Olympics Ratings: The First Four Days

Some quick ratings info to report, courtesy of TV by the Numbers, as I average out the different digits per hour...

(not sure if all these are "overnight" numbers, or just Monday night)

Friday 2/12 (Opening Ceremonies): 9.37 rating/27 share

Saturday 2/13 (Non-skating night): 7.13 rating/21.3 share

Sunday 2/14 (Pairs SP): 7.13/18.5

Monday 2/15 (Pairs Final): 7.2/17.7

You can check here to get a sense of how these numbers compare to those recently attained by the Nationals coverage on NBC. I didn't include the number of millions of viewers tuned in this time, but can in the future if people request it. If it helps: the RATING is the general percentage of TV sets in the U.S. tuned into a program at any given time; the SHARE is the percentage of TVs actually "on" at any given time that are tuned in.

It'll be interesting to see a) if these numbers improve as the Olympics continue, especially w/regards to figure skating (remembering there were no medal contending U.S. teams in pairs), and b) will American Idol (or anything else) defeat it, as was the case in 2006? Some of the debate back then was that too many viewers had already learned the results of a days' events by nightfall (since Torino was several time zones ahead); obviously that won't be the case in Vancouver. At least not as far as figure skating is concerned.

I'll continue with ratings updates every couple of days. Next post will be as-soon-as-I-can after the men's SP tonight-- stay tuned!