Last night’s Winter Olympic coverage on NBC in primetime averaged a 4.9 adult 18-49 rating from 8:00-11:00 pm, but that rating increases to a 5.2 if the 8:00-8:30 half hour is excluded for being free of national commercials.  Either way, it’s a disaster for a night containing the finals of Ladies’ Figure Skating, THE marquee […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  THE WINTER OLYMPICS gained only 0.1 in adjusted numbers, bringing it to 5.0, more than a point behind Vancouver and more than 3 points behind Turin for the night.  (Don’t even ask about Salt Lake City.)  At least the afternoon adjustments gave the Games something, though–AMERICAN IDOL stayed at its awful, all-time […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  NBC wasn’t able to exclude the 8PM half-hour of its WINTER OLYMPICS coverage, and consequently its rating stayed at 5.0, just barely above the 2d-lowest night of Turin  And without getting too far into spoiler territory, tonight’s ratings may end up being disappointing as well.  CRIMINAL MINDS gained back 0.1 of its […]

  UPDATE:  THE OLYMPICS excluded the 8PM half-hour (no commercials) and by that means was able to adjust up to 5.0 for the rest of primetime. TUESDAY CABLE:  TEEN MOM (MTV) led the night with 1.4, up 0.1 from last week.  BEING MARY JANE (BET) was likewise up 0.1 to 1.3, tied for 2d place […]

Last night’s Olympic coverage from Sochi, Russia averaged a 5.0 adult 18-49 rating from 8:00-11:00 pm, although the final number will probably come in at a 5.2 rating when the 8:00 half hour is excluded for not containing national commercials (only promos and local spots).  The 5.2 last night would be up four tenths from […]

  UPDATE: Per expectations, the WINTER OLYMPICS adjusted to a 5.6 rating on Monday (Nielsen is still behind, recovering from the horror of dealing with a regular national holiday).  ALMOST HUMAN gained 0.1 to hit 1.7, tying the much more high-profile THE FOLLOWING (which for its part seems hell-bent on topping its own idiocy with […]

  UPDATE:  THE WINTER OLYMPICS didn’t adjust up quite as much as we expected, hitting 4.9.  UP fittingly went a bit higher, by 0.1 to 1.0.  SUNDAY CABLE:  Although THE WALKING DEAD (AMC) fell a sharp 1.4 from last week’s season premiere, its 6.8 was more than enough to take care of the OLYMPICS.  Its […]

NBC’s Winter Olympic coverage Tuesday night averaged a 4.8 adult 18-49 rating from 8:00-11:00 pm, below the same night in Vancouver 2010 (5.5 rating) and well below the same night in Turin 2006 (7.5 rating), which was helped by figure skating.  Last night’s events were not exactly marquee: Women’s Giant Slalom, Men’s Halfpipe, Men’s Snowboard Cross, […]