Overnight ratings on NBC's Sat. night coverage | Golden Skate

Overnight ratings on NBC's Sat. night coverage

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I like this kind of stuff so of course I had to find out how skating did.


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http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/29/saturday-ratings-cbs-ncaa-tourney-big-east-are-winners/15385

I think the US championships did better in January. NBC tanked Saturday night as they didn't even crack 1.0 in the 18-49 demo all night. The Worlds even lost viewers from its Law and Order rerun lead-in. It was also the least viewed broadcast network show of the night, the only one under 4 million (out of the big Four networks, it doesn't mention the CW).

There really wasn't much of a reason to watch, anyway. No American lady in contention, the winner pretty much was known before the event started, etc.

I think we can say more and more confidently that after 2010, NBC will give up on skating once and for all..
 
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gold12345

Medalist
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
I don't know anything about ratings, but I know when the NBA Playoffs put their games on as late as 9 PM, a lot of people are up in arms over it and don't watch. It's just too late at night for a lot of people to start watching a long (2 hours or more) sporting event.

And of course, having the skating on the same exact time as the NCAA basketball tournament doesn't help either.

Not that I'm saying that skating ratings have been good lately, but the unfortunate time slot does not help. Also, it would be nice if NBC had more than one U.S. lady to show, and if NBC did better advertising. People who maybe would have watched probably had no idea it was on. I know if I didn't come to these skating sites and whatnot, I would have had no idea Worlds was this week. Argh.

Okay, well, I hope somehow skating can remain on TV, but at the very least, Universal Sports better keep providing commentary free TV coverage of skating events, because I have thoroughly enjoyed what they have shown this season.
 

coconutpunch

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
I'm not surprised. It's a real shame though, this year's Worlds was especially good in recent memory. :think:

I still think advertising has a lot to do with this, like gold12345 mentioned. I hardly watch NBC myself, so I can't really say if the Ladies' LP was advertised at all on the network, but it *would* help if more journalists [in the States] covered the sport and snippets of skating articles made it on the paper more frequently. If this means more Phil Hersh'es, so be it - some publicity is better than none at all IMO.

Just a thought, but do you think the ratings would have been somewhat higher if the network broadcasting skating was not NBC? (CBS comes to mind especially) I mean, even the Beijing Olys didn't do particularly well in terms of ratings under NBC's flawed packaging...how on earth can skating do any better?
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I think the US championships did better in January.

I think U.S. viewers have always liked U.S. Nationals better than international competitions. Also, I think Skate America has had tolerable ratings in the past.

I wonder if the USFSA is wise to tie its product so firmly to the ISU.

Maybe they should start putting on their own shows -- maybe a couple of good cheesefests leading up to the U.S. championship (which would be scored under 6.0 judging.)

How did Oxygen do? Maybe the USFSA should abandon major network TV altogether. NBC does not seem to be doing anything positive for the sport. Maybe we should try a new tack altogether
 

Kwanford Wife

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
I think U.S. viewers have always liked U.S. Nationals better than international competitions. Also, I think Skate America has had tolerable ratings in the past.

I wonder if the USFSA is wise to tie its product so firmly to the ISU.

Maybe they should start putting on their own shows -- maybe a couple of good cheesefests leading up to the U.S. championship (which would be scored under 6.0 judging.)

How did Oxygen do? Maybe the USFSA should abandon major network TV altogether. NBC does not seem to be doing anything positive for the sport. Maybe we should try a new tack altogether

Mathman, I totally agree. The Oxygen coverage was great and it was live - yes, many people don't have the coverage - but its still better than nothing and quite frankly was just as thorough as the coverage on ESPN over the years... But I'm selfish - I wanna see the GP series without paying for IceNetwork.
 

enlight78

Medalist
Joined
Nov 2, 2005
Wfhen Nadal won Austrailian Open I saw it everywhere and in news papers. An American has won the world championships and I haven't seen it in the paper or heard it on regular news. If you promote something far enough others will believe the hype. If don't promoted at all people don't know it exist
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Wfhen Nadal won Austrailian Open I saw it everywhere and in news papers. An American has won the world championships and I haven't seen it in the paper or heard it on regular news. If you promote something far enough others will believe the hype. If don't promoted at all people don't know it exist

Maybe it begs the question as to whether people here actually CARE about skating any more. But another problem was the time that he skated. I think he won the worlds after or during the printing of the next day's newspaper (so it wouldn't have made the cut in time). So it would have had to wait until the following day's paper. You can blame the ISU for that one.
 

Particle Man

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Wfhen Nadal won Austrailian Open I saw it everywhere and in news papers. An American has won the world championships and I haven't seen it in the paper or heard it on regular news. If you promote something far enough others will believe the hype. If don't promoted at all people don't know it exist

We live in a country of neanderthals who think men's figure skating is a gay sport for gay men. That's the sad truth. 90% of guys would rather scratch their groin and get wasted at a high school football game than watch figure skating world championships. 100 years ago guys would actually attend opera without making fun of it. Now popular male attitudes in America have fallen to essentially that of animals. Put men's figure skating champion on the front page, and you have a punchline to a joke.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I thought of something, and I posted this on FSU:

I just thought about something. Of course, the reason [for the low rating] can be blamed mostly on not having an American star, scandal, etc. However, I think part of the problem is NBC itself. They currently have no highly-watched shows during which they can really promote the telecast. They only have their other skating shows, and in the week leading up to the competition, their already struggling regular line-up. Imagine if, say, CBS had the Nationals, and they could promote it during highly-popular shows such as CSI, NCIS, Survivor, etc. Or Fox, who could promote it during House, American Idol, or 24. (I don't mention ABC because they never promote their sports programs during their shows except for the NBA finals a couple of days before they happen).

Of course, highly-visible promotion only does so much. That, I believe, will not raise ratings considerably at this point. We just need a revamped broadcast team and an American star, and we should be set. Of course, to get a new broadcast team they'll probably have to leave NBC and look for another network.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Maybe we could get a new commentator AND an American star all in one!

Let's see...who could it be, who could it be...? :rofl:

Now don't you get all excited. I meant an American skating star WHO IS CURRENTLY COMPETING...and obviously the two roles are mutually exclusive. :p
 

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
If they had the Men's event on saturday night or friday night they would have done much better.
 
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