Olympics Gives ABC Top Rating

ABC’s prime-time Winter Olympics coverage trounced the other two networks in the Nielsen ratings last week, propelling the third-place network into No. 1 for the February sweeps and second for the season.

The 16 days of Olympics in Calgary averaged a prime-time rating of 19.3 and a 30 share, up 5% over the 1984 Winter Olympics, but down 18% from 1980. ABC estimated that more than 150 million viewers saw some part of the Winter Olympics this year. Saturday night’s figure-skating finale was the No. 1 show of the week including the highest-rated half-hour of Saturday viewing since “Roots” in 1977.