There may not be much buzz for the upcoming Winter Olympics, but figure skating ratings showed some potential over the weekend.
The ladies’ free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championship scored a 2.7 rating and 4.5 million viewers on NBC Friday night, up 50% in ratings and 60% in viewership from last year (1.8, 2.8M) and up 13% and 21% respectively from 2016 (2.4, 3.7M). Those telecasts aired on Saturday nights.
Bradie Tennell‘s win delivered the event’s largest audience since 2010, another Olympic year (5.4M).
Compared to the last Olympic year in 2014, ratings were flat but viewership increased 7% from 4.2 million. The 2014 telecast aired directly opposite a live NFL playoff game, while this year’s coverage faced no such competition.
Friday’s telecast snapped a 20-year streak of Olympic year declines. After hitting a 14.1 rating in 1994, the year of the Nancy Kerrigan–Tonya Harding fiasco, ratings for the marquee primetime window sank each subsequent Olympic year — to 13.0 in 1998, 5.8 in 2002, 4.7 in 2006, 3.4 in 2010 and finally 2.7. Holding steady at a nadir may not sound like much, but it represents at least some progress.
Figures for the afternoon windows were not immediately available.
For the night, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships tied for sixth-place in adults 18-49 (0.8) and third in adults 18-34 (0.5).
[Fri. numbers from NBC Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 1.8]
