RATINGS MELT AGAIN FOR NBC’S SOCHI TELECASTS

The audience for NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics for Sochi, Russia fell just below 20 million on Thursday, the lowest figure since the network’s coverage began. TVbytheNumbers.com reported that the 4.9 rating/14 share recorded for the 18-49 age group was down 17 percent from the comparable night at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. The only non-rerun competition airing against the Olympics was Fox’s American Idol, which drew 9.19 million viewers, Fox’s Rake, which drew 4 million viewers, and ABC’s The Taste, whose final episode could only attract 3.16 million. Meanwhile, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon saw its ratings rise a tad on Thursday. In a news release, NBC said, “While ratings drop-offs are common through late-night premiere weeks, Fallon has essentially maintained his ratings through the second, third and fourth nights of his Tonight debut week. The four-day track so far for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in metered-market households is: 7.1, 5.3, 5.2, 5.3. Thursday’s rating, it said, marked “Tonight‘s biggest Thursday rating in metered-market households, excluding the Feb. 6 finale of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, in nearly five years (since the March 19, 2009 appearance by President Barack Obama).