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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Oct. 20) -- Rangers still dominate, but numbers cool with daytime start and frigid performance

By ED BARK
Wednesday's Game 5 of the ALCS, a 7-2 Rangers loss to the Yankees, fell well short of the previous day's million mark with an average of 671,723 D-FW viewers.

Not surprisingly, attendance built in after-work hours, with a peak TBS audience of 934,970 between 5:45 and 6 p.m. It was another marathon, running from 3:07 to 6:55 p.m. And the numbers do not fully measure workplace and barroom viewing.

Game 6 is Friday night back in Arlington, with a scheduled 7:07 p.m. start. Locally, Fox4 is blanketing its newscasts with Rangers coverage while prepping for a World Series on Fox that still has a great chance of including Texas.

Rival station managers, if you strapped lie detectors to them, wouldn't mind seeing the Rangers bow out. Otherwise their network prime-time programming and 10 p.m. newscasts will be obliterated by the North Texas Nine's first ever World Series appearance. And most of the WS, set to begin on Wednesday, Oct. 27th, will bleed into the November "sweeps" ratings period, which starts on Thursday of that week.

On other ratings fronts, Fox's prime-time NLCS game between the Giants and Phillies averaged just 131,588 viewers while CBS rolled with its competing lineup of Survivor: Nicaragua (207,771), Criminal Minds (387,839) and The Defenders (256,251). But ABC's Modern Family had Wednesday's biggest prime-time haul of advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.

At the other end of the network teeter totter, NBC's first-year Undercovers series had the smallest number of 18-to-49-year-olds, trailing The CW's America's Next Top Model and Hellcats as well as all programming on ABC, CBS and Fox.

The local news derby proceedings went like this: CBS11 commanded the 10 p.m. field with wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming on most stations.

Fox4 remained strong in the early mornings with twin wins at 6 a.m. And WFAA8 continued to run stronger of late in the early evening newscast competitions, running the table at both 5 and 6 p.m.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: TXA21's early morning simulcasts of KLUV radio's (98.7 FM) Jody Dean and the Morning Team start on Monday, Oct. 25th. Replacing the syndicated Daily Buzz, they'll air from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays.

Also, CBS11's new weekday early morning anchor, Lisa Pineiro, is scheduled to join Scott Sams on Thursday, Oct. 28th, opening day of the November sweeps.