DESPITE CONTROVERSIES, NBC REMAINS A RATINGS WINNER

Despite being battered in the blogs for its Olympics coverage and its decision to delay broadcasting key events until primetime, NBC continued to rack up gigantic ratings Tuesday night, thanks to team finals in women’s gymnastics and Michael Phelps becoming the winningest Olympic competitor of all time. The telecast averaged 37.5 million viewers during primetime, according to Nielsen’s preliminary figures, while all other networks could mobilize just 10.2 million combined. Meanwhile, NBC was again being chided for its often inept coverage of the goings-on. During the Today show, a number of “random tourists” outside Buckingham Palace was asked about Queen Elizabeth’s participation in the opening ceremony. Later, viewers pointed out that one of the persons appearing in the montage was former heavyweight champion –and a bronze medalist in the 1984 Olympics — Evander Holyfield. On the London Sun‘s webpage, one person quipped that maybe NBC was delaying revealing his name until primetime on the West Coast.