Ratings: 'Wipeout,' 'Big Brother' Rise as Olympics Plunge
The Olympics took a ratings hit Thursday night, while ABC's "Wipeout" jumped and "Big Brother" showed modest improvement, according to preliminary numbers.
Thursday's Olympics coverage dropped 39 percent from last last Thursday in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, posting a 6.8 rating/20 share in the demo -- a low for this year's games, and down 6 percent from the equivalent night of the 2008 games in Beijing -- and drawing 22.4 million total viewers.
That being said, the Olympics pushed NBC to a handy win in both ratings and total viewers. Due to NFL preemption, the ratings for CBS, ABC and Fox were inflated Thursday night, but as it stands now CBS holds second place in ratings and total viewers with a 1.7/5 and 5.8 million. The network ran repeats except for "Big Brother" at 9 p.m., which grew 5 percent in the demo from last week for a 2.1/6 and drew 6.2 million total viewers. ABC took third in ratings and total viewers with a 1.6/5 and 5 million total viewers. After a "Wipeout" repeat at 8, a new episode of the series the following hour jumped 21 percent in the demo from the previous week, receiving a 1.7/5 and drawing 4.8 million total viewers. "Rookie Blue" at 10 was even with its last original two weeks ago, drawing a 1.5/4 with 5 million total viewers. Fox, which ran repeats, took fourth place in ratings and total viewers with a 1.0/3 and 2.7 million.
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