• by Wayne Friedman , February 23, 2010

Though NBC's Vancouver Olympics continues to easily beat the competition in viewership, on Monday it had a bit of a mid-event lull.

Monday night's Nielsen preliminary 5.4 rating/14 share among 18-49 viewers is down 25% versus the Monday of the week before, when it registered a 7.2 rating. A bit more alarming is that NBC is also down 21% in ratings versus the same night in Torino, Italy, four years ago.

But overall NBC's Olympics are doing well: Through Sunday, NBC's Vancouver Olympics 10-day average of 26.0 million viewers is nearly 6 million more viewers than 2006 -- and is the most for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics since the Lillehammer Games in the early 90s, which had 39.4 million.

On Monday night, ABC's "The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love" continues to show little signs of wear-and-tear from the big Olympic games, down just 5% to a 3.9 rating/10 share among 18-49ers for its two-hour stretch between 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. During that time, NBC's Olympic coverage was at a 5.2/13.

ABC then rested up after that, offering up a "Castle" repeat which earned a 1.3/4.

CW touted some big gains among its core 18-34 viewer audience on the night with a schedule of all originals: "One Tree Hill" improved 27%, while "Life Unexpected" was up 20%. For the night, this gave CW a 1.3 rating/4 share among 18-49 viewers.

Fox's "24" also showed off original content on the night. It climbed one-tenth of a rating point to a 2.8/7 on the night from a week before.

For 18-49 viewer race, NBC led with a 5.4/14; ABC was at a 3.0/8; CBS (in repeats on the night), a 2.5/7; Fox, a 2.4/6; Univision, a 1.6/4; and CW a 0.9/2.