Fast National ratings for Wednesday, August 1, 2012.
To the surprise of nobody, NBC’s Wednesday Olympics coverage, featuring less-than-golden performances from American male gymnasts and only a Michael Phelps semifinal, suffered a steep decline from Tuesday’s massive numbers. Even on a relatively lackluster night, though, NBC’s coverage thoroughly dominated.
Among adults 18-49, NBC averaged a 9.7 rating among adults 18-49, easily tops in the key demographic. CBS was far back with a 1.3 key demo rating, followed by ABC’s 0.8 rating, FOX’s 0.7 rating and the 0.3 rating for The CW.
Overall, NBC averaged an estimated 30.56 million viewers and an 17.8 rating/29 share for Wednesday primetime. CBS was pretty far back in second with a 3.1/5 and 4.56 million viewers. ABC’s 1.8/3 and 2.78 million viewers and FOX’s 1.3/2 and 2.1 million viewers followed. The CW averaged a 0.6/1 and 933,000 viewers.
[Univision averaged 3.595 million viewers and a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 for Wednesday night.]
8 p.m. – NBC’s first hour of Olympics coverage averaged 25.58 million viewers and a 7.4 rating among adults 18-49 to dominate. CBS’ “Big Brother” held its own reasonably well with 5.27 million viewers and a 1.9 key demo rating as a distant second. ABC’s repeats of “The Middle” and “Suburgatory” averaged 2.84 million viewers and a 0.7 key demo rating, compared to the 2.23 million viewers and 0.7 key demo rating for FOX’s repeat of “So You Think You Can Dance.” The CW’s repeat of “Supernatural” averaged just over a million viewers and a 0.3 key demo rating, which both sound inflated.
9 p.m. – The Olympics telecast went up to 32.28 million viewers and a 10.2 rating among adults 18-49 to lead NBC in the 9 p.m. hour. CBS’ repeat of “Criminal Minds” was second with 4.45 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo rating. On ABC, two repeats of “Modern Family” averaged 2.88 million viewers and a 0.9 key demo rating, topping the 1.98 million viewers and 0.7 key demo rating for FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance” repeat. Another “Supernatural” repeat averaged 865,000 viewers and a 0.3 key demo rating for The CW.
10 p.m. – NBC stayed in first for the 10 p.m. hour with 33.82 million viewers and an 11.5 rating among adults 18-49 for the Olympics. CBS’ repeat of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” averaged 3.96 million viewers and a 0.8 key demo rating. ABC’s “Final Witness” averaged 2.61 million viewers and a 0.8 key demo rating.
All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change.