CBS won its third consecutive weekly ratings race with
its final week of Winter Olympics coverage and averaged a
15.8/25 primetime rating for the week ended February 22,
according to Lisa de Moraes of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. CBS
averaged 24.35 million viewers each night during the week
and was the top rated net among adults 18-49 and 25-54
(HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 2/25). In addition, "CBS Evening News"
with Dan Rather "won the weekly news race for the first
time" since February '94, during CBS's coverage of the
Lillehammer Games. Its 9.3 rating was the show's "best in
more than three years" (John Carmody, WASH. POST, 2/25).
"LATE SHOW" RETURNS TO EARTH: Although CBS's "Late
Show" topped NBC's "Tonight Show" during the Winter Games,
on Monday, when CBS's regular programming resumed,
overnights ratings for the "Late Show" dropped to a 3.8/10,
down from its 5.9/16 average of last week. Monday's
"Tonight Show" earned a 5.9/16 overnight (USA TODAY, 2/25).
MAKE-GOODS: Despite a ratings guarantee of a 19.6/30,
one CBS exec told the WASHINGTON POST's John Carmody that
"when the network first began figuring out possible" '98
Nagano ad rates, back in '93, the "much more conservative"
ratings estimate for the Games was a 17.0, which was based
on the 18.2/29 from the Albertville Games. Carmody:
"Obviously, the network now wishes it had stuck to that
original economic model" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/25).
