| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 26.41 | 5.50 | 4.10 | 2.69 | .69 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 8.8/24 | 1.5/4 | 1.3/4 | 1.2/3 | 0.3/1 |
NBC was still dominant last night, but the preliminary overnight numbers for the primetime portion of Sunday (7pm-11pm) were down around 19% overall and 21% among 18-49 year olds versus last week’s preliminary numbers, and NBC averaged below 30 million viewers, averaging 26.4 million and and a 8.8/24 (rating/share) among 18-49 year olds.
As everyone, including NBC was expecting drops in week two, these numbers, even without the “Michael Phelps Effect” are still probably looking very good from NBC’s perspective.
There’s not a whole lot to say about the rest of the night which aside from the Olympic Games and CBS’ Big Brother, everything else was a repeat. Sarah Connor fans, relax! Sure the ratings for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles got crushed again, but it’s a repeat! Unless FOX issues a statement along the lines of “It needs to clear four million in reruns against the Olympics or we’re going to cancel season two before airing a single episode,” — and that’s not going to happen — there’s not much point in wringing your hands over it.
We will not see how some of the Sunday night cable competition held up until tomorrow, but as it held up great against the Olympics last week, I’m sure it did last night as well. I’d guess In Plain Sight, Army Wives, Law & Order: CI and Mad Men (ok, just kidding about Mad Men, though I enjoyed last night’s episode a lot) fared better, especially among 18-49 year olds than almost everything on broadcast primetime last night.
The Big Brother faithful may only number in the six millions, but they are very faithful and watch a show that hardly costs anything to produce three times a week.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share |
| 7:00 | ABC | America’s Funniest Home Videos (R) | 4.31 | 1.2/4 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 7.13 | 1.3/5 | |
| NBC | Olympics 7pm-11pm | 26.41 | 8.8/24 | |
| FOX | Til Death (R) 8p-9p | 1.86 | 0.9/3 | |
| CW | One Tree Hill (R ) | 0.49 | 0.2/1 | |
| 8:00 | CBS | Big Brother 10 | 6.39 | 2.3/7 |
| FOX | The Simpsons (R) | 3.60 | 1.7/5 | |
| CW | Everybody Hates Chris (R) | 0.34 | 0.2/1 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Ed. (R) 8p-10p | 1.65 | 1.5/4 | |
| 8:30 | CW | Aliens in America (R) | 0.63 | 0.2/1 |
| FOX | Family Guy (R) | 3.57 | 1.7/5 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | Million Dollar Password (R) | 4.08 | 1.2/4 |
| FOX | Terminator: TSCC (R) | 2.59 | 1.1/3 | |
| CW | The Game (R) | 1.02 | 0.4/1 | |
| 9:30 | CW | Girlfriends (R) | 0.88 | 0.3/1 |
| 10:00 | ABC | Desperate Housewives (R) | 2.76 | 1.0/3 |
| CBS | Cold Case (R) | 4.38 | 1.2/3 | |
| Half Hour Olympic Data | ||||
| 7:00 | NBC | Olympics | 16.33 | 5.1/18 |
| 7:30 | NBC | Olympics | 18.55 | 5.9/19 |
| 8:00 | NBC | Olympics | 23.43 | 7.2/22 |
| 8:30 | NBC | Olympics | 26.84 | 8.5/24 |
| 9:00 | NBC | Olympics | 28.13 | 9.2/24 |
| 9:30 | NBC | Olympics | 29.78 | 10.4/26 |
| 10:00 | NBC | Olympics | 30.32 | 10.7/27 |
| 10:30 | NBC | Olympics | 27.85 | 10.0/26 |
Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Source Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
Definitions:
Overnights: Local metered-market ratings service of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) in which household ratings and shares are provided to clients the morning following the day or evening of telecast.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
The olympics should hover around the 22-26 million range for the remainder of the olympics, outside the closing ceremonies.
Big Brother had done very well against the Olympics, not skipping a beat.
What were the numbers for NBC for the 11pm – 11:30 half hour? Did the half hour even count since they were commercial free for 45 minutes, starting at 11pm?
It really made no sense to rerun TSCC against the Olympics. For what it's worth, they could have re-run K-Ville instead. Or shown the unaired episodes of Nashville.