The Sked: FRIDAY RATINGS June 29: Olympic Gymnastics Trials Lead the Way

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Once again, live programming proved to be the only way to attract an audience on a tough night like Friday.  NBC’s continuing coverage of U.S. Olmpic Trials worked well with the TV audience, particularly Gymnastics from 9-11 pm.

NBC averaged a first-place 2.0 preliminary Adult 18-49 rating from 8-11 pm.  Swimming from 8-9 pm averaged a 1.5 rating (good enough for a win in the hour), although it was down from a 1.7 Thursday at 8 and a 1.9-2.0 Monday-Wednesday at 8.  But interest really spiked for the bread and butter of the Summer Olympics, Gymnastics, which averaged a 2.3 from 9-11 pm.  By half hour, Gymnastics coverage built steadily for most of the show (2.2 at 9:00, 2.4 at 9:30, and 2.5 at 10:00) before retreating a bit at 10:30 (a still very good 2.3 rating).  This is up substantially from the 0.9-1.0 NBC has rated the past two Fridays (with very low-rated comedy repeats at 8 and Dateline at 9 pm) and very close to the 2.1 rating ABC averaged two weeks ago with its night devoted to the Niagara Falls highwire-with-a-harness stunt.

ABC finished in second with a 1.1 rating in prime time.  Both Shark Tank (a repeat) and 20/20 (a two-hour original episode) scored a 1.1.

CBS averaged a 0.8 rating from 8-11 pm, with repeats of Undercover Boss (1.0), CSI New York (0.8) and Blue Bloods (0.7).  The last two Fridays CBS has averaged a similar 0.7 for the night.

FOX was a non-factor, a 0.5 rating for repeats of House and Bones.  This is down a bit for FOX, which has bounced between a 0.6 and 0.7 the last four Fridays with the same schedule.

More Olympic Trials tonight on NBC — swimming at 8 pm and Track & Field at 9 pm before The Firm ruins the evening at 10 pm.   Regional baseball on FOX and repeats on the other networks.