If Only NBC Had Year-Round Olympics: Half Of All Americans Watched First 7 Days

COMMENTS (16)

• and the other half chose to not watch the west coast tape delay because NBC is rotten. No other sporting event that takes place within our North American timezones has ever been nor needs to be tape delayed! What’s the point? Oh money money money. F U! NBC deserves a huge FAIL hoisted up above 30 Rock. Once again the left-coast it left out of all the fun.

  Comment by Matt — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 1:07pm PST  Reply to this post

• No more controversies? How about:

  1. 4th pillar of the Olympic torch doesn’t lift during the opening ceremony

  2. There’s no snow! (Conditionas are craaazy.)

  3. 500m speed skating final delayed by 1 hour due to broken ice machine (supplied by Olympia, NOT industry standard Zamboni) causing Shani Davis to withdraw

  4. SIX finalists (Paerson, Gisin, Kristova, Miklos, Merighetti and Rolland) and the course tester fall during the women’s downhill due to conditions and the “hot air” jump at the end forcing downhill officials to change the course

  5. Top-ranked cross-country skier Petra Majdic flew off the course and into a RAVINE

  I know that your post is mostly about ratings but I believe that the ratings premium is due to all of these controversies. Maybe?

  (Raaaaaaaandy!)

  Comment by Wacky Winter — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 1:12pm PST  Reply to this post

• Congratulations to NBC,
  They’re having a great week ratings wise. Too bad it will only cost them about $250 million dollars in loses.

  Comment by theTVaddict — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 1:23pm PST  Reply to this post

• Are they still planning to lose $200 million?

  Comment by Lukesed — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 1:52pm PST  Reply to this post

• I would easily pay $100 PPV to watch an Evgeni Plushenko/Evan Lysacek cagematch. Maybe more if they were wearing their skating costumes.

  Comment by Barrett — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 2:01pm PST  Reply to this post

  • I would totally pay $100 to watch Lysacek smack the bejesus out of that Russian loser. He lost, and he’s a sore loser. I wouldn’t kick either of them out of bed, though

    Comment by Roberta — Saturday February 20, 2010 @ 12:22am PST  Reply to this post

• High ratings for the Olympics are a good thing, except they’re probably so high because people need cheap entertainment in this economy and hope for something inspirational. And the crack about Shaun White is a bit uncalled for. He is a WORLD CLASS ATHLETE at the top of his sport who works extemely hard and has a great attitude. Long hair and a big smile doesn’t make him a drug user. He deserves praise not snide remarks.

  Comment by OlympicsFan — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 2:52pm PST  Reply to this post

• Meanwhile ABC/ESPN is waiting in the corner for Comcastic! end to NBC broadcasts of the Olympics.

  Comment by P. Lee — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 2:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• And we throw NBC a bone and hope the web will recover and get some writers, actors and and….employed.

  Comment by Sam — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 3:23pm PST  Reply to this post

• No way Shaun White could do what he does if he was using drugs. None. I do understand the crack though, because he does seem like a stoner.

  One thing I think might be helping the ratings is short track skater Apolo Ohno’s and snowboarder Louie Vito’s appearance on Dancing With Stars. My wife and I watched all of the coverage Wednesday night and she was real interested in seeing Ohno and Vito compete because she grew to like them on Dancing with the Stars and had never actually seen them do what they do best. If the Olympics were on ABC, that angle would certainly be played up more. I always check out the Olympics, but my wife has never been interested before this year, and those Dancing with the Stars guys are a big reason.

  Also, I think the tape delay doesn’t hurt when you know in advance, for example, that Lindsay Vonn won. We knew on Wednesday but were still excited to see how she did it.

  Comment by Brian G. — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 5:16pm PST  Reply to this post

• First and foremost, let me say Nikki I like the rules to posting a comment on this fantastic homepage and it’s topics.

  Without commenting on the athlete you mention in this topic, NBC’s lack of strong viewership has a lot to do with it’s programing since 2008. Everyone knows Olympics and love the games. NBC has a deal to carry the games through certain amount of years until that deal is renewed.

  If NBC Uni wishes to get back on strong viewership track past Olympic games 2010, they need to bring new fresh programs that are meaningful and on the money which are also appealing . NBC Uni is also dealing with coop restructuring and merger with Comcast which is might possibly be affecting on how NBC Uni toppers make their decisions on what projects should air on their Channel. With that said, I rest my case.

  I hope I was on the topic at all times.

  Thanks Nikki,

  Romeo Bashir

  Comment by Romeo Bashir — Friday February 19, 2010 @ 6:29pm PST  Reply to this post

• You know, you can post all the first week glitches you want but here’s the reality; the Olympics are as much for the tourists as it is for the athletes and the parties have been spectacular, the center of town is more vibrant than any winter Olympics before it and the sun is shining. The city is gorgeous right now which makes the event perfect from the perspectives of the out of towners.

  Comment by Original Joe — Saturday February 20, 2010 @ 10:03am PST  Reply to this post

• i was held hostage by NBC thursday evening while waiting to see the men’s free skate….we were given Olympic minibites in between five commercials….i finally gave up and went to bed at 10:30…..i caught up the next day on youtube…….

  Comment by su — Saturday February 20, 2010 @ 11:22am PST  Reply to this post

• Just to be clear, the Americans don’t normally do so lousy during the Winter Games: they’re behind only Norway and Germany for most winter olympic medals ever.

  Comment by Dave — Sunday February 21, 2010 @ 9:25pm PST  Reply to this post

• To answer your question, Nikki, I don’t think Shaun TAKES a drug test. He’s such a huge draw that they need him to compete.

  Comment by njames — Monday February 22, 2010 @ 7:32am PST  Reply to this post

• And if you think Shaun is a one-dimensional athlete… you should see the kid skate a ramp. He’s sick!

  Comment by hater — Monday February 22, 2010 @ 2:13pm PST  Reply to this post