TV ratings: Olympics score again for NBC Sunday

the problem with nbc's olympic coverage is that it isnt live. the results are already posted by the time you watch it.

Another first place finish for NBC ,they will fall come March 1st .Great reality programming on ABC last night the ratings were fantastic lol

I love how this country doesn't appreciate the Olympics. Rooting for our country's participants has always been something I have always done(albeit not Winter Olympics). I love the way that this country is all about me and not about patriotism or nationalism, whether it's rooting for the U.S. or their own country of origin.

No wonder we have crap on tv I would personally like to shoot everyone who watched Undercover Boss. It's because of people like you the airwaves are full of reality crap. But I guess nothing compares to some reality programming to go with your McDonalds supper!

Just don't get it.

How can people watch Undercover boss when it's not even in HD!?????? This is 2010 and not 2005, right?

Woof,

The Olympic coverage this year is almost entirely live. That is primarily the reason the ratings have been fantastic and will continue to be so. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

I for sure am not going to watch Undercover Boss.

I second the emotion concerning ESPN. I think it is absolutely killing them that there is sports programming getting huge numbers and they aren't a part of it. They can hype basketball and racing all they want, it won't do them any good. The Winter Olympics smashed the Daytona 500 and the NBA All Star Game in the ratings over the weekend. Expect more of the same the next two weeks.

What a shame!!! The cameras and the commentator were stuck on the Canadian who won the gold in skiing ( I already forgot his name) while the American who won the bronze got zilch from NBC.
Not a word, not a close-up,
nothing. NBC, aren't you
ashamed? Sponsors of the
Olympics, don't advertize
on NBC in the future.

@JMC: I entirely agree with your analysis.

This year has been a year of disappointments for the networks (mild disappointment for CBS, bigger for everyone else, especially ABC whose entire new lineup struck out).

To build on what you said about Jeff Zucker, the same could be said about many others (especially Dawn Ostroff at CW). Even at ABC, if a coach brought on a bunch of new players that universally failed to deliver as Stephen McPherson's new lineup did, he'd be in dire straights.

The mystery is why network TV, in the midst of one of the greatest crisis it ever endured, fails to do anything to correct the course.

There was, for once, an interesting article in Variety yesterday. The article detailed how success is every year re-defined down for that the new season can be hailed as "successful".

For some reason, this PR technique seems to pacify the owners of the networks. It's hard to fathom why.

The article went on to detail all the bad practices that I, and others, have talked about on this board.

Shows that don't deserve renewal get renewed in hopes that they'll magically gain traction (the best the article mentioned was Chuck, which is a perennial ratings loser!)

Shows get renewed "because of critical acclaim" (the article got it wrong, they get renewed as a platform for the network to promote itself and claim in the press that it's doing great work, as if critics would know great work if they looked at it for hours ;) ). Apparently, this also pacifies the people in charge of the sinking ship.

The general PR angle that shows are doing well when they're not because the networks are losing audience for causes that have nothing to do with the shows being unappealing is taken as Gospel by most people in Hollywood, with the consequence that the slide continues as poorly-performing shows are routinely placed on PR life support to disastrous financial effect.

Everyone in Hollywood is so wedded to being part of a "hit" that every show is now called a "hit", or even a "smash hit" like FOX recently labeled Human Target and its 7 million viewers even though most are bombs.

Sadly this circle goes round and round and failing executives use their time forcing shows to shoot on video and tinkering with on-screen advertising, two practices that also lose viewership.

Meanwhile at USA (strangely part of NBC's conglomerate) ratings keep growing as if there was no internet, gaming or whatever excuse du jour...

It's a very sad state of affairs, hopefully one that will lead to a renewal of the industry and not its final collapse.