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NBC’s Olympics Finishes A Distant Second to Fox’s Idol

Published on February 16, 2006 | Email this article

Tuesday night’s preliminary national results from Nielsen Media Research have Fox’s American Idol bringing in 63 percent more viewers than the Winter Olympics on NBC, writes Mediaweek. This is the Olympics’ second time getting outperformed by regularly scheduled shows on competing networks in the past five nights. ABC’s Sunday night programming, including Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy, scored higher ratings in all demos but males.

Wednesday was expected to be another competitive night for the Olympics, with ABC airing a first-run episode of Lost, and Fox airing another episode of American Idol.

In the 18-49 demo, night 5 of this year’s Olympics dropped 46 percent from the fifth night of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and 45 percent form the corresponding night during the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

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