Olympics Lost to American Idol, But NBC Spins It Positively

I will say NBC held its own against American Idol, but Fox still won the night. NBC spins it by saying it got close to AI. It was a strong finish. You can take a look at the NBC press release regarding viewership on Tuesday.

138 MILLION WATCH OPENING FIVE DAYS OF VANCOUVER GAMES

26.4 Million Average Audience For First Five Nights; Nearly 5 Million More and 22% Higher Than 2006

72 Million Total Viewers Watched Tuesday’s Coverage on the Networks of NBCU

20.3 Million Watched NBC on Tuesday Night; More Than 2 Million More and 10 percent Higher Than First Tuesday in 2006 Winter Games

VANCOUVER - February 17, 2010 - Through the first five days, 138 million people have watched the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games on the networks of NBCU; four million more than watched the first five days of the 2006 Winter Games (134 million) according to data available today from Nielsen Media Research.

NBCU’s Tuesday broadcasts were seen by 72 million total viewers on a night that faced a two-hour American Idol - a show that has gone undefeated for six years. The 72 million is 10 million more than the first Tuesday from the 2006 Games (62 million).

FIVE-DAY AVERAGE BEST SINCE LILLEHAMMER GAMES: The 26.4 million average viewers for the first five nights of the Vancouver Games is the most for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics since the 1994 Lillehammer Games (38.1 million). The 26.4 million is nearly five million more and 22 percent higher than the average viewership of the first five nights from Torino in 2006 (21.6 million).

OLYMPICS CUT DEFICIT BY 6 MILLION VIEWERS VS. AMERICAN IDOL: Tuesday night’s coverage (8-11:24 p.m.) drew 20.3 million viewers, more than two million more viewers and 10 percent higher than the first Tuesday night of the 2006 Winter Games (18.4 million), on a night that faced a two-hour episode of the juggernaut, American Idol on Fox as well as an original episode of Lost on ABC.

*For six years American Idol is undefeated against all competition.  The show is 222-0 in that period against other programs.

Tuesday night on NBC, the Olympics cut into the deficit against American Idol by six million viewers head-to-head.

• During the last Winter Olympics in 2006, American Idol had an advantage of 11 million viewers going head-to-head with the Olympics of the first Tuesday of the Games (27.0 – 16.1 million viewers from 8-9 p.m.). Last night, going head-to-head from 8-10 p.m., that deficit was cut 64 percent with Idol only out-drawing the Olympics by 3.9 million viewers (19.7 million for Olympics vs. 23.6 million for American Idol).

• Among households, when comparing head-to-head, that deficit was cut by 80 percent. On the first Tuesday of the Winter Olympics in 2006, American Idol on Fox had a household rating of 15.5/23 while the Olympics on NBC was a 10.0/15 (8-9 p.m.). Last night while going head-to-head from 8-10 p.m., American Idol drew a 12.9/19 rating while the Olympics drew an 11.8/18.

• The 20.3 million viewers on Tuesday night was more than double the viewership of the Lost on ABC (9.8 million).

The national household rating of 12.2/19 for Tuesday night is nearly a full rating point higher and an increase of eight percent over the first Tuesday night in Turin in 2006 (11.3/18). The 14.5/24 average household rating to-date is nearly two full ratings points and 14 percent higher than 2006 (12.7/20).

NBC OLYMPICS MOBILE APP IS NO. 1 SPORTS APP ON ITUNES: NBC Olympics Mobile app, the No. 1 free sports app in the iTunes store, generated 4.7 million page views yesterday, and has generated 22.8 million page views since the Games began.

NBCOLYMPICS.COM HAS MORE USERS THAN ENTIRE 2006 WINTER GAMES: In just five days, NBCOlympics.com has delivered 16.7 million total unique users, more than three million more unique users than the entire 17 days of the 2006 Winter Games (13.3 million).

The site has also delivered 10.9 million video streams to date - more than eight million more and 350% higher than Turin’s first five days (2.4 million).

METERED MARKET RATINGS BY TIME ZONE (Five-Day Average):
Mountain Time Zone 19.4/32
Pacific Time Zone  16.5/30
Central Time Zone  16.3/26
Eastern Time Zone  15.8/25

TOP 25 METERED MARKETS (Five-Day Average):
1. Milwaukee, 23.2/36
2. Denver, 22.1/37
3. Salt Lake City, 21.9/37
4. Seattle, 21.1/39
5. Minneapolis, 20.5/35
T6. St. Louis, 19.8/31
T6. Columbus, 19.8/31
T8. Cleveland, 18.8/29
T8. Portland, 18.8/35
T8. West Palm Beach, 18.8/28
11. Nashville, 18.7/26
12. San Diego, 18.6/32
13. Kansas City, 17.9/27
14. Boston, 17.8/31
15. Sacramento, 17.5/31
16. Phoenix, 17.4/29
17. Austin, 17.3/26
18. Providence, 17.3/29
T19. Washington, D.C., 17.1/28
T19. Tulsa, 17.1/26
21. Ft. Myers, 17.0/27
22. Indianapolis, 16.9/27
23. Norfolk, 16.9/25
24. Cincinnati, 16.7/25
25. San Francisco, 16.6/32

TOP 25 METERED MARKETS FOR TUESDAY, FEB. 16:
1. Salt Lake City, 21.1/33
2. Milwaukee, 20.9/32
3. Denver, 20.3/32
4. Seattle, 17.9/33
5. St. Louis 17.5/26
6. San Diego, 17.1/28
7. Nashville, 16.7/22
T8. Phoenix, 16.4/26
T8. Minneapolis, 16.4/28
10. West Palm Beach, 16.3/24
11. Kansas City, 16.2/23
T12. Portland, 16.0/29
T12. Oklahoma City, 16.0/23
14. Cleveland, 15.8/24
15. Columbus, 15.6/24
16. Boston, 15.5/26
T17. Washington D.C., 15.2/25
T17. Austin, 15.2/25
19. Providence, 15.1/24
20. Indianapolis, 14.9/23
21. Tulsa, 14.6/21
T22. Sacramento, 14.5/25
T22. Norfolk, 14.5/21
24. Cincinnati, 14.4/22
T25. San Francisco, 14.2/27
T25. Hartford, 14.2/21

Again, Salt Lake City was the top rated market. And despite being delayed, the Mountain and Pacific time zones remain the top rated regions over the East and Central where some events are shown live. What’s up with that? I see nothing but complaints from people on the West Coast on Twitter. I wonder about this.