Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Wed., Feb. 21) -- Olympics still holding on
02/22/18 01:44 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Steadily losing ground, NBC’s prime-time Winter Olympics coverage still found a way to win Wednesday.
Ending early at 10 p.m., the Games from Pyeongchang averaged 356,105 D-FW viewers and 118,583 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 age range.
CBS’ 7 to 8 p.m. edition of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition made if fairly close in that hour in both ratings measurements. It had 199,419 total viewers compared to 327,617 for the Olympics. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the gap shrunk further, with 78,015 viewers succumbing to Big Brother while 87,377 stuck with the first hour of the Winter Games. That’s easily the closest that any competing TV attraction has come to defeating the Olympics.
On the equivalent Wednesday night in 2014 from Sochi, the Olympics averaged a considerably higher 411,875 total viewers for the full coverage. Unclebarky.com did not compute the 18-to-49-year-old viewership on that particular night.
Late night Olympics coverage had two marquee live attractions. On NBC, U.S. skiers Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin battled for medals in the combined downhill/slalom race. Shiffrin ended up winning the silver while Vonn wiped out on the slalom course after winning the downhill portion. From 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., NBC dominated the late night broadcast network terrain with an average of 99,709 total viewers.
Over on cable’s NBC Sports Net, the United States’ dramatic 3-2 overtime “shootout” win over Canada in the women’s hockey final averaged 71,221 total viewers. Canada had won four gold medals in a row after the U.S. team last triumphed at the 1998 Winter Games.
CNN’s Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action aired in a live town hall meeting format from 8 to 10 p.m., and averaged 78,345 total viewers. That was enough to outdraw competing Fox News Channel programs hosted by Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham plus the Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell opinion hours on MSNBC.
Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results.
Getting a 10 p.m. start instead of being pushed deeper into the night, NBC5 ran first in both total viewers and with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).
Fox4 once again swept the 6 a.m. competitions by commanding margins while the 6 p.m. golds went to TEGNA8 in total viewers and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.
At 5 p.m., Fox4 drew the most total viewers and NBC5 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Steadily losing ground, NBC’s prime-time Winter Olympics coverage still found a way to win Wednesday.
Ending early at 10 p.m., the Games from Pyeongchang averaged 356,105 D-FW viewers and 118,583 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 age range.
CBS’ 7 to 8 p.m. edition of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition made if fairly close in that hour in both ratings measurements. It had 199,419 total viewers compared to 327,617 for the Olympics. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the gap shrunk further, with 78,015 viewers succumbing to Big Brother while 87,377 stuck with the first hour of the Winter Games. That’s easily the closest that any competing TV attraction has come to defeating the Olympics.
On the equivalent Wednesday night in 2014 from Sochi, the Olympics averaged a considerably higher 411,875 total viewers for the full coverage. Unclebarky.com did not compute the 18-to-49-year-old viewership on that particular night.
Late night Olympics coverage had two marquee live attractions. On NBC, U.S. skiers Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin battled for medals in the combined downhill/slalom race. Shiffrin ended up winning the silver while Vonn wiped out on the slalom course after winning the downhill portion. From 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., NBC dominated the late night broadcast network terrain with an average of 99,709 total viewers.
Over on cable’s NBC Sports Net, the United States’ dramatic 3-2 overtime “shootout” win over Canada in the women’s hockey final averaged 71,221 total viewers. Canada had won four gold medals in a row after the U.S. team last triumphed at the 1998 Winter Games.
CNN’s Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action aired in a live town hall meeting format from 8 to 10 p.m., and averaged 78,345 total viewers. That was enough to outdraw competing Fox News Channel programs hosted by Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham plus the Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell opinion hours on MSNBC.
Here are Wednesday’s local news derby results.
Getting a 10 p.m. start instead of being pushed deeper into the night, NBC5 ran first in both total viewers and with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).
Fox4 once again swept the 6 a.m. competitions by commanding margins while the 6 p.m. golds went to TEGNA8 in total viewers and Fox4 with 25-to-54-year-olds.
At 5 p.m., Fox4 drew the most total viewers and NBC5 was tops with 25-to-54-year-olds.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net