NBC will debut the season/series premieres of some of its lineup on the online streaming service Hulu one week before they air on the broadcast network. For example, the series premiere of the new Knight Rider and the season premiere of Lipstick Jungle, which will first air on NBC on 9/24 will be available on Hulu on Wednesday September 17.

Also available first online will be Chuck, and Life which will be available on Hulu on September 22, but don’t debut on NBC until September 29.

This is not however being extended to every show on the peacock network. Shows that traditionally have performed well on television will make their season’s bows on the TV network first, and then show up on Hulu a day later as is the case with Heroes, The Office and My Name is Earl.

Even some new shows like the My Own Worst Enemy will bow first on the network on October 17 and be available on Hulu the next day. Crusoe, which premieres on NBC on Friday October 17, will show up on Hulu on Monday October 20.

But good old 30 Rock, which doesn’t have its season premiere on NBC until October 30, will appear first, a week earlier on Hulu.

You can see the full Hulu schedule via Hulu’s Fall Premiere Lineup. Note the Hulu lineup also will display shows from Fox and some from USA, but they give you a week by week schedule of when the premieres will show up on Hulu.

Update: Separately, Variety is reporting that awareness of Knight Rider and CW’s 90210 is high in advance of the premieres. Variety notes that awareness was higher for Knight Rider than even 90210, but that the other new fall shows have little awareness among TV viewers.

Swingtown Makes a Top 10 List: television viewing habits and web traffic do not always correlate. Plus, not including “The Olympics” or NBCOlympics.com as a TV Show probably skews the week’s results dramatically.  That American Idol, Deal or No Deal, DWTS, Heroes, The Office and Lost perform so well even when they’re not actually airing episodes is…something.  Nonetheless, outside of the Olympics, Big Brother was king of the Web universe, and by a very, very wide margin.

Top US Broadcast Network TV Websites for the week ending August 23, 2008:

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Top US Cable Network TV Websites for the week ending August 23, 2008:

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I’ve seen much written in the past several days about missed opportunities on NBC’s part, especially with regard to online advertising where NBC reportedly only hauled in $5.75 million.  I’ve seen the comparisons to CBS who took in a reported $23 million in online advertising revenue for the NCAA College Basketball Tournament (”March Madness”).

I’ve seen the reports that say NBC paid $894 million for the rights to the Beijing Olympic games, had sold nearly a billion in advertising leading up to the games and then, even with better than expected ratings, “only” sold an additional $25 million or so during the games themselves.

The drawback with a lot of the reported dollar figures we see thrown around for advertising is this: rarely are they the actual numbers. Perhaps never, really.   Unfortunately, we just don’t get true access to the dollars and cents because they get rolled up into so many things we never see.   I’m sure CBS knows what its total haul for advertising was for “Mach Madness”, but am I sure that even CBS really knows exactly how much of that revenue was from sources other than television?  No, I’m not.

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Well this will be one of the last of the NBC press-release fodder posts from the Olympic games in Beijing.  Particular thanks to the NBC team, especially the team in Beijing including Adam Freifeld for being so great about getting us the data.

Based on preliminary overnights (Nielsen ran into many delays today with last night for some reason, and the final numbers which would normally be available, are not) the closing ceremonies in Beijing with a 15.2 household rating were the highest-rated closing ceremonies for a non-U.S. hosted Olympics since the 1976 games in Montreal (which are still proably my most memorable Olympics).  Because of the Nielsen delays, we don’t know what the final Olympic tally was in terms of total-reach, though we already do know that with 211 million through 8/23, it set the record as the most-viewed Olympics or any other television event in U.S. history.  Based on the overnights, these closing ceremonies performed about 39% better ratings-wise than the Athens games in 2004.

Here’s the latest and most likely last (or next to last) press release via NBC.  Especially if you’re into top local market info, please read on:

BEIJING GAMES SHOW SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN RATING AND AVERAGE VIEWERS

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I mostly enjoyed the Summer Olympic games in Beijing. I know many people have bones to pick with the way the coverage was handled by NBC, but I don’t wish to hop aboard that train. And although I was dismayed that certain events were not shown live on the west coast even though they easily could’ve been, it’s hard to argue with the success NBC had doing it their way. Mostly, I’d have to applaud NBC and its results.

My disappointment stems from lack of fully utilizing the test-and-learn environment with its Total Audience Measurement Index (TAMi). While some events were streamed live online, nothing I really wanted to watch was. Plus, the environment of forcing Microsoft “Silverlight” installations in order to watch video impairs the results somewhat.

While I knew TV was a bigger deal than the Internet and no amount of experimenting was likely to change that, I was surprised how miniscule the online viewing component was. Many see the unique website visitors (which were generally in the 6 million to 8 million per day range) and jump to conclusions based on those. The unique reach numbers for online were impressive. Indeed, if we had one-tenth of that amount here at TVbytheNumbers, Bill and I would be dancing a jig in San Francisco.

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I love seeing this record. It makes me smile because although television faces all kinds of challenges, the old girl still has some life left in her. The Beijing Olympics, with total reach of 211 million through sixteen days, surpasses the Atlanta record in 1996 of 209 million. I’m delighted for NBC and television in general, but I have to confess a certain disappointment with a couple of aspects. More on that in the next day or two. My disappointment didn’t seem to hurt NBC any in the short-term. Here’s the latest release from NBC.

BEIJING OLYMPICS BECOME MOST-VIEWED EVENT IN U.S. TV HISTORY

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With one more night of coverage and the closing ceremonies left, NBC needs just over 300,000 to set the record for most-watched Olympics along with most-watched television event ever. Here’s NBC’s latest data release. Note: the total reach of 208.7 million represents people who’ve watched at least six minutes of coverage.

BEIJING GAMES SET TO BECOME THE MOST-WATCHED TELEVISION EVENT IN HISTORY

208.7 MILLION WATCH BEIJING GAMES ON NBC UNIVERSAL THROUGH 15 DAYS, JUST 300,000 BELOW THE ATLANTA GAMES’ 209 MILLION

85 Million Watch on NBC Universal’s Cable Nets ; 85% of All U.S. TV Households Have Tuned In

BEIJING -Aug. 23, 2008 -Through 15 days, NBC Universal’s Beijing Olympic coverage has reached 208.7 million viewers and is about to surpass the 17-day total for the Atlanta Games, the most viewed event in U.S. television history according to data provided by Nielsen Media Research. The 208.7 million viewers are 11 million more than the first 15 days for Athens (198 million) and 5 million more than the Atlanta Games (204 million). NBCU’s cable networks through 15 days have already reached 85 million, surpassing the 17-day viewership total for any previous Olympics.

MOST VIEWED EVENTS IN U.S. TV HISTORY:

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