• by Wayne Friedman , February 26, 2010

NBC's "XXI Winter Olympics" is claiming another win against network programming champion "American Idol." That's a yes and no.

While the Olympics did eke out a total viewer victory against a special Thursday edition of the big Fox show -- 19.2 million versus 17.8 million -- it didn't take the crown in the numbers that mean the most to TV marketers: viewers ages 18-49.

Here, "Idol" easily beat the "Winter Olympics" with a Nielsen preliminary 6.4 rating/18 share among 18-49 viewers, while the "Olympics" grabbed a still-strong, but not-quite time-period-leading 4.4/12 among 18-49 viewers.

A week ago Wednesday, the Olympics beat "Idol" in total viewers and 18-49 ratings, the first time "Idol" has lost to any TV show in both categories in six years.

For Thursday night, the three hours of Olympics programming were down nearly 20% from the Thursday night of the previous week to a 5.8/16. It was also off nearly 30% from the same night of the Torino games in 2006.

NBC averaged 22.5 million viewers on Thursday, down some from its 24.7 million average for 14 days of the event so far.

NBC may have been hit, but so was Fox's "Idol." Its 6.4 rating is down about 7% from its 2010 seasonal average so far. Also, CBS' "Survivor: Heroes versus Villains" dropped 5% versus the week before to a 3.7/10 during the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. hour against the Olympics and "Idol".

Also running in the highly competitive 8 p.m. hour was ABC's "The Deep End," which seemingly was thrown to the wolves, posting a season-ending light 1.1 rating/3 share in 18-49 viewers.

Once "Idol" left the air at 9 p.m., the Olympics took over, earning a hefty 6.5 rating/17 share among 18-49 viewers for the two-hour period from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. It ran against all repeats, except for Fox's "Kitchen Nightmares," which had a decent 3.5 rating/9 share, at 9 p.m.

For the night, NBC led among 18-49 viewers with a 5.8/16; Fox was about a full rating point behind, with a 4.9/13; CBS, at a 2.5/7; Univision earned a 1.4/4; ABC followed with a 1.2/3; and CW finished at a 0.7/2.