February 12, 2006
The "Real" Story At Torino
With American favorites dropping left and right at Torino, we're beginning to get some honest talk about what these Olympics are really about:
The opening ceremony was seen by 22.8 million people on Friday _ half the number of viewers for the opening of the Salt Lake City games four years ago.
"Nobody expected them to do 45 million again," [Marc] Berman [of Media Week Online] said. "To lose about half the audience _ that's big. That's dangerous. That's very dangerous."
NBC rebounded Saturday, when its viewership went up to 23.6 million people on what is usually the least-watched night of the week on television. It was still below the 29.4 million who watched the second night of Salt Lake City, but higher than Nagano eight years ago.
And it happened in the midst of the biggest blizzard in the history of New York City, the largest media market in the country.
I'd be worried too.
Perhaps it's time to conclude that a lot of Americans just don't care all that much about the Olympics.
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Maybe Americans just can't stomach NBC's over the top melodrama. "Michelle Kwan has dropped out of the Olympics... but the Games will go on."
I swear an anchor actually said that today. It's painful to watch and it's all old news by the time it airs. Americans won't care again until the Olympics are in a more TV-friendly time zone (like in 2010).
Posted by:
at February 12, 2006 11:05 PM
I just don't get all the hype, especially for the opening and closing ceremonies. I think I'm in the majority, we only care about the Olympic hockey tournament and little else. The rest of the Olympics are just overwrought TV manufactured drama using psuedo-competitions, such as figure skating.
I'm a long time reader of Off Wing Opinion, first time commenter... I appeciate your linking to my Olympic ranting.
Posted by:
at February 13, 2006 09:49 AM
"Perhaps it's time to conclude that a lot of Americans just don't care all that much about the Olympics."
Don't you think this is a bit extreme? While I personally think the Opening Ceremonies are extraordinarily boring, it drew a 14 rating on a Friday night. Nothing draws that kind of rating on a Friday night in American TV anymore. The last Stanley Cup drew a 2 rating on its weekend coverage, yet obviously some people on this blog care about that despite drawing only a fraction of the ratings that the Olympics does. Get real here...a 14 rating for a tape-delayed event broadcast from halfway around the world on a Friday night clearly shows that a lot of Americans care.
I enjoy your blog, but please do your homework before showing your ignorance next time.
Posted by:
at February 13, 2006 03:17 PM
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