Olympics, 'Idol' top TV ratings

NEW YORK — The first three nights of the Vancouver Olympics meant ratings gold for NBC last week, but viewers also flocked to Fox for another kind of competition on "American Idol."

Last Friday's opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics was the most-watched program of the week, seen by nearly 33 million viewers. Prime-time coverage on Sunday and Saturday ranked third and fourth, respectively.

But Tuesday's "American Idol" ranked second for the week, and Wednesday's episode of the show ranked fifth, said the Nielsen Co.

Overall, NBC won last week with an average of 16.1 million viewers (8.9 rating, 14 share), and could be in for two more weeks of Olympics dominance.

In second place was CBS, averaging 10.6 million viewers (6.5 rating, 10 share) with a slate of robust scripted dramas and comedies, as well as the strong season premiere of "Survivor" and the new series "Undercover Boss."

Third-place Fox had 10.1 million (5.8 rating, 9 share) average viewers, while ABC had 6.6 million (4.1 rating, 7 share), the CW had 1.8 million (1.2 rating, 2 share) and ION Television had 1.1 million (0.7 rating, 1 share).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led the way with an average of 3.6 million viewers (1.8 rating, 3 share), while TeleFutura had 1.12 million (0.5 rating, 1 share), Telemundo had 1.06 million (0.5 rating, 1 share) and Azteca had 190,000 (0.1 rating, 0 share).

NBC's "Nightly News With Brian Williams" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 11 million viewers (7.1 rating, 13 share). ABC's "World News With Diane Sawyer" was second with 9.2 million (6 rating, 11 share), and the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" had 7.1 million (4.8 rating, 9 share).

A ratings point represents 1,149,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.9 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Feb. 8-14, the top 20 shows, their networks and viewerships:

1. Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, NBC, 32.6 million.

2. "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 27.9 million.

3. Winter Olympics (Sunday), NBC, 26.4 million.

4. Winter Olympics (Saturday), NBC, 26.2 million.

5. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 25.2 million.

6. "NCIS," CBS, 19.8 million.

7. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 17.9 million.

8. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 17.7 million.

9. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 16.3 million.

10. "The Mentalist," CBS, 15.9 million.

11. "Undercover Boss," CBS, 15.5 million.

12. "The Good Wife," CBS, 14.8 million.

13. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.3 million.

14. "Survivor: Heroes-Villains," CBS, 14.2 million.

15. "House," Fox, 13.6 million.

16. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.5 million.

17. "CSI: NY," CBS, 13.0 million.

18. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 12.8 million.

19. "The Bachelor," ABC, 12.4 million.

20. "Lost," ABC, 11.1 million.