Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994 TAG: 9402250098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: LILLEHAMMER, NORWAY LENGTH: Medium
Wednesday night's broadcast of the skate-off between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan on CBS was the third highest-rated sports program of all time - trailing only two Super Bowls - and the sixth highest-rated television show ever.
The broadcast earned a 48.5 rating, which means about 45,687,000 homes tuned in. A rating point equals 942,000 homes.
CBS estimated 110,530,000 people watched at least part of its broadcast, the eighth-largest audience ever to watch a single TV show.
"Based on this performance and the expectation of another strong night with the ladies' finals [tonight], we are now assured that this will be the highest-rated Olympics ever," said David Poltrack, senior vice president for planning and research.
To do that, the Lillehammer coverage would have to top the 24.4 overall rating set by the 1972 Munich Olympics. The highest-rated Winter Olympics were the 1980 Lake Placid Games, which earned an overall rating of 23.9.
For CBS folks in Norway - who have declined to predict viewership and have stuck with a line of "we're just here to play ball" so far - there's no more playing it cool.
"I was really nervous last night," figure-skating producer David Winner said Thursday. "They say the numbers aren't supposed to matter, but it does."
So, will tonight's coverage of the women's figure skating finals set yet another viewership record? Perhaps not. With Harding virtually out of medal contention, the battle royale has diminished.
But as Winner said, "If you came for chapter one, wouldn't you come back for chapter two?"
by CNB