• by Wayne Friedman , August 9, 2012

NBC's unusual commercial-free debut of new comedy "Go On" during the London Olympics gave the network some expected high sampling.

The late airing of the new comedy, starring Matthew Perry, earned "Go On" a big Nielsen 5.6 rating among 18-49 viewers, as well as a hefty 16.1 million average viewers. The special episode ran from 11:06 to 11:30 p.m. in the East and West Coast markets.

Since there were no commercials in "Go On," it will not be measured or inserted into any of Nielsen's national TV ratings reports -- a longtime Nielsen policy.

The 12th day of NBC's Olympics coverage dropped down a bit from its 31-million-viewer average. Wednesday night's prime-time three-hour coverage gave NBC a Nielsen preliminary 28.7 million average viewers for the night with an average 9.2 rating/27 share among 18-49 viewers.

This was down 5% in 18-49 viewers from last Wednesday night's early results -- but up from the 8.1 rating on the second Wednesday night at the Beijing Olympics four years ago.

Moving from the Olympics to the special showing of "Go On," NBC's 9.2 prime-time rating dipped to 6.1 from 11:06 to 11:18 p.m., then down to a 5.1 rating from 11:18 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

While most networks have been in rerun mode for the last two weeks, given the Olympics' popularity, a few networks have braved the storm.
 
Early in the evening at  8 p.m., CBS' "Big Brother" matched its series low with a 1.8 rating/6 share for 18 to 49 viewers, down 10% in ratings from last week's 2.0. Later in the evening, ABC's "Final Witness" took in a 0.8/2 among adults 18-49, up 14% from last week's 0.7.

Univision came in at second place for the night to NBC, averaging a 1.4/4 among 18-49 viewers. CBS was at 1.2/3; ABC, 0.9/3; Fox, 0.7/2; and CW, a 0.4/1.

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