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This just in: nights in the lives of D-FW's late night newscasts (Wed.-Fri., Nov. 21-23)


You are so Butt-u-Tiful. CBS11 gets the skinny on cellulite goop.

By ED BARK
CBS11's 10 p.m. newscasts are significantly improved in these post-Regent Ducas times.

One thing he didn't do, though, is pander to women viewers, who watch news programming in significantly larger numbers than men. Ducas, who lasted five months as CBS11's news director, instead was too intent on stocking his shelves with "urgent" crime and tragedy reports.

"You're not going to see a lot of diet-oriented stories in the second quarter-hour. Absolutely not," Ducas told unclebarky.com early in a regime that ended with his abrupt firing in early September. "If that's the magic to success, then I'm not going to try to beat 'em at their game. I'm a big believer that solid, topical news is going to drive viewership. I'm just not into tailoring news."

His successors, news director Scott Diener and newly hired assistant news director Sarah Garza, clearly have gone to the tailor shop. Earlier in the November "sweeps," anchor/reporter Tracy Kornet narrated a canned story titled "The Sex Diet."

Pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday brought anchor/reporter Maria Arita's less than skin deep, 10 p.m. piece on Butt-u-Tiful, a cellulite-fighting, coffee grounds-based concoction being marketed out of Flower Mound.

Two women tested the pricey product -- $42.95 for a month's supply -- by lathering their legs in a shower for four consecutive days. One user's thighs supposedly went from a 26-inch to a 25-inch circumference. She jumped up and down with unbridled glee while Arita watched approvingly.

This is all mere foreplay, though. On Monday's 10 p.m. CBS11 newscast, look for -- or not -- an already heavily promoted piece on how women can make their va-jay-jays a better fit for Mr. Excitement. Now that's "Coverage You Can Count On," ladies.

Belo8 and NBC5 already are old hands at sugaring the second halves of their newscasts with news women supposedly can use. This generally falls into the categories of miracle diets or miracle cosmetic cures. Cellulite long has ruled this particular roost, with unsightly wrinkles also a popular passtime. Only Fox4 pretty much stays off this playing field. But they're not even in HD yet, so whadda they know?

What you won't see on your 10 p.m. newscasts are stories about D-FW's best sports bars, or tips on how to pick your nose discreetly. Men don't count for much in the grand newscast scheme of things, and here's why. In the key newscast target audience -- 25-to-54-year-olds -- look at the combined average audiences for the 10 p.m. news through 17 weeknights of the November "sweeps," which end on Wednesday:

Women 25-to-54 -- 256,573 (each Nielsen rating point equals 14,578 women in this age group)
Men 25-to-54 -- 173,944 (each rating point equals 14,867 men in this age group)

All four major news providers draw more women than men at 10 p.m., with Belo8 flexing the biggest gender gap. Its late night newscasts average 102,046 women and 63,928 men.

The Wednesday-Friday newscasts otherwise were relatively tame, with many of the first-team anchors taking time off. It all revs up again on Monday, even though the orders of finish are pretty much determined in the four major newscast battle zones. For the particulars, scroll down on this page to our latest ratings report.