CBS's primetime coverage of the Winter Games on Sunday
averaged a 17.9 rating/28 share, reaching an estimated 65
million viewers. The U.S.-Canada men's hockey game earned a
4.9/19 from 11:35pm-2:06am ET as 15 million viewers watched
all or part of the coverage. CBS said it was the largest
hockey audience of the '90s, including primetime network
broadcasts. Through Sunday's ten nights of coverage, CBS
has averaged a 16.6/27, which includes seven nights of final
ratings and three nights of preliminary overnights. The
16.6/27 is down 12% from the '92 Games in Albertville and
down 36% from the '94 Lillehammer Games (CBS Sports).
UPDATE: DAILY VARIETY's Tom Bierbaum reports that while
the ratings are "inching ahead a bit," they "remain on
course to perhaps finish as the lowest-rated Winter Olympics
in primetime since 1968, and there's now almost no chance
CBS can meet this year's guarantee of a 19.6 rating." But
CBS is "nevertheless enjoying massive increases over its
usual audience levels," as through Sunday, an estimated 164
million U.S. viewers have watched at least some of the
Nagano coverage on CBS (DAILY VARIETY, 2/17). USA TODAY's
Rudy Martzke predicts the final 17-day rating will be close
to a 17.0, "well short of the 19.2 projected to advertisers,
requiring make-good ads in this final week." But CBS'
"anticipated" Olympic profit of $40M is "not expected to be
affected" (USA TODAY, 2/17). CBS Sports Olympic Exec
Producer Rick Gentile is quoted as telling the AP, "I'm not
sure if we have lost the viewers or if they haven't come
around yet" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/15). For more, see (#29).
NO FAULT: BROADCASTING & CABLE's Stephen McClellan
reports that while ad agency execs "were somewhat
disappointed with the ratings," for the "most part they
didn't blame CBS," but noted the lack of compelling story
lines to attract viewers (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 2/16).
