Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Dec. 16-18) -- holiday weekend, uncommon venues, lackluster opponent keep Cowboys' ratings "low"
12/19/11 10:23 AM
By ED BARK
The Dallas Cowboys' one-sided win over hapless Tampa Bay Saturday night inched just past the one million mark on two out-of-the-way networks.
Running from 7:28 to 10:17 p.m., the game had 704,506 D-FW viewers for CW33's simulcast of the NFL Network's coverage. Add an extra 304,835 viewers for those who watched NFL Net and that's a not-so-grand total of 1,009,341 viewers. That makes it the least-watched Cowboys game of the season, with more than a half-million fewer viewers than the previous Sunday night loss to the New York Giants, which drew a local crowd of 1,591,914 for NBC's Sunday Night Football telecast.
The low ratings are hardly surprising, given the holiday season timing, the boring opponent, and the uncommon pairing of CW33 and NFL Net on an unusual night for pro football. The high-stakes Christmas Eve revenge encounter on Fox with arch rival Philadelphia should rebound back up toward the 1.5 million mark.
Among Sunday's NFL attractions, CBS' Tim Tebow-fueled Broncos-Patriots game led the way with a very robust 711,281 viewers. The earlier afternoon Giants-Redskin faceoff had 528,380 viewers on Fox. And NBC's prime-time matchup of the Ravens and Chargers drew 413,220 viewers.
Friday's local news derby results went like this: CBS11 won comfortably in total viewers at 10 p.m., but NBC5 took the gold among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The 6 a.m. firsts were split between Fox4 in total viewers and the Peacock with 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 ran the table at 6 p.m. and added a 5 p.m. win in total viewers. NBC5 prevailed at the earlier hour in the 25-to-54 demographic.
That left WFAA8 without any wins anywhere for the fourth straight weekday. In recent times, that might be a first -- so to speak.
The Dallas Cowboys' one-sided win over hapless Tampa Bay Saturday night inched just past the one million mark on two out-of-the-way networks.
Running from 7:28 to 10:17 p.m., the game had 704,506 D-FW viewers for CW33's simulcast of the NFL Network's coverage. Add an extra 304,835 viewers for those who watched NFL Net and that's a not-so-grand total of 1,009,341 viewers. That makes it the least-watched Cowboys game of the season, with more than a half-million fewer viewers than the previous Sunday night loss to the New York Giants, which drew a local crowd of 1,591,914 for NBC's Sunday Night Football telecast.
The low ratings are hardly surprising, given the holiday season timing, the boring opponent, and the uncommon pairing of CW33 and NFL Net on an unusual night for pro football. The high-stakes Christmas Eve revenge encounter on Fox with arch rival Philadelphia should rebound back up toward the 1.5 million mark.
Among Sunday's NFL attractions, CBS' Tim Tebow-fueled Broncos-Patriots game led the way with a very robust 711,281 viewers. The earlier afternoon Giants-Redskin faceoff had 528,380 viewers on Fox. And NBC's prime-time matchup of the Ravens and Chargers drew 413,220 viewers.
Friday's local news derby results went like this: CBS11 won comfortably in total viewers at 10 p.m., but NBC5 took the gold among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.
The 6 a.m. firsts were split between Fox4 in total viewers and the Peacock with 25-to-54-year-olds.
CBS11 ran the table at 6 p.m. and added a 5 p.m. win in total viewers. NBC5 prevailed at the earlier hour in the 25-to-54 demographic.
That left WFAA8 without any wins anywhere for the fourth straight weekday. In recent times, that might be a first -- so to speak.