RATINGS: THEY’RE ALL ABOUT THE OLYMPICS

If a week had ten days, NBC’s Olympics coverage would have swept the entire list of the top ten positions on Nielsen’s weekly rating list. As if was, it took the top seven, with Tuesday’s telecast drawing the most viewers — 38.7 million and Thursday’s a close second with 36.8 million. CBS reruns filled the remaining three positions on the list, but they barely got off the starting block. A rerun of NCIS came in at No. 8 with 5.3 million viewers, followed by 60 minues with 4.9 million and The Big Bang Theory with 4.2 million. What was even more glaring was the number of shows that drew fewer than 2 million viewers. Indeed a rerun of Fox’s House just squeaked past 1 million viewers with 1,008,000. During a light news week except for the Olympics, NBC Nightly News with Brian William completely dominated its rivals. The NBC News telecast averaged 10.8 million viewers, with ABC World News with Diane Sawyer coming in second with 6.8 million viewers and the CBS Evening News with Scott Peley struggling to keep up with 5.5 million viewers. For the week, NBC averaged an 18.3 household rating in primetime with a 30 share. CBS was a distant second with a 2.8/5. ABC finished third with a 1.8/3, while Fox came in last with a 1.4/2.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research:
1. Summer Olympics (Tuesday), NBC, 21.8/35; 2. Summer Olympics (Thursday), NBC, 21.1/36; 3. Summer Olympics(Monday), NBC, 18.0/29; 4. Summer Olympics (Wednesday), NBC, 17.9/30; 5. Summer Olympics (Sunday), NBC, 17.5/29; 6. Summer Olympics (Friday), NBC, 16.2/29; 7. Summer Olympics (Saturday), NBC, 15.9/29; 8. NCIS, CBS, 4.6/8; 9. 60 Minutes, CBS, 4.3/8; 10. The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 3.7/7.