I was so not in to them this year. Was I the only one? Anyone know how the ratings were?
When was this?
Compared to past Summer Olympics, the ratings were down. However, they were on tape delay and network viewership is down anyway. I don’t think that on any day they were televised that they weren’t the top-rated show for that day however.
Considering the last Summer Olympics were in Atlanta, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that U.S. ratings would be lower. I expect Australian ratings would have been quite high…
CNN has a good breakdown of the ratings: NBC fares well in games coverage, but deserves no medals
The local paper in Anchorage included a segment on the ratings almost every day in the sports section. I didn’t read them often, but the headlines indicated that the ratings were not doing well. I personally got tired of seeing them every day and wished they would summarize that kind of thing at the end. I guess it kind of felt like my viewing/non-viewing behavior was part of the event which I guess it was in a way. It irritated me nonetheless, though, to see it in the news on a daily basis.
I heard on the radio this morning that it was lowest ranked Olympics since 1968, with a 25 percent block.
See? This is what happens when you allow “synchronized diving” to become an Olympic sport!
Well, I can’t say that I’d watch “synchronized diving”, and I definitely wouldn’t watch ballroom dancing; but I can tell NBC exactly why I didn’t watch their “coverage” this Olympics. The games weren’t broadcast live. Not only did NBC tape-delay the games 15 hours for Prime Time broadcast, but they delayed it three more hours for the left coast. (They do it every time, and their eastern-centric attitude bugs me. Hell, where do they think most of their content comes from?) So with the events being aired 18 hours after they happened, and with the radio, CNN and the internet delivering instant results, there was no point in watching NBC.
I did stumble across NBC’s Olympics show one night, and there was a commercial for something. At the time I thought, “Hm. That’s a product I could use!” But I don’t remember what it was. Maybe if I’d watched more, I’d have seen the commercial more times and I’d buy the sponsor’s product. But NBC’s non-coverage made me watch other channels and I didn’t see the commercial again, so the sponsor doesn’t make a sale. I wonder how many other sales were lost because people tuned out?
Just a guess, but it was probably either a “command and control system” or an Atlas rocket, both from Lockheed Martin. 
I spent much of the Games just a bit confused as to who they were marketing to. I suppose there are people out there who watch TV whose title is “Ballistic Missile Procurement Manager” but there sure can’t be that many of them. Then again, you sell just one space system, your commercial campaign was probably a success…
I heard on the radio this morning that the Olympics had lower ratings than “Big Brother”. Judge for yourself.
I, for one, got awful sick awful fast of gymnastics and swimming every freakin’ night. By the time track and field rolled around, who cares?
I think the most exciting thing going on at the Olympics (and definitely the most triumphant for the US) was our gold-medal Baseball team. I didn’t see much coverage of that though. Of course I wasn’t watching, but I did see their very first game where they beat the Japanese in 13 innings. Now that’s a real olympic competition.