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NBC Olympics Coverage Rolls On, Crushing CBS’s ‘Big Brother’ in Its Path and Giving NBC’s New Sitcom a Big Push

Aug 9, 2012  •  Post A Comment

NBC’s coverage of the London Olympics continued to rack up big ratings Wednesday night, according to Nielsen overnights.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that the three hours of prime-time coverage averaged a 9.2 rating in the key demo of viewers 18-49. the number was up from an 8.1 fast national for the equivalent night during the Beijing Olympics four years ago. However, it was off 5% from last Wednesday.

NBC reported that the preview of the new Matthew Perry sitcom “Go On,” airing in late-night following the Olympics, was a big success.

The network reported: “According to the fast official ratings, the 11:06-11:18 portion of last night’s telecast averaged a 6.1 in adults 18-49 and the 11:18-11:30 portion averaged a 5.1, meaning despite the late hour and the very large lead-in, the second half of the preview retained 84% of the first half.”

The comedy averaged 5.6 overall in the 18-49 demo, the network noted, with 16.1 million total viewers. The preview aired without commercials and won’t be a part of official Nielsen tallies, but the network noted that the preview gave a large audience a chance to sample the show.

Most of the programming on other broadcast networks was repeats, as has been the pattern throughout the Olympics. CBS did try out a fresh episode of “Big Brother,” which equaled its series low with a 1.8 average rating in 18-49.

ABC’s new episode of “Final Witness” pulled a 0.8 average in the 18-49 demo at 10 p.m., a 14% improvement from a week ago.

NBC’s 9.2 average rating for prime time in viewers 18-49 was the best by far of any broadcast net, trailed by Univision (1.4 average), CBS (1.2), ABC (0.9) and Fox (0.7). In total viewers, NBC averaged 28.7 million for the night, followed by CBS with 4.4 million, Univision with 3.7 million, ABC with 2.8 million and Fox with 1.9 million.

3 Comments

  1. I caught “Go On” last night, and surprisingly, I thought it was very good. Now if NBC can manage to not screw it up, they may have a hit on their hands!

  2. Go On will never see a 5.6 again.

  3. Sure it will, especially during the sweeps episode where Courteney Cox joins the therapy session.

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