CBS earned an 18.9/29 rating for its primetime coverage
of Tuesday's Olympic events. CBS estimates that 64 million
persons watched all or part of the coverage. The Tuesday
rating was down 12% from the first Tuesday rating of the '92
Albertville Games and down 31% from the '94 Lillehammer
Games. But CBS did win the night and estimates that 132
million person have watched all or part of the its coverage
of the Nagano Games. Through Tuesday, the Games' primetime
average was a 16.6/27, which is 15% below Albertville and
33% behind Lillehammer for a similar period (CBS Sports).
OLDER VIEWER? DAILY VARIETY's Tom Bierbaum reports the
ratings "continue to lag behind other recent Olympics and
behind CBS' guarantees to advertisers." Ratings have
dropped in younger demos, such as adults 18-49, where CBS is
currently down 39% vs. '94 and 30% vs. '92. In adults 18-
34, the Games are down 46% from '94 and 37% from '92 (DAILY
VARIETY, 2/12). USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke reports that CBS
dropped nearly a "full rating point in the last 51 minutes
of Tuesday's show." While the audience "should" have been
"building for the pairs figure skating finals," it may have
"tuned out early" during CBS' Armen Keteyian's report on
Ross Rebagliati's drug testing story (USA TODAY, 2/12).
TNT: TNT earned a 1.1 rating for its Monday afternoon
Olympic coverage, as opposed to a 1.5 in '94 and 2.1 in '92.
It received a 1.2 rating on Tuesday, down 36.8% from its
coverage in '94 (Josh Dubow, AP/DETROIT NEWS, 2/12).
