NBC Ratings: Silver for Vancouver 2010 Coverage But Bronze For Closing Ceremonies
Filed under: Donovan, TV Shows
Author: Donovan
Date: Mar 2, 2010
Score one for the fledgling Peacock network. Once all final numbers were tabulated, NBC’s coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics attracted over 190 million viewers. It was enough to become the second most-watched Winter Olympics in history, only surpassed by the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics which featured the infamous Nancy Kerrigan / Tonya Harding showdown.
With it’s close proximity to the United States, the Vancouver locale enabled the network to air events live or with very little time delay. What’s surprising about the ratings is that the 2010 coverage even beat the 2002 Salt Lake City hometown telecast. No doubt that the North American countries doing so well in the medals race helped garner interest in both countries. Capping the two week event with a historic US vs Canada Hockey final, was so perfect you couldn’t have planned it any better even if you had scripted it.
Wanting to capitalize on the number of eyeballs NBC was receiving during their 865 hours of coverage, programming execs decided to interrupt the closing ceremonies with a sneak preview of Jerry Seinfeld’s “The Marriage Ref”. Bizarrely NBC abruptly cut to commercial after Michael Buble’s campy performance to Seinfeld’s new show. All viewers heard was Bob Costas say,
“We’re back in an hour with the Closing Ceremony party from Vancouver. Nickleback and Avril Lavigne are among the acts that will be performing. But right now we take you to the premiere of Jerry Seinfeld’s new series, ‘The Marriage Ref.’ “
After the hour, the coverage returned at 11:30pm with performances from Avril Lavigne and Nickelback to name a few. Let’s face it, no one was tuning back to watch them at that late hour. The one thing I look forward to watching NBC’s coverage is the over-top-cheesy montages and exaggerated summations of the triumphs of the Olympic spirit delivered by Costas himself. But since the telecast was cut short, I along with millions of viewers were denied this.
With NBC’s current contract to air the Olympics ending after the 2012 London Summer Olympics, this was potentially the last Winter Olympics to air on NBC. And my last impression will always be of “The Marriage Ref” instead of the excellent work NBC has produced over the years. Absolute FAIL, NBC… FAIL.
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David Flood
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:14 pm
I agree that NBC really screwed up the closing ceremony coverage. I like Jerry Seinfeld but to put his show in the middle of the closing ceremony was reprehensible. I wish there was something I could do to hurt NBC…I guess I’ll only watch 30 Rock and the Office on their network…that will teach them!
Jared
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I’d have to agree, I found it incredibly unusual that NBC cut to The Marriage Ref partway through the Closing ceremony. I had recorded both the CTV and NBC versions to compare the two. In the past I usually watched the Olympics on NBC and CBC for full coverage, but this year CTV did such an amazing job that I only paid attention to NBC to see what the Americans were saying about us.
NBC also botched the coverage for some events. The delay Donovan is referring to did actually happen, in which case some big events didn’t get shown until hours after the events occurred which pissed a lot of people off, because they were seeing real-time updates on social sites like twitter. Though apparently they’ll have lost $200M on this Olympics, and though NBC is going through its own financial issues, I doubt they’ll let the broadcasting rights for the Olympics go.