"Grey's Anatomy" Beats Olympics In Ratings; More To Come??

[Joseph_Gallant]

According to this Zap 2 It.com article, NBC's Winter Olympic coverage had problems in the ratings last night (Sunday, February 12th).

Although the third hour (9-10 P.M. ET/PT) of Olympic coverage barely woin it's time period against "Desperate Housewives" in overall viewers, "Housewives" beat the Olympics in young-adult demographics. And in the 10-11 P.M. (ET/PT) hour, "Grey's Anatomy" beat the Olympics in overall audience.

This is not a good sign for NBC, considering that the Olympics have yet to face "American Idol" (which it will on five nights: Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week). If "Desperate Housewives" almost beat the Olympics in total viewers (and did in young adults) and "Grey's Anatomy" did beat the Olympics in total and young-adult viewers, it's quite possible that "Idol" might not just beat the Olympics head-to-head, but might do so big.

In NBC's defense, there was no figure-skating last night. Tonight (February 13th) is the pairs' long program, and including tonight, there are eight more nights of figure-skating competition (and after the competition ends, a ninth night of skating, featuring exhibition performances by medalists) in prime-time on NBC.

NBC can also claim in it's defense that unlike the case four years ago in Salt Lake City and four years from now in Vancouver, none of the prime-time coverage from Turin/Torino is live.

 

[Nertz]

I think this proves nobody cares about the Olympics and the other networks aren't playing dead when it comes to counterprogramming.

 

[rugrats1]

Out of curiosity, how did Canada's CBC do? If they won all or most of their time periods, the fact that prime-time's on tape won't cut it for NBC.

 

[BRNout]

> I think this proves nobody cares about the Olympics and the
> other networks aren't playing dead when it comes to
> counterprogramming.
>
Fox didn't quite play dead, but they were soundly asleep last night - showing reruns of the Simpsons, FG and American Dad. Why no fresh shows?

 

[dustintv]

How have past ratings been?

I really have never cared for them, but I would like to see more comparison of past Olympic ratings before jumping to any conclusions, if anyone knows them. Athens? Nagano? Sydney? Atlanta even?





> According to this Zap 2 It.com article, NBC's Winter Olympic
> coverage had problems in the ratings last night (Sunday,
> February 12th).
>
> Although the third hour (9-10 P.M. ET/PT) of Olympic
> coverage barely woin it's time period against "Desperate
> Housewives" in overall viewers, "Housewives" beat the
> Olympics in young-adult demographics. And in the 10-11 P.M.
> (ET/PT) hour, "Grey's Anatomy" beat the Olympics in overall
> audience.
>
>

 

[XL]

> Fox didn't quite play dead, but they were soundly asleep
> last night - showing reruns of the Simpsons, FG and American
> Dad. Why no fresh shows?

Outside of the opening and closing ceremonies, the other networks really don't play dead. The only times some of the other networks might schedule a re-run in place of a new episode is if there is a huge sporting event where the US is up for a gold. That has happened before.

But, back to your question, I was surprised about FOX too. This is sweeps month, isn't it?

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Tonight (February 14th), tomorrow (February 15th) and next week, Fox will broadcast first-run "American Idol" episodes.

Given this past Sunday night's ratings for the Olympics, it's even possible that "Idol" could out-pull the Olympics, and perhaps by a large margin among viewers under the age of 35.

As far as I've been able to determine, there have only been a few times in the history of television where an Olympic telecast didn't win the ratings race in a particular half-hour.

But this year, rival networks have been more agressive about counterprogramming the Olympics. They feel that with no live coverage in prime-time (thanks to the time difference between Turin/Torino and the United States), they could actually compete.

However, I would not be surprised if four years hence, ABC, CBS, Fox and the CW don't do nearly as much counterprogramming of the Winter Olympics as they are doing this year, since the 2010 Winter Games will be in Vancouver, which means much of NBC's prime-time coverage will be live, especially the figure-skating.

 

[mjlarochelle]

> Out of curiosity, how did Canada's CBC do? If they won all
> or most of their time periods, the fact that prime-time's on
> tape won't cut it for NBC.
>
http://www.bbm.ca/en/nat02062006.pdf - see for yourself.<P ID="signature">______________
From WNBC-TV New York this is Liiiiive at Fiiiiive!</P>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Maybe CBC will have many of the same ratings problems in prime-time NBC might have.

But daytime coverage of the Olympics the first two days (mostly live) on CBC scored better than the prime-time coverage those two days, and landed well up on the list.

Blame it on the time difference. Nothing in prime-time can be shown live.

Four years from now, both CTV (which has the Canadian rights to the next Winter Games) and NBC will have much higher prime-time numbers since the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, which will mean that much of the prime-time coverage (especially figure-skating on NBC and Canadian men's/women's hockey games on CTV) will be live.