Hockey Is Good as Gold

NBC couldn’t have scripted it any better.

After getting a whopping national rating of 26.8 with a 41 share for its women’s figure skating Thursday night, the network can now look forward to more big numbers on its 24th and final day of coverage Sunday.

The big numbers will be for its daytime coverage.

That’s because the U.S. hockey team, after a dramatic 3-2 victory over Russia on Friday, will play Canada on Sunday. The game will be shown live at 11:30 a.m. across the country, including the West Coast, on the big network, not cable.

“It’s the biggest hockey game in the history of the sport,” NBC hockey host Jim Lampley said by phone from Salt Lake City on Friday night.

“This is what Gary Bettman had in mind when he allowed NHL players to play in the Olympics. For the U.S. to beat Russia twice and meet Canada in the gold-medal game, this is the greatest thing that could have possibly happened.

“It will be the highest-rated hockey game in history.”

That’s quite a prediction, considering the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” game between the U.S. and Russia in Lake Placid, N.Y., got a 23.9 with a 37 share.

NBC commentator John Davidson, a native of Ottawa, said, “Canada hasn’t won an Olympic gold medal since 1952, and hockey is their sport. They want to prove they are No. 1 in the world.

“In the game tonight, we saw the U.S. show passion for two periods and the Russians show passion for one period.

“On Sunday, it will be pure passion by both teams for three periods. And if we’re lucky, we’ll see overtime.”

Davidson was making only one prediction--that the game will be close.

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No matter what kind of rating Sunday’s game gets, these Olympic Games are already a ratings success.

After Thursday night--when the national rating peaked at 32.5 when the Americans skated--the average rating for the Games rose to 19.3, which is 18% higher than the 16.4 CBS had through 14 days at Nagano, Japan.

NBC has easily met all its rating guarantees to sponsors.

“They’re all in bonus time now,” NBC chairman Bob Wright said.

On projections of NBC bringing in $700 million in advertising, Wright said, “The gross sales will be considerably higher than that.”

An estimated 79 million Americans watched at least part of NBC’s coverage Thursday night.

The West Coast continues to get some of the highest numbers, and L.A. again beat the national average Thursday night. L.A. numbers got a 31.0 rating with a 44 share.

The West Coast had four of the seven highest-rated markets-- Portland was second at 40.5/60, Seattle fourth at 35.1/52, San Francisco sixth 34.4/51, and Sacramento seventh at 33.6/47. L.A. ranked 17th.

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Coverage of Friday’s U.S.-Russia game worked out fairly well for West Coast viewers--as long as they had cable television and weren’t stuck in rush-hour traffic.

The game was carried live in its entirety on CNBC. And the final 16:47 of the game was simulcast on CNBC and NBC.

But because NBC’s coverage was delayed here, there was only live coverage on CNBC.

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Lampley’s hockey background has been questioned by some who wonder why he is hosting the sport. Granted, Lampley’s background is more closely related to the Olympics--these are his 11th Games as a broadcaster--than hockey, but he was involved in the U.S. victory over Russia in 1980.

Working as a reporter for ABC at Lake Placid, he was editing a political piece when he got a call from ABC Sports President Roone Arledge, who told him to go to the game and get ready to do live postgame interviews.

“It turned out to be the most amazing day of my 27 years in broadcasting,” Lampley said. “I watched the third period from a photographers’ platform.”

But there were no live postgame interviews to do right after the game because the game was shown on tape-delay across the country.

“So I took Jim Craig and Mike Eruzione out to dinner so we’d be ready to a live interview in the streets of Lake Placid three hours later,” Lampley said. “There were about 2,000 people there to watch us. It was quite a moment.”

Lampley is looking forward to more great hockey moments Sunday.