RATINGS MELTDOWN AT WINTER OLYMPICS

The second Saturday of Winter Olympics coverage on NBC saw ratings plunge 33 percent from the previous Saturday and 37 percent from the comparable night at the Vancouver Games in 2010, according to preliminary Nielsen figures. Saturday’s primetime coverage attracted 17.1 million viewers, the fewest since this year’s coverage began. Ordinarily all of the television networks experience their lowest ratings of the week on Saturdays, but it’s unclear whether that is the result of lackluster programming on that night or whether the networks simply slot lackluster programming on Saturday because they are aware of the fall-off in viewers. In any case, sports programming usually bucks the Saturday trend, and the first Saturday of this year’s Sochi Games attracted 25.1 million viewers. The numbers picked up on Sunday, with an average of 21.1 million tuning in. But that figure was down 16 percent from the comparable night at the Vancouver games and 20.1 percent from last Sunday, when 26.4 million watched.