CBS’ Numbers as Good as Kerrigan’s

Nancy Kerrigan got some impressive numbers Wednesday night, but the numbers CBS got are even more impressive.

The first to come out Thursday were a 49.7 overnight rating and a 64 share for the nation’s 30 largest markets. Later came the national numbers--a 48.5 rating and a 64 share.

That means that Wednesday night’s Winter Olympics prime-time coverage on CBS was watched in 48.5% of all television households in the country and in 64% of the homes where televisions were on. Each rating point represents 1% of the nation’s 94.2 million television households.

If the 49.7 had held up, that would have been a record for sports events. Super Bowl XVI, in which San Francisco beat Cincinnati on Jan. 24, 1982, got a 49.1. The 49.7 would also have been the fourth-highest rating of all time.

As it is, the 48.5 ranks No. 6, with two Super Bowls, including the one in 1983, still ahead of Wednesday night’s Games.

CBS estimated that Wednesday night’s Olympic program was watched by 110,530,000, ranking it No. 8 in audience size. No. 1 was this year’s Super Bowl, which drew an estimated 134,840,000 viewers. The rating was a 45.5.

Super Bowl audiences correlate higher because of parties and gatherings in one household. Six Super Bowl audiences were larger than the one CBS drew Wednesday night, as was the the total of 121,624,000 for the last episode of “MASH.”

Through 12 nights of the Olympics, CBS has averaged a 27.6 rating and a 41 share in prime time. At this juncture two years ago at Albertville, CBS was averaging a 19.2 and a 30 share.

The record for a Winter Olympics is a 23.9 rating and a 37 share in 1980. The record for any Olympics is a 24.4 rating and a 44 share for the Summer Games in 1972.

Kerrigan is going for the gold tonight, but with Tonya Harding virtually out of the running for a medal it’s doubtful that the rating will top 48.5. But you never know. Suddenly, figure skating is big, very big.

*

Bargain price: CBS paid $295 million for the rights to the Lillehammer Games and last month agreed to pay $375 million for the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan.

Turns out that is a bargain. The record ratings CBS is getting at Lillehammer means it will be able to increase ad rates for Nagano.

CBS charged $325,000 for 30-second spots before the Games. It is charging $430,000 for the few spots it held back for “make-goods” in case of lower ratings than had been guaranteed.

But sponsors for the ’98 Games might not be willing to pay much more than that--unless there’s another Harding-Kerrigan type of incident. And there may never again be anything like that, at least nothing that would get the same kind of media coverage.

*

Add ratings: Even though TNT didn’t show Harding, Kerrigan or any of the other top competitors Wednesday on its daytime coverage, which also included the U.S.-Finland hockey game, the cable network still got a 4.1 rating and drew 2.5 million viewers.

That’s TNT’s highest Olympic rating, and four times higher than TNT’s normal daytime rating. TNT also had weekday coverage from Albertville two years ago.

Today, TNT will again offer figure skating, minus the top names, plus the Canada-Finland hockey game.

A word of warning to viewers not wanting to know results before the prime-time show on CBS: TNT will air periodic updates throughout its coverage.

*

Radio coverage: KNX will again carry CBS Radio’s live coverage of Harding and Kerrigan today. Harding will skate 14th at 11:55 a.m., PST, and Kerrigan 20th at 12:35 p.m. The first broadcast will be 10 minutes, the second 55 minutes.

Figure skating on radio isn’t too thrilling, but radio commentator Paul Wylie, working with Mark Champion, was quicker to point out Harding’s mistakes Wednesday than was television commentator Scott Hamilton that night.

*

Complaint Dept.: CBS may be drawing huge audiences, but the network is also drawing complaints in record numbers.

The delayed, edited telecasts are a pet peeve. “They come across as phony, as more theater than sports,” one reader complained.

The constant teasing is another big complaint. “Bonnie Blair (or whoever) coming up” usually means coming up sometime in the next hour or two. More honesty and a better format are needed.

Of course, people complain about all the commercials. Blame the International Olympic Committee and the high rights fees for this one.

A lot of people also believe there are an excessive number of features and off-beat reports. CBS seems determined to use all of the 150 or so features it prepared for the Games.

Although some features should have been left on the shelf, others have been excellent. Two of the best were the one Wednesday night on figure skater Oksana Baiul of the Ukraine and the one Tuesday night with Charles Kuralt on the destruction of a Nazi heavy-water plant in occupied Norway 50 years ago. The plant was essential to Hitler’s plans for an atomic bomb.

Speaking of Kuralt, CBS should be using him more.

As for prime-time host Greg Gumbel, there have been few complaints, which indicates he is doing a good job.

Overall, give CBS’ coverage a B-minus. Televising an Olympics and keeping everybody happy is difficult, if not impossible.

TV-Radio Notes

ESPN’s second ESPY award ceremony will be televised Monday at 6 p.m. Dennis Miller is the host, and nominees include Mike Piazza, Wayne Gretzky, and Troy Aikman. This show will be hard-pressed to top last year’s, when the late Jim Valvano, helped to the podium by Dick Vitale and Mike Krzyzewski, delivered an impassioned speech. Vitale, in Los Angeles this week for Thursday night’s UCLA-California game, said the amazing thing was that Valvano could barely speak either the day before or the day after, and wasn’t even planning to attend the ceremony. “He got up there and must have gotten a real adrenaline rush,” Vitale said. “We didn’t think he could even get to the podium. They were going to mike him at his seat, but he asked Coach K and I to help him up there.” Proceeds from the ESPYs go to the V Foundation, established in the honor of Valvano to further cancer research.

The winter Arbitron trends came out this week, and the news was semi-good for KMPC. The station’s overall share for all people 12 and over went from a 0.7 to a 0.8, and all-day parts showed slight increases. But KMPC, still recovering from the days of a 0.1 share in the morning, is getting beat across the board by XTRA in Los Angeles, 1.6-1.4, with men 18-plus. In San Diego, XTRA got a 5.7 share with men 18-plus. . . . The proposed sale of KMPC to Cap Cities still hasn’t been finalized, but when it is, the staff at KMPC will move to a building owned by Gene and Jackie Autry near Universal City until Cap Cities takes control. The eventual plan is to base the new KMPC at the revamped KABC studios on La Cienega Boulevard. Cap Cities apparently will change the format from all-sports to “smart talk,” but officials will not confirm that until the sale goes through.

“Rise and Walk: the Dennis Byrd Story” will be televised by the Fox network Monday at 8 p.m., and tonight Byrd will be the host of “Fox Night at the Movies.” The movie tonight is “Hot Shots!” The host for Byrd’s movie will be John Madden, making his Fox debut. . . . Plans for Magic Johnson’s one-on-one interview show on Fox have been completed. The first show will be on March 15 with guests Roseanne and Tom Arnold, Whoopi Goldberg, Garth Brooks and Shaquille O’Neal. Arsenio Hall is executive producer of the show.

TV’s Top 10

The Olympic showdown between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding was the third highest-rated sporting event in television history and the sixth highest-rated program. A look at the most-watched programs in TV history:

Year Show, Network Rating Share 1983 MASH, CBS 60.2 77 1980 Who Shot J.R.? Dallas, CBS 53.3 76 1977 Roots, part VIII, ABC 51.1 71 1982 Super Bowl XVI, CBS 49.1 73 1983 Super Bowl XVII, NBC 48.6 69 1994 Olympic Ice Skating, CBS 48.5 64 1986 Super Bowl XX, NBC 48.3 70 1976 Gone With the Wind, part 1, NBC 47.7 65 1976 Gone With the Wind, part 2, NBC 47.4 64 1978 Super Bowl XII, CBS 47.2 67