for their ALCS series on Fox against either the Yankees or Tigers.

The North Texas 9 closed out the Tampa Bay Rays in comparative obscurity Tuesday afternoon. A total of 386,124 D-FW viewers were on hand for the closing 15 minutes of the 4-3 win, giving the Rangers a 3-1 series victory after their ignominious 9-0 opening game loss.

Game 4, which ended just before 4 p.m., averaged a fairly skimpy 257,416 viewers overall. Game 1, also played in daylight hours on TBS, had an identical average. Those were the two lowest totals, with Saturday's Game 2 on TNT drawing the biggest crowd (433, 542 viewers). Fox should be able to at least double those numbers with its higher-profile Rangers games.

A number of prime-time attractions had more viewers than Tuesday's Rangers clincher. CBS' NCIS as usual led all programs with 467,413 viewers. But the new season's darling continues to be Fox's New Girl, which again improved significantly on its Glee lead-in and easily beat all network programs in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic.

In contrast, NBC's lineup of The Biggest Loser and Parenthood again ran fourth throughout the night in both audience measurements while ABC's sagging Dancing with the Stars took a pair of bronzes from 7 to 9 p.m.

ABC's Body of Proof swept the 9 p.m. Nielsens, with CBS' new Unforgettable second in total viewers and Fox4's local newscast taking the silver with 18-to-49-year-olds.

In the four-way local news derby results, WFAA8 ran first at 10 p.m. in total viewers and tied for the lead with Fox4 among 25-to-54-year-olds (the main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 and NBC5 shared the 6 a.m. top spot in total viewers, with Fox4 as usual ruling the 25-to-54 demographic. WFAA8, which perked up on Monday to outpoint the Peacock, fell back to a distant third in both measurements. CBS11 remained the doormat.

CBS11 registered its lone win at 6 p.m., where it led in total viewers. Fox4 otherwise controlled the early evening races, running the table at 5 p.m. and adding a 6 p.m. gold with 25-to-54-year-olds.