The disappointments of CBS' first-week Winter Olympics results are rapidly snowballing into an avalanche of week-two woes. CBS nevertheless overcame weather-related difficulties, time-zone hurdles and growing viewer apathy to dominate the Feb. 9-15 primetime Nielsens week with its highest rating and biggest margin of victory since Feb. 21-27, 1994, during the Lillehammer games.
For the week, CBS more than doubled its season averages in adults 18-49 and 25-54 and won a week in either demo for the first time in nearly four years.
CBS' big win provides some solace for the network, as it becomes increasingly certain these Olympics will fall well short of the Eye's guarantee to advertisers (an average 19.6 rating), with what may end up being the lowest-rated primetime Winter Games in 30 years.
Through Tuesday of this week, after 12 of 17 nights, CBS' coverage is averaging a 16.4 rating, 26 share, down 14% from the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville and down 37% from the Tonya-Nancy-boosted '94 event. An estimated 171 million viewers have watched at least part of the Nagano coverage.
Perhaps the roughest night to date has been Tuesday of this week, when the Olympics lost the evening in adults 18-49 to Fox's explosive specials "Scariest Police Chases" (11.2 rating, 17 share in homes) and "Moment of Impact!" (12.3/18). It's the first 18-49 loss for a night of Olympics coverage, summer or winter, since the '92 Winter Games.
Fox has consistently counterprogrammed the Olympics most effectively, well enough that its weeklong Feb. 9-15 score vs. the Olympics equaled Fox's season-to-date average. Fox also grabbed last week's silver medal in adults 18-49 behind only CBS. This is apparently the first time Fox has beaten NBC in a week that didn't include some anomalous competitive advantage for Fox, such as early premieres, a political convention or a major sporting event.
Fox is also just 0.1 rating point behind NBC in the sweeps-to-date 18-49 standings and a half-point ahead of ABC in households. Beating NBC in 18-49 or ABC in homes during a major sweep would be an historic first for Fox.
NBC's passive, rerun-filled counterprogramming last week dragged the Peacock 23% below its season-to-date households average, while ABC's uninspired schedule tumbled to the lowest regular-season weeklong rating in Alphabet history.
The Olympics have won every primetime half-hour to date in households. Before this week's Tuesday pratfall, the Nagano games had also lost just five half-hours in adults 18-49 (trailing half the Feb. 8 "X-Files," "Drew Carey," "Friends," "Seinfeld" and the last half-hour of NBC's Feb. 16 airing of "A Few Good Men").
Last week also saw WB surpass UPN in season-to-date averages for the first time in the three-year history of that netlet rivalry. WB has, over the last four weeks, recorded its four highest weeklong ratings ever. In adults 18-49 season-to-date, UPN still has a 0.1 rating point edge over WB.
Thirteen nights into the four-week February sweeps, Olympics-boosted CBS is dominating, with a 15.8 rating, 25 share in homes (up 55% vs. results for the same period last year) and an 8.4/22 in adults 18-49 (up 95%). NBC is second with a 9.3/15 (down 15%) and 5.9/15 (down 18%), respectively, followed by Fox's 7.8/12 (down 5%) and 5.8/15 (down 6%) and ABC's 7.3/12 (down 21%) and 4.2/11 (down 22%).
The Feb. 9-15 adults 18-49 averages were: CBS, 9.3/24 (up 121%); Fox, 5.3/14 (down 12%); NBC, 4.9/13 (down 38%); ABC, 4.4/11 (down 10%); WB, 1.8/4 (up 29%); UPN, 1.5/4 (down 29%). It was CBS' first weeklong win in adults 18-49 since Feb. 28-March 6, 1994, the week after the '94 Winter Games, boosted by the Grammys. Fox ran second in this demo on five of seven nights last week.
Tuesday
A weak lineup of events Feb. 17 dropped CBS to the lowest primetime rating for a Winter Olympics Tuesday since the opening night of the '84 games. CBS averaged a 13.5 rating, 21 share, defeating Fox's "shockumentary" specials (11.8/18) in homes, while the Fox tandem won in adults 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 and in those same age categories for male viewers.
It was the second-highest-rated Tuesday ever for Fox, behind only game three of the 1996 World Series. "Moment of Impact" scored a 9.5/22 in adults 18-49, a slot record for Fox.
NBC's rerun sitcoms (7.4/11) ran fourth 8-10 p.m. with less than half Fox's 18-49 average.
UPN's "alt.games" (0.7/1) crashed to the lowest primetime rating in the history of the UPN and WB netlets. Thus, it's probably the lowest-rated national primetime broadcast in U.S. network/netlet history.
In overnight results, WB's "Dawson's Creek" continues to look strong, improving slightly on its premiere average of four weeks earlier, which translated to a national 4.8/7.
Monday
NBC's "A Few Good Men" rerun (10.9/16) finished just 3 shares behind the Olympics (14.9/23) in Feb. 16 adults 18-49 averages.
WB's "Three" (2.4/3) slid to another season-low slot score for that netlet.
Sunday
CBS glided to first with Olympics and the highest-rated "60 Minutes" since March 26, 1995, but Fox finished just 4 shares behind in adults 18-49.
Fox's "The X-Files" couldn't match the Olympics head-to-head in adults 18-49, as it had the previous week, but was the week's third-highest-rated program by that measure and highest besides the Olympics.
Saturday
The Olympics snowed under all competition. CBS finished within 0.1 rating points of the combined adults 18-49 total for ABC, NBC and Fox. NBC's "Bloopers" stumbled to its lowest network rating in at least six years and possibly ever.
Friday
"Titanic" fever hit network TV, as a promotional spec for the blockbuster pic cruised to Fox's best adults 18-49 rating in that hour since Sept. 19. "Titanic" floated Fox to second for the night in the 18-49 demo, 11 shares behind CBS' Olympics.
Thursday
For the first time since the opening ceremonies, CBS' Olympics coverage topped ratings for the comparable night of the 1992 Albertville games.
Among the shows falling to the Olympics in homes was "Seinfeld," which lost a Thursday half-hour in households for just the second time in its last 199 tries. NBC's third run of the two-hour "ER" pilot managed a 9.5/23 in adults 18-49, 96% of the 18-49 rating of the pilot's first airing.
Wednesday
CBS settled for the lowest Wednesday primetime Winter Olympics rating since 1968, but still dominated the night, winning by 5 shares in adults 18-49.
WB's lineup equaled its second-highest rating of the season.
Tuesday
Ice dancing boosted CBS' Feb. 10 Olympics results. NBC's rerun sitcoms fell 4 shares behind ABC's mostly firstruns in adults 18-49, though "Just Shoot Me" was on-target for NBC, improving on its 18-49 lead-in from "Frasier" by a best-yet 9%. "Shoot" moves to NBC's killer Thursday lineup this week.
WB enjoyed its third-highest-rated night ever, as "Dawson's Creek" equaled its strong premiere numbers of three weeks earlier.
"Dawson's" was also the week's top-rated program among teens. The four highest-rated nights in WB history have been "Creek's" four Tuesdays to date.
Monday
Despite the lowest primetime Monday Winter Olympics rating since 1968, CBS controlled Feb. 9 with its best Monday score since the premiere of "Cosby" (Daily Variety, Feb. 11).
Each household rating point represents an estimated 980,000 homes, or 1% of the country's TV homes. Each adults 18-49 rating point reps 1.23 million viewers, 1% of the U.S. total. A share is the same sort of percentage, except it measures only the homes or viewers watching TV during the timeslot involved.
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