There are several ways to rate the popularity of things. In some professional sports, like golf, the best is the one who wins the most money. In professional tennis, there is a rating system that selects "the best" based on wins and competition. In pro basketball, football and hockey, to name three, there's a playoff system. The same holds true down through the college and high school levels of sports.
We rate corporations by stock value or annual revenue. Performance stars by the price they can demand, graphic artists by the price their works bring. And TV shows are rated by ratings ... actually ratings and shares.
It seems odd that this system has changed little since I was a freshman Radio and TV major at Bowling Green many, many years ago.
So the numbers came in this week for the 2006 Winter Olympics. That's why the curtains were drawn in the NBC boardrooms.
Neilsen Media Research reported that the average rating for NBC's primetime coverage was 12.2. One ratings point means 1,102,000 households were tuned in.
The network had promised its advertisers that its ratings would average between 12 and 14 for the two week Olympics. They made it, but not by much.
What is worse is that the people whose eyeballs the network's advertiser most wanted were not there.
So, while the average of 20.2 million viewers a night was 37 percent less than for the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City the figures for 18 to 49 year olds was worse. Ratings for the most sought after age group were down 45 percent from four years ago.
According to the Associated Press story on the ratings, The Peacock expected some erosion from the ratings of 2002 for a couple of reasons. The time difference was only a minus two hours between Salt Lake City and the East coast, as opposed to a plus six hour difference between Turin, Italy and the EST zone.
Not to mention the fact that it was just a few months after 9/11. The combination of patriotism and/or the prospect of another spectacular terrorist attack was a strong attraction.
(Bubba: I hope nothin' happens, but if it does, I want to see it live.)
NBC said that its cable and internet outlets did show some growth in viewership since 2002. But look at what's happened to cable and internet in the past four years.
The closing ceremony last Sunday night broadcast on tape by NBC attracted less than 15 million viewers. It got beat by ABC's Dancing with the Stars. (Gag) Earlier in the week, Olympic coverage, most of which again was on tape, having occurred 6 hours earlier, was beaten by Fox's American Idol (gag, gag)
As a wise man once said, "You'll never go broke underestimating the sophistication of the American Public."