America got what it came to see last night — a tight race between teammates Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. While Phelps won the individual match, no medals were handed out for the semifinal.
NBC will gladly take the tune-in anyway.
Unfortunately, Wednesday night’s TV ratings were measurably below Tuesday’s — but the broadcaster still destroyed all its competition, of course.
Packing primetime with the Olympics, NBC was first in ratings with a 7.6 rating/27 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 26.1 million, according to preliminary numbers.
CBS was second in ratings with a 0.9/3 and in viewers with 3.7 million. “Big Brother” at 8 p.m. ET posted a 1.8/7 and 5.9 million viewers. Following a rerun, “American Gothic” at 10 received a 0.4/1 and 2.4 million viewers.
ABC, Fox, Univision and Telemundo all tied for third in ratings, each with a 0.6/2. ABC was third in total viewers with 2 million; Fox was fourth with 1.8 million; Univision was fifth with 1.7 million; and Telemundo was sixth with 1.6 million.
Both ABC and Fox ran only repeats.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.4/1 and in viewers with 1.3 million. “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” at 8 p.m. ET had a 0.4/1 and 1.4 million viewers. At 9, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” got a 0.4/1 and 1.2 million viewers. A rerun followed.