THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 2/21/14

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NBC:  See Mitch Metcalf’s Skedball post for detailed analysis and charts of WINTER OLYMPICS ratings.  Last night’s 3.5 (which may adjust up to 3.6 if the network ran the 8PM half-hour without commercials) will in any case mark a historic low for Winter Olympics primetime network coverage, down almost a point from Turin’s parallel night and 3 points from Vancouver.   With 2 nights left, only 1 of them including actual games, Sochi is running 10-15% or worse behind previous Winter Olympics.

ABC:  SHARK TANK, like most of the other original programming that ran against the Olympics, suffered from the competition but not to a deadly degree, with 1.7 for a new episode last night (down 0.4 from its last new episode).  20/20 was up 0.4 from last week’s episode that aired against the Olympics, rising to 1.5.   A pair of LAST MAN STANDING reruns started the night, both at 0.8.

OTHER NETWORKS:  The rest of the competition stuck to reruns.  CBS aired a triple header of BLUE BLOODS at 0.7-0.8, FOX was led by 0.9 for BONES, and CW had 0.4-0.5 for a pair of WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY half-hours, followed by 0.2 for an episode of THE ORIGINALS.

The Olympics have full sway over Saturday night, facing a mix of reruns, a DAYTONA 500-related special on FOX and a run of a SHREK movie on ABC.  NBC will follow the Olympics coverage with a preview (which will run without commercials) of ABOUT A BOY, which premieres in its regular slot on Tuesday.  It will undoubtedly draw an audience tonight, but we all remember how much good that did 2 years ago for Go On and Animal Practice.  NBC will do the same thing with a run of GROWING UP FISHER following tomorrow night’s Closing Ceremony.  The other networks will mostly take the night off one last time, although CBS is premiering the new cycle of THE AMAZING RACE before 2 hours of reruns.