Posted on 02/28/2006 8:07:19 PM PST by Cecily
NEW YORK, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The 2006 Olympics Winter Games was the least-watched Winter Olympics since at least 1988, it was reported Tuesday.
Nielsen Media Research said an average 20.2 million viewers watched NBC's prime time coverage, with Thursday night's women's figure skating finals drawing the biggest number, 25.7 million viewers, USA Today reported.
Sunday night's closing ceremony garnered the lowest number of viewers, with 14 million people tuning in, half the number registered for ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" finale.
Analysts said because of taped coverage many viewers already knew the outcome of events shown in prime time. They said the lack of viewer interest on a shortage of emerging stars,good programming on competing networks and a possible overkill by NBC, running coverage across all of its cable outlets as well as the main broadcast network, USA Today said.
Viewers chose programs such as "American Idol," "Grey's Anatomy," "Dancing with the Stars," "Desperate Housewives," "Lost," "Survivor" and even a "CSI" rerun over the Winter Games.
Despite the lower numbers, NBC still won most nights with its Olympic coverage, USA Today noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
winter games are b-o-r-i-n-g...at least for most men.
My mother tried watching them. She's retired with lots of time on her hands and still couldn't stand the coverage. They spent more time showing "teases" of upcoming coverage that they hardly covered the events they were teasing. There were events that they'd show 4 or 5 teases about and then cover for only 5 mins or so.
I wonder what would happen if they just showed the events without the human interest or the previews. The Olympics are going on, either people will perform or they won't we don't need previews any more we can watch the real thing.
Many of those other programs that challenged NBC's Olympics were reruns, too.
That adds insult to injury.
The web site got lots of hits. I think people knew the results ahead of time and didn't bother to watch the events that were aired on tape delay.
NBC loses royally because of those who anchored the games...can't stomach all those liberal clymers infusing their politics in the Olympics! The Olympics openning ceremony also was very political...ENUFF! Until another affiliation picks up the Olympics, I'll be tuning out! I was glued however to American Idol...best show on the tube, imho!
Did you see the baseball playoffs? I think it was the Astros-Braves game where they put on the screen what the batters favorite movie as a kid was. WTF?
american idol - that pretty much sums up our culture...
I think the winter games are the best for men, the winter games have much fewer judges "sports" than the summer games. And you have fine manly sports like hockey, luge, and biathalon. Of course the coverage in prime time is crap, but you've got a much better selection of sports than the summer games.
I usually enjoy at least a few events.
But this year they turned out to be the most boring games ever.
You couldn't tell if you were watching quarter finals, semifinals or finals most of the time......by the time somebody won anything, you were half asleep.
NBC? = Temper tantrum david gregory??
Hmmmm???
I had to laugh at coverage the first week. They showed curling. Men's curling. Women's curling. Curling in the morning. Curling in the afternoon. Curling in the evening.
One day they were showing a US Women's match. They showed 'end' 1 and 2 and 3, etc., 7, 8, 9. Just before the final 10th 'end', they broke for commerical. Score was tied.
Now, at this point we had been inundated with curling for nearly a week. So, after the commercial, did we get to see that tied final 10th end play out? Nope. Instead, after the commercial, they went to the opening of the US women vs Sweden women hockey game. [Now hockey games have 3 20-minute periods.] Could they delay showing the first 5 or maybe even 10 minutes of the hockey game? Nope. Instead of finishing the curling match which had gone one the previous hour-plus, they just ran a streamer across the screen with the final results.
And NBC wonders why so many gripe about their coverage of the Olympics.
There was an Olympics going on?
Why would I want to listen to Bob Costas make more gratuitous anti-American comments especially on time delayed TV.
Why would I want to listen to Bob Costas make more gratuitous anti-American comments especially on time delayed TV?
The condescention to the viewers was ridiculous too. My wife was watching the skating until one of the flamer commentators decided to refer to the viewers as Joe and Sally Frontporch, in some sort of pre-emptive retaliation for expected criticism of the bad skating.
I couldn't stand the glorification of Weir and Miller. It was good to see them lose. They should have been bumped for athletes who actually had some American heart.
Beat me to it.
I noticed that there were lots and lots of commercials during the coverage of these games. The same irritating commercials playing over and over and over. AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!
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