Even the Closing Ceremony did extraordinarily well this Olympics. In the preliminary fast nationals, NBC averaged an 8.8 Adult 18-49 rating from 8-11 pm last night. NBC usually runs the lower-rated 7 pm hour on the final night without commercials so that hour can be excluded from the nightly average. (Even if the 7 pm hour were included in the rating, the night would average a still robust 7.8 rating.)
Through 17 nights of Olympic programming, NBC is averaging a 9.6 rating for the London Olympics: 5% above Beijing in 2008, 10% ahead of Athens 2004, and 17% above Sydney 2000. The preliminary 17-night average for London is made up of 14 nights of official ratings and 3 nights of fast national ratings. The completely official numbers should be available tomorrow.
NBC also previewed the new comedy Animal Practice from 10:58 pm to about 11:20 pm, without commercials. No fast national ratings are available for the preview, and the metered-market “overnight” ratings for the 11 pm half hour are delayed. There is no doubt there was significant audience tune-out during the comedy set in an animal hospital, but even with a steep 40% decline from the 10:30 Olympic rating, the Animal Practice pilot would average around a 5 rating (a much higher rating than it would have received with a traditional premiere). However, given the dearth of laughs in the pilot, the series has nowhere to go but down when the season gets going.
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