ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607290023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
OLYMPIC VIEWERSHIP is up 23 percent over the Barcelona Games of 1992.
NBC's ratings for prime-time telecasts of the Atlanta Games continue to soar.
Through Thursday night's Olympics show, the network's average prime-time Nielsen rating for seven nights was 23.4 (percentage of U.S. homes with a TV) and a 43 share (percentage of sets in use).
That's up 23 percent from the Barcelona Games through the same number of shows. Each of the prime-time Olympics shows from Atlanta has received a higher Nielsen than any of the NBC Summer Games telecast from Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona four years ago.
NBC's prime-time ratings have ranged from Saturday's 17.3 on the first night of competition to a 27.2 on Tuesday, the night the United States won its first women's team gymnastics gold medal on injured Kerri Strug's vault.
That Tuesday show received the highest Olympics rating since July 29, 1976, at the Montreal Games, an ABC telecast on which Bruce Jenner made his decathlon debut and Sugar Ray Leonard won a boxing decision.
Although the Olympics do attract more than a sports audience, by way of a sports comparison, the only shows that perennially do better in the Nielsens than the Atlanta Games are the NFL's Super Bowl and NFC championship game. |- JACK BOGACZYK
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB