Ratings Chart Attack!

The Olympics dominated Thursday, but they were down for the night against the past two previous Games in the ratings.

Pulling in a 9.3 rating/27 share, the Olympics ruled again in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. But, in comparison to the 2004 Athens Games and the 2000 Sydney Games, this year’s Games in Beijing were down for the first Thursday of the event.

For the first Thursday, Beijing is down 12% from Sydney and 17% against Athens.

The first Thursday in Athens was that Games’ highest-rated night, with several gold medals given out for gymnastics and swimming that day.

NBC finished Thursday in first place with a 9.3/27.

Everything else on the dial was about average for the summer, including CBS’ “Big Brother” (2.2/7) and “Flashpoint” (1.6/4). CBS placed second with a 1.8/5.

Fox took third with waterlogged pre-season football, with the game between the Carolina Panthers and the Philadelphia Eagles netting a 1.2/4. The game started an hour late due to heavy rains and thunderstorms. Fox landed third with a 1.3/4.

ABC took fourth with repeats, scoring a 1.0/3, while The CW was fifth with a 0.6/2.