Can't Michael Phelps stay? Please? No total of beggary by NBC will make it fall out. The Olympics swim meet ends shortly after Phelps' bid for his eighth gold decoration on NBC Saturday night, with another week of competition remaining.
Interest in the Olympics is nearly certain to wane, but NBC can already claim its own palm. The games averaged 30 million prime time viewers over its first eight nights - "American Idol" numbers - and NBC Universal said it has earned more than $10 one thousand thousand since the games began from new advertisers eager to climb on board.
It's also the first actual sign of that distribute television prat recover from its debilitating strike of last winter and farm an event that draws the nation together.
"Broadcast is not dead, despite reports to the contrary," aforesaid Brian Hughes, researcher for the ad buying strong Magna.
All because of unmatchable super swimmer.
Maybe not solely, but NBC convinced Olympics officials to start races early so they could be airy live in prime-time in the easterly time zone, and built the network's battle plan around Phelps' bid for history. It worked knocked out even bettor than expected, with two of Phelps' races having heart-stopping finishes.
Could Friday night have worked any better? NBC moved directly from showing a come-from-behind advance by the leading U.S. beach volleyball team to Phelps' race. The live telecast heightened the suspense for East Coast viewers.
NBC was also able to show gymnastics, another marquee event, live. The unmatched drawback to the one-two finish by Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson was its 1 a.m. ending.
After a desultory summer of trumped-up saltation, singing and weight-loss competitions - possibly broadcast television's worst e'er - the Olympics are like a feast to starving families, heightening its impact.
"This event shows the pipes solve and that if you put on great scheduling that people want to watch, and so they'll usher up," Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal president & CEO, told CNBC Friday.
NBC says the Beijing games ar on pace to be the most-watched Olympics always. Between NBC and company-owned networks USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen and Telemundo, the airwaves ar flooded with competition. NBCOlympics.com is streaming thousands more hours, too.
All of the activity has fueled interest, helping NBC in prime time, said Gary Zenkel, prexy of NBC Olympics. Ironically, NBC's failure to keep video of the opening move ceremony off the Web before it could be televised on 12-hour magnetic tape delay seemed to build up excitement, resulting in a startling audience of 34 million people.
That theory won't be tested for competition, however. NBC doesn't stream events on the Web before they are shown on television system. The second base week is dominated by track & field, already likely to send many casual women viewers away. NBC's prime time will also have few events live during the coming hebdomad, removing that element of suspense.
There's silent a sound chance NBC will be able to beat the 24.6 million ordinary prime-time viewership of the Athens Games, and the 21.5 million in Sydney in 2000. That would be a actual achievement when viewers hold more alternatives every year.
During the number 1 week, NBC has done little to upset its hosts.
Two of the biggest off-field stories - the stabbing of two Americans by a suicidal isle of Man and revelation that a cute young woman singing during the opening ceremony was a lip-syncher - were covered during the day. But the stabbings were only briefly mentioned during prime-time and the lip-synching wasn't mentioned at all. Attendance problems at venues also hasn't drawn notice.
Except for a Tom Brokaw retrospective on opening night and Bob Costas' thorough interview with President Bush, the focus has been almost only on fun. Mary Carillo has unbroken her travelogues light. Mark Mullen's tough look at China's exploit to stableboy Olympic stars was shown on the "Nightly News."
Costas has been respectful.
"Everyone of us world Health Organization has visited here comes away with a deep admiration for the Chinese people - so a great deal to admire here and so practically to determine," he aforementioned one night.
NBC's meticulous pre-Olympic planning tin can actually accept its weak points. There's little room for tractableness in prime time, and NBC's view that only a small number of sports deserve that special weapons platform sometimes makes the broadcasts repetitive.
Phelps' trips to the medal stand were also repetitive, just NBC will take them any day. Barring a major cataclysm during the final hebdomad, his success in Beijing will send NBC Universal executives base smiling.
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