Olympics Glides Over 'Idol'

by Wayne Friedman , February 18, 2010

With Team USA's biggest Olympic day ever, with its biggest stars getting gold, NBC's Vancouver Olympics gave Fox's "American Idol" its first beating in six years.

NBC's Olympics grabbed a Nielsen preliminary 30.1 million viewers with "Idol" getting to 18.4 million in head-to-head coverage during the 9 p.m. hour. Among 18-49 viewers, the Olympics grabbed a 9.0 rating/22 share against "Idol"'s 6.9/17.

Shaun White/NBC'S Vancouver Olympics

Team USA grabbed six medals, its best single day in Winter Olympics history. This included much-touted Lindsey Vonn's gold medal in the women's downhill ski race, and the high-profiled Shaun White's gold medal in the half-pipe event.

NBC also said the 30 million viewers were 12 million more than the first Wednesday of the last Winter Olympics in 2006 in Torino.

Four years ago, it was a different story for "Idol" and the Olympics. "Idol" more than doubled the average audience of the Olympics -- 28.9 million to 14.3 million -- and nearly tripled the Olympic delivery in the adults 18-49 demo rating, at 12.0 vs. 4.1.

NBC's Olympics Wednesday coverage built through the evening -- a 7.6/21 among the 18-49 audience (26.6 million overall average viewers) at 8 p.m; a 9.0/22 in 18-49 viewers and (30.1 million) at 9 p.m; and a 10.1/26 in 18-49 viewers and 31.2 million at 10 p.m.

With such heavy-duty competition, only one other network show was original: Fox's "Human Target" at 8 p.m. earned a 2.1/6 among 18-49 viewers, down from a 2.9/8 a week ago.

NBC averaged an 8.9/23 for the night for 18-49 viewers and 29.3 million overall viewers; Fox was about half that -- at 4.5//12 -- and 12.8 million overall viewers. CBS ended at a 1.8/5 (6.9 million viewers); Univision at 1.7/4 (4.1 million); ABC with 1.5/4 (3.9 million); and CW at a 0.4/1 (980,000 viewers).

media measurement, olympics, television

4 comments about "Olympics Glides Over 'Idol'".

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Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, February 19, 2010 at 10:09 a.m.
A quick look at the numbers reveals that the coveted 18-49 demo wants little or nothing to do with prime-time network television, regardless of what's on.
Even the Olympics fail to resonate with 91% of this core demographic. And that's the good news. Can you imagine being a CW salesperson and having to explain why 98.5% of your prospective client's key audience isn't watching?
Talk about all dressed up with absolutely nowhere to go. By any measure, commercial television's days are numbered.
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Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, February 19, 2010 at 10:47 a.m.

My math was a little off in my earlier comment. It's actually 99.6% of the 18-49 crowd that isn't tuned in to CW! Sorry for misrepresenting the facts!

John Grono from GAP Research, February 19, 2010 at 5:59 p.m.

Of course, another perspective could be that the six channels reported attracted 18.8% - let's round it up to one-in-five People 18-49. I suppose if you added in the non-commercial and cable networks the figures would have been much higher

Of course, many of that demographic would have been out working, socialising, studying, or otherwise engaged so as to not turn the set on that night - isn't choice a wonderful thing.

All in all, not a bad effort for a medium whose "days are numbered".

Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, February 24, 2010 at 10:18 a.m.

You're absolutely right, John. It is still a mass medium when considered in the aggregate. Trouble is, no one watches every channel and few advertisers can afford to be everywhere every quarter hour.

Whether you choose to accept it or not, the metrics (and the thinking behind them) you espouse here define failure, not success. Even if I give your remarks the ultimate benefit of the doubt, 80% of the audience--the real mass--is still unaccounted for.

The only scalable audience these days are the fools in the ad biz.

By comparison, John Wanamaker had it easy.