Post-Olympics Sees TV Ratings Slide (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

On first blush, NBC's Beijing Olympics promotion for its other TV shows has come in underwhelming. "Deal or No Deal"--back from a two-week layoff due to the Olympic coverage--lost 18% of its prime-time ratings to a Nielsen preliminary 2.8 number among 18-49 viewers. Last year's season average was a 3.4 rating.

Also underwhelming for most of the networks on Monday night were their respective ratings concerning coverage of the Democratic National Convention. NBC was tops among the big three networks for their 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. coverage, with a 1.5 rating. CBS earned a 0.9 number, and ABC took in a 0.8. But Nielsen cautioned that these numbers were preliminary figures that do not account for time zone adjustments.

The early convention winner among the broadcast networks was not any of the big three networks. That honor went to PBS--which grabbed a 2.1 rating/3 share, down from a 2.3 rating/4 share on the first night PBS aired the 2004 Democratic convention. PBS aired three hours of coverage--from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., while each of the commercial broadcast networks offered one hour of prime-time coverage on the first night of the convention.

Overall, NBC and "Deal" offered the best results of any network and program. "Deal" was the top-rated show, and NBC averaged a preliminary 2.3 rating/6 share.

With the Olympics out of the way, many networks were able to earn better numbers for their shows on Monday--with many rising over two ratings points, especially CBS. CBS repeats of "Two and a Half Men" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine" each earned a 2.5 rating at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Earlier in the evening, during the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. hour, CBS also scored well with 2.0 repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" and "How I Met Your Mother."

With most of the networks still in the transitional summer phase of their prime-time lineup--as well as including slim convention ratings--Univision was able to make TV hay, coming in second on the night with a 1.9/5. Univision's overall Monday numbers gained when the English-language networks took on low-rated convention programming at 10 p.m.

After NBC and Univision, CBS was third on the night with a 1.8/5. Fox came in fourth at 1.6/5, ABC was fifth at 0.8/2, and CW finished sixth at 0.7/2.

"By the end of this decade or shortly thereafter, television networks as we know them today will cease to exist. They will be just another url on the world wide web competing against millions of others."
"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."

Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media Observer and Commentator

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Democratic Convention Ratings Fall From 2004
The first night of the Democratic National Convention, featuring an address by Michelle Obama, drew fewer broadcast television viewers than the event four years ago, when former President Bill Clinton kicked things off.

ABC, CBS and NBC brought in 12.1 million viewers in the 10 p.m. hour, down one million from 2004, according to preliminary, fast-national data from Nielsen Media Research. NBC scored the largest audience.

Later in the day, when final broadcast and cable ratings came in, it became clear that the cable news networks’ blanket coverage pushed audiences much higher. ...

More media death watch: "Mariotti Quits, Says Newspapers Are 'Dying' Star Sports Columnist Says He Wanted Out Because Paper Can't Compete On Web CHICAGO (CBS) ― In a bombshell announcement in the world of sports journalism, star columnist Jay Mariotti has abruptly resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times. Mariotti told CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker that he decided to quit after covering the Olympics in Beijing because newspapers are in serious trouble, and he did not want to go down with the ship.

I haven’t been watching Olympics or either Conventions Abb

I got Iced Road truckers on History Channel

And A&E Intervention I rather see train wreck in real life

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