NBC's high point was the night it showed Michael Johnson breaking the world record. Its low point was the night it didn't show the U.S. women's softball team win gold.
The Atlanta Olympics were 16 days that exposed both the best and the worst of TV. And when the bomb went off in the middle of it, it exposed the American public to a truth about its beloved institution of network TV.This is show biz, folks, and the bottom line is, well, the bottom line.
If it hadn't been for reporter Jim Gray and a lot of sports division producers and directors willing to fill the gap while NBC News sluggishly rolled into action, NBC might have been showing old movies and talk show reruns during that night.
As it was, sports kept the cameras rolling from about 1:30 a.m. EDT on the morning of Saturday, July 27 until the following noon, when News anchor Tom Brokaw sleepily handed off to Bob Costas.
"I was absolutely mesmerized by the energy and effort that the sports people brought to covering the tragedy," NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol said.
But then, it was back to the events, and the bomb became a page 2 story. You see, to NBC - or any other broadcast network, for that matter - the Olympics are entertainment programming, not news. Live or tape delayed, that's just the way it is.
NBC paid $456 million for the Atlanta Olympics, and even before they began, revenues reached $675 million. NBC Research, meanwhile, estimates that more than 200 million people watched at least part of the Olympics, making them the most-watched ever.
Overall, NBC's average rating of 23.4 for the first week of the games was its highest since 1980.