Saturday, February 23, 2002
Women's win pure ratings gold
By DIANA ZLOMISLIC -- Toronto Sun
These final, hockey-centric days of the Winter Olympics are proving to be a ratings gem for CBC.
The women's gold-medal hockey game between Canada and the United States on Thursday night drew an audience of 4.536 million with a peak of 6.225 million viewers between 9-9:30 p.m.
NBC didn't see fit to air the game until the final six minutes (the game was carried in its entirety on CNBC).
While CBC went to the emotion-packed gold-medal ceremony, captivating 5.643 million viewers on CBC, NBC ignored the presentation altogether, instead airing taped Nordic combined competition.
All eyes in the United States were on women's figure skating which recorded the highest Thursday night prime-time rating for any network since NBC aired the final episode of Seinfeld on May 14, 1998. The women's long program on NBC drew a 26.8 national rating with an estimated 79 million people watching at least part of the event.
In contrast, 3.094 million Canadians tuned in for American Sarah Hughes' brilliant upset of medal favourites Irina Slutskaya and Michelle Kwan on CBC.
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2002 Games Women's Hockey Coverage
