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In Kwan’s wake, NBC chases “passion”
The motto for the Winter Olympics is “passion lives here.” Unfortunately for NBC, viewers aren’t heading for passion’s Italian home.
Friday night’s opening ceremony was seen by 22.8 million people. While that sounds like a sizable audience by today’s splintered audience standards, it’s only half the number who watched the opening ceremony for the Salt Lake City games in 2002.
Saturday night’s telecast (tape-delayed because of the 7-hour time difference here) of the pairs figure skating competition ticked up to 23.6 million viewers, but that’s way below the second night of the previous Winter Olympics, which drew 29.4 million.
Sunday night ratings aren’t in yet, but it’s safe to assume that ABC’s powerhouse lineup of “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” will take a big bite out of the Olympic audience.
The Winter Olympics sink or sail based on personalities — specifically American personalities — and Sunday’s announcement that figure skater Michelle Kwan was heading home due to injury is bound to pull viewership down.
NBC must have also had a corporate heart-sinking when downhill racer Bode Miller failed to live up to gold-medal expectations, along with speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno. Of all the super-hyped American personalities on NBC’s menu, only snowboarder Shaun White, aka The Flying Tomato (because of his abundance of red hair), won gold.
In something of a sad and desperate attempt to keep Kwan attached to the Turin Olympics, NBC offered her a job in the broadcast booth less than an hour after her emotional press conference announcing her withdrawal. Kwan politely (and smartly) declined, citing her continued involvement as “a distraction” to the attention that should be paid to the other skaters.
Because “ladies” figure skating is the most popular Winter Olympic sport, we can expect to see lots of hype now on American front-runner Sasha Cohen, Kwan’s replacement Emily Hughes and the practically ignored Kimmie Meissner.
Losing Kwan is a disaster, like losing an evening news anchor or Kiefer Sutherland on “24.” Sure, there are plenty of other exciting competitors to watch, but Kwan was a true star.
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