Primetime Ratings, Tuesday, 2/18/14

 

 

NBC continued its Winter Olympic domination, as expected.

In easily its most dire performance to date, night 13 of NBC's coverage of the Sochi Games earned only a 5.0 demo and drew in just under 19 million total viewers. I find this number a bit controversial, since the coverage's preliminary rating was only a 4.8, and NBC apparently just up and decided to not count the 8-8:30 period (a.k.a. the lowest rated period) when calculating the finals. This allowed the overall broadcast to rise two tenths.

I'm entirely sure how common this practice is (although I do know this is the first time I can remember seeing it during my year-plus tenure tracking ratings for this site), but it seems ethically questionable, and I really wonder why Nielsen would allow it. It appears to be nothing more than a cheap P.R. move to boost the Olympics' overall ratings average. Either way, the 5.0 demo is still down four tenths from the corresponding night in 2010, and down a point and six tenths from last Tuesday's 6.6.

Elsewhere, a special Tuesday airing of 'American Idol' took a three tenths hit, dropping to a 2.7. This represents one of the lowest numbers of the season so far for 'Idol,' although a certain allowance must of course be granted due to it going head-to-head with the Winter Games. Finally, the beyond doomed ABC drama 'Killer Women' fell to a new demo low of 0.6.

Key: Broadcast Network - Show Name - 18-49 Rating - 18-49 Share - Total Viewers In Millions

8PM

FOX - American Idol (N) - 2.7 - 8 - 9.73

CBS - NCIS (R) - 1.3 - 4 - 9.90

ABC - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (R) - 0.7 - 2 - 2.70

CW - The Vampire Diaries (R) - 0.3 - 1 - 0.74

8:30PM

NBC - The 2014 Winter Olympics - 5.0 - 14 - 18.93

9PM

CBS - NCIS: Los Angeles (R) - 1.4 - 4 - 7.93

ABC - The Goldbergs (R) - 0.7 - 2 - 2.49

CW - Star Crossed (R) - 0.3 - 1 - 1.05

9:30PM

ABC - Trophy Wife (R) - 0.6 - 2 - 2.00

10PM

CBS - Person of Interest (R) - 1.1 - 3 - 6.34

ABC - Killer Women (N) - 0.6 - 2 - 3.22

Source: Nielsen Media Research