NBC’s Olympics coverage hit some rough ice Monday, with ratings falling below the disastrous Torino games for the first time.
While overall numbers for the Vancouver Games are still way up, NBC’s Monday coverage managed a 5.4 rating/14 share in adults 18-49, down 21 percent from the same night in 2006. Overall audience hit just over 21 million total viewers.
NBC still dominated Monday’s racing, with nothing else even coming close to touching its numbers for the night. The silver medal went to ABC’s two-hour "The Bachelor: The Women Tell All" special, which averaged a 4.2/10 in the demo during the 9 p.m hour.
So why didn’t Monday’s coverage show improvement over 2006, as every other night of Vancouver has. NBC insiders chalk it up to the fact that the similar night at Torino featured a big slalom race starring Bode Miller.
This year? Ice dancing. Plus, the damn Canadians won.
If only NBC had just broadcast that hockey game in primetime instead of MSNBC. Ratings would be up, and there’d be world peace.
In any event, NBC’s Real-Time Olympics RatingsCruncher 8000 unit informs us that NBC’s Vancouver average is now up 11 percent in the demo (7.0 vs. 6.3) and 24 percent in actual viewers (25.5 million vs. 20.6 million).
