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Winter Olympics strike ratings gold for NBC
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The first two nights of the Winter Olympics have been cause for much celebration at NBC, as they've scored ratings well above the 2006 winter games.Prime-time coverage Friday and Saturday (Feb. 12-13) averaged 30 million viewers, a third better than the first two nights from Turin, Italy, in 2006 (22.6 million). The opening ceremony on Friday drew 32.6 million viewers, the highest for any Winter Olympics outside the United States since 1994, when the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan saga fueled interest in the games and drew 33.8 million people to the opening ceremony. (The last U.S.-base games, in 2002 in Salt Lake City, scored better than 45 million viewers for the opening ceremony.)
NBC also notes that 97 million people have caught at least a few minutes of its coverage on the network or one of its cable partners, a 13-percent bump over 2006 (88 million) and just behind the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway (100 million).
The ratings surge over 2006 has occurred even without the presence of two of the Winter Olympics' marquee events, downhill skiing and figure skating. The alpine skiing schedule has been pushed back because of bad weather, and the figure skating competition gets going Sunday with the pairs short program.
Having the Olympics in nearby Vancouver, Canada, has allowed NBC to show some events live in primetime to the eastern half of the country, which has probably helped juice the ratings some. Even on tape delay, though, the games are performing well out West; markets like Seattle and Denver have posted some of the best metered-market ratings so far.
Saturday's prime-time coverage averaged 26.2 million viewers, better than any night of the 2006 games.
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it was torino, italy not turin. You should fix that.
Turin is what Americans have generally called over the years. It was only at the time of the Olympics we started using Torino as it is known locally.
yeah rob, Turin (what Americans call it) = Torino (what Italians call it). In fact, we've bastardized many if not most famous city names in non-English speaking Europe. For example, we say Florence, it is really FIRENZE. we say Venice, it is really VENEZIA. we say Vienna, it is really WIEN...and on and on it goes. (and continuing in India where we said Bombay, but it is really MUMBAI, etc etc.)
It's pathetic that some Americans only watch the games if they are taking place in the USA. That completely defeats the spirit of the games.
I watch it no matter where it is. I love the olympics. It's the only chance I get to see some of the winter sports.
Ive watched a little bit of it. Its pretty good so far.
duhsquared, for reading your post everyones IQ dropped at least 15 points.
It kinda sucks that the skiing has been pushed back, but as long as I get to watch short track speedskating, I'm happy. :-D
holymoly, like i said, DUHSQUARED! but anyway, it's certainly news to some (like rob)....
and may i add, how many IQ points do we need to drop to understand your fairly incomprehensible sentence? duh!
I hate NBC for not showing the Olympics live and holding off every gold medal event until the 10 o clock hour.