FOX - NBC CAN'T BRING HOME THE GOLD

Final primetime ratings for last week showed a 37-percent decline in the number of viewers for NBC's coverage of the Turin Winter Olympics compared with the Salt Lake City Games four years ago. Among viewers 18-49, the demographic group most prized by advertisers, the drop was far greater -- a whopping 45 percent. Ratings for the closing ceremonies on Sunday were particularly dismal, with only 14.8 million tuning in, about half the number who tuned in four years ago. The top three programs for the week turned out not to be Olympics coverage at all but the Wednesday and Tuesday editions of Fox's American Idol and Sunday's season finale of ABC's Dancing With the Stars. Also beating out the Olympics in the top ten were ABC's Grey's Anatomy at No. 6; the Thursday special edition of American Idol at No. 7 and Thursday's semi-final round of ABC's Dancing With the Stars at No. 9. CBS, the usual weekly overall winner, had strategically decided to air reruns against the Olympics. Analysts could only speculate about how much further the Olympics telecasts would have fallen if CBS had decided to challenge them with original programming.

01/03/2006