CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
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 |  Subject: NBC’s ‘Cataclysmic’ Olympics-Coverage Flop  Mon Feb 14, 2022 10:08 pm | |
| On the menu today: Wowsers, “NBC is facing a cataclysmic loss of audience for the 2022 Winter Olympics.” That’s not only because Americans are appalled by the policies of the government hosting the games, but it’s hard to believe that those policies aren’t a big factor; the International Olympic Committee’s treatment of Peng Shuai crosses the moral event horizon; and finally, that deer in your backyard may well have Covid-19. Good luck testing Bambi with a nasal swab.
The Olympics Dud
Dear readers, is there a more beautiful phrase this morning than “cataclysmic loss of audience”?
NBC is facing a cataclysmic loss of audience for the 2022 Winter Olympics as viewership tanked for Friday’s Opening Ceremony, averaging just 16 million.
It is a record low for the Opening Ceremony (20.1 million for 1988 in Calgary was the previous record) and a whopping 43 percent below the 2018 Games in South Korea that notched 28.3 million viewers despite also dealing with a less than advantageous Asian time zone for American audiences.
It comes on the heels of Thursday’s ratings disaster that saw just 7.7 million people tune in, dramatically below same-night audiences of 2018 (16 million) and 2014 from Russia (20.02 million).
The Associated Press elaborates: “Through the first four nights of competition, NBC is on track for the lowest-rated Winter Games in history. . . . Thursday night’s audience of 8 million marks the smallest primetime Olympics audience on record, surpassing the 9 million that tuned in for the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Games.”
Discussions about whether Americans should watch this year’s Winter Olympics or boycott them often veer into what people think of the Olympics themselves. I won’t be watching, but I don’t begrudge anyone for tuning in to cheer on Team USA. I actually like that, once every four years, we get really fired up about downhill skiing, figure skating, curling, etc.
It isn’t the athletes’ fault that the IOC selected Beijing — not even a particularly cold or snowy city! — to host an Olympics for the second time in 14 years. It is not even NBC’s fault, although apparently the network’s billion-dollar investment in broadcasting the games makes it a hostage–partner to whatever propaganda the Chinese government chooses to present.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review hockey columnist Tim Benz doubts that viewers are boycotting China in significant numbers: “I’m not sure the average American refusing to watch luge on a Tuesday night genuinely qualifies as a grand political action. . . . C’mon. If the Steelers had their first preseason game in China next August, it would pull a 30 share in Pittsburgh.” But that’s an unfair measuring stick. If the Steelers held their first preseason game within the reactor core of the Yongbyon Nuclear Facility in North Korea, Steelers fans would still watch. Pittsburgh Dad would do a whole video on how the radiation was healthy and would turn T. J. Watt into the Incredible Hulk. (Love you, Steelers fans!)
Benz points to NHL players not participating (eh, maybe), the time difference (eh, it’s not much different from Tokyo or Pyeongchang, South Korea), wonders if patriotism is perceived as too uncool these days, and observes that, “The Olympics are a two-week-long network television miniseries in an era when no one watches network television anymore.”
On paper, that last argument makes sense, but there’s the glaring exception of this year’s wild NFL playoff games, which generated monster ratings for three straight weekends.
.https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/nbcs-cataclysmic-olympics-coverage-flop/ |
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