Salt Lake City leads Nielsen markets for Olympics viewing

Published by Professor Les August 17th, 2008 in Salt Lake City, Current Events, Business News. Tags: Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps, NBC, Nielsen ratings, Olympics TV ratings, Salt Lake City, Variety.

With the second half of the Olympics at full speed, Salt Lake City leads major markets in ratings for the games. Variety reports that by market, the top scores have come in Salt Lake City (24.7/48), Minneapolis and Denver (both 24.5/45), Michael Phelps’ hometown of Baltimore (23.5/39) and San Diego (23.3/44). (Keep in mind the first number represents the household rating and the second is market share.)

And, as we have noted throughout the week on the Twitter feed, Phelps’s appearances during the critical prime time hours have brought NBC numbers that only have recently been seen with American Idol. More than 40 million tuned in last night during the 11 p.m. slot as the Americans won the 4X100 medley relay to give Phelps his 8th gold medal. Nielsen estimates that NBC averaged 31.1 million viewers from 8 p.m. to 11:44 p.m. yesterday. Ratings are up 15 percent from the Athens games and are the best for an Olympics in a non-American city since 1992 when the Games were in Barcelona.

The last time NBC had such high Saturday evening ratings happened in 1990 for an episode of Empty Nest, a spinoff of the hugely popular Golden Girls sitcom.

Such interest would be a good preliminary barometer that SLC might be a great repeat venue for the Winter Olympics.

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