The Olympics That Came in From the Cold
By Richard Zoglin
Even before Nancy and Tonya skated onto center ice, the Winter Olympics were making TV history. For the first 11 days of the Games, prime-time viewership was up 37% over '92. Then, for the women's short program on Wednesday night, ratings soared to an astonishing 48.5, meaning 48.5% of all U.S. homes with TV sets were tuned in, making that broadcast the sixth highest rated TV show of all time. Friday night's figure-skating finale garnered a smaller but still huge 43.9.
After years of fragmenting TV audiences and drooping ratings for even major sports events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl, the networks had cause to cheer: Lillehammer showed that couch potatoes can still be lured back. The Games' popularity also disproved one bit of conventional Olympics wisdom -- that live is better than taped. Although the prime-time events were canned and the results known beforehand, viewers couldn't seem to turn away.
The TV coverage drew the usual complaints and critical brickbats: too much feature material, not enough action; too much cheerleading from the commentators; too much coy withholding of the video for key events until prime time. Yet nothing CBS Sports did was quite as embarrassing as the performance by the network's news division. Connie Chung spent 1 1/2 weeks playing Tonya Harding's shadow. And Dan Rather joined her in fake-cuddly promotional spots for the CBS Evening News that may drive away the few viewers it has left.
But the Games created as many stars as it tarnished -- notably Greg Gumbel, who did a businesslike job anchoring the coverage, and David Letterman's mother, who sent back homey reports from Lillehammer for her son's late-night talk show. Indeed, the spectacular ratings proved that CBS was doing something right. Each evening's program was crafted for maximum dramatic effect, with heroes, suspense and, almost always, an ending accompanied by The Star- Spangled Banner. Who cares if it's old news when you've got a TV movie like that?