NBC Goes 7 for 7 With Olympics

By LEE MARGULIES

Aug. 7, 1996 12 AM PT

Viewing dipped a bit in the second week but the Summer Olympics were still the dominant force on television last week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. NBC’s seven nights of coverage from Atlanta landed the top seven spots in prime time.

For the week, NBC’s nighttime Olympics programming, hosted by Bob Costas, averaged a 20.3 household rating--down about 11% from the first week of the Games but still more than ABC, CBS and Fox combined. Each point represents 959,000 homes.

The 21.8 rating for Sunday’s closing ceremony compared to a 23.6 for the opening festivities on July 19.

A.C. Nielsen Ratings

Here are the ratings for national prime-time television last week (July 29-Aug. 4) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. Each rating point is said by Nielsen to represent 959,000 homes, or 1% of the 95.9 million U.S. households that have TV.

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Net- Rat- Program work ing 1. Summer Olympics (Mon.) NBC 26.4 2. Summer Olympics (Sun.) NBC 21.8 3. Summer Olympics (Tue.) NBC 21.3 4. Summer Olympics (Thur.) NBC 20.7 5. Summer Olympics (Wed.) NBC 18.8 6. Summer Olympics (Fri.) NBC 16.1 7. Summer Olympics (Sat.) NBC 15.8 8. Home Improvement ABC 9.7 9. Coach ABC 8.1 10. 60 Minutes CBS 7.9

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Southland Ratings Here are A. C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households.

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Sta- Rat- Program tion ing 1. Channel 4 News at 9 (Mon.) KNBC 25.5 2. Summer Olympics (Tue.) KNBC 21.6 3. Ch. 4 News (T, W, Th, F, S, Su) KNBC 19.4 4. Summer Olympics (T, Th, F) KNBC 17.0 5. Summer Olympics (Wed.) KNBC 16.4 6. Summer Olympics (Mon.) KNBC 14.9 7. Summer Olympics (Sun.) KNBC 14.3 8. Home Improvement KABC 11.5 9. 20/20 KABC 11.3 10. NYPD Blue KABC 10.0

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Weekly Averages

NBC: 21.4

ABC: 6.2

CBS: 5.3

FOX: 3.6

WB: 2.2

UPN: 1.8

Season to Date

NBC: 11.8

ABC: 9.7

CBS: 9.0