NBC's Olympic Ratings Better Than Expected

Despite apocalyptic prognostications, NBC’s Winter Olympic coverage scored the second highest ratings for the Games since 1994 in Lillehammer, which had the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan saga fueling interest. 97 million people watched the first two days of the Games from Vancouver. Initial projections were for NBC to lose $200 million on its coverage, thanks to a massive overbid by NBC Sports and Olympics exec Dick Ebersol. But early ratings success, combined with the brilliant move of landing Stephen Colbert to help cover speedskating, has things looking up for the network.

Olympic success or no, however, Nikke Finke says NBC execs are still pinheads.

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