25.2 Million Average Audience Through 12 Nights; More Than 4 Million More and 20% Higher Than 2006 Winter Games.
Alan Wurtzel’s Top 5 Research Learnings – So Far – FromVancouver Games
174 million Americans have watched the Vancouver Olympics on the networks of NBC Universal through12 days of the Games; three million more than watched the first 11 days of the 2006 Winter Games (171 million), according to data available today from The Nielsen Company.
OLYMPICS AND IDOL HAVE IDENTICAL AVERAGE VIEWERSHIP (2+)
* Season to Date: Idol – 25.2 million (13 telecasts) – through last night
* Season to Date: Olympics – 25.2 million (12 telecasts) – through last night.
24% MORE WATCH OLYMPICS THAN LAST SEASON’S IDOL:
* The Olympics in 12 days (thru Tuesday) reached 174 million viewers 2+ — 24% more than the entire last season of American Idol delivered (140 million over 39 telecasts).
OLYMPICS CUT DEFICIT BY MORE THAN 4 MILLION VIEWERS VS. AMERICAN IDOL:
Tuesday night’s coverage (8-11:10 p.m.) drew 21.3 million viewers on a night that faced a two-hour episode of the juggernaut, American Idol on Fox as well as an original episode of Lost on ABC. The 21.3 million is below the comparable night at the 2006 Winter Games (25.1 million, most viewed night to date of Torino Games featured American figure skating star Sasha Cohen).
OLYMPICS VS. IDOL – CUT DEFICIT VS. 4 YEARS AGO:
* On the comparable night during the last Winter Olympics in 2006, American Idol had an advantage of 7.5 million viewers going head-to-head with the Olympics (30.2 – 22.7 million viewers from 8-10 p.m.). Last night, going head-to-head from 8-10 p.m., that deficit was cut 57 percent with Idol only out-drawing the Olympics by 3.2 million viewers (20.8 million for Olympics vs. 24.0 million for American Idol).
OLYMPICS VS. IDOL – CUT DEFICIT VS. LAST TUESDAY NIGHT:
* Last Tuesday American Idol had an advantage of 4.1 million viewers going head-to-head with the Olympics (23.9 – 19.8 million). NBC cut the deficit by nearly a million viewers (22 percent) head-to-head with Idol out-drawing the Olympics by only 3.2 million viewers (20.8 million for the Olympics vs. 24.0 million for American Idol).
223-1:
* For six years American Idol is now 223-1 against all competition. The one show that beat Idol head-to-head was last Wednesday’s Olympics on NBC.
DOUBLED VIEWERSHIP FOR LOST:
* Head-to head the Olympics more than doubled the viewership for an original episode of Lost (22.3 vs. 9.9 million, 9-10 p.m.).
The 14.2/23 average household rating to-date is and 14 percent higher than 2006 (12.5/20). The national household rating of 12.6/20 for Tuesday night is down from the comparable night at the 2006 Winter Games (15.5/23; the highest rated night to date – by two full rating points – of the Torino Games). The comparable night at the 2006 Winter Games featured American figure skating star, Sasha Cohen.
FOR:
‘Olympics’ 1.5 million mobile video streams, the culture event
Current Metered Market ratings for ‘Olympics’
(source: information provided by NBC)
