Medal Rush A Bonanza For NBC

Everyone loves a winner.
And nowhere is that more true than south of the border, where Americans celebrate victories with a special kind of gusto. No wonder, then, that our neighbours are tuning into NBC's coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in increasingly huge numbers.
Yes, folks, the stars and stripes are on a serious march on Canadian soil, charging into the lead in the medals table with 21 pieces of gold, silver and bronze earned as of this writing. That's eight better than Germany — the medals champion at the 2006 Turin Games — and 11 ahead of Norway, the all-time powerhouse of the Winter Olympics.
But ever since the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, the U.S. has become a much more formidable force in winter sports. American alpine skiers have racked up seven medals at Whistler, their greatest Olympic haul ever. There are even hopes for trips to the podium in sports such as Nordic combined, not exactly a traditional source of U.S. strength.
Clearly, all of this is hitting home with Americans watching back home. NBC reports some 157 viewers — half the U.S. population — have tuned into coverage on its family of networks through the first eight days of Vancouver 2010. That's five million more than four years ago in Turin.
More impressive is the nightly average of 26.2 million viewers. Not only is that up 27 per cent over Turin, it's the most-watched Winter Games in the U.S. since Lillehammer 1994 (38.3 million), which was fuelled by the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan figure skating soap opera.
Two nights ago, the Winter Olympics beat Fox's American Idol in the ratings, which is apparently a victory of epic proportions (I'd rather look at it as a whole bunch of people finally coming to their senses).
Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that the top U.S. metered markets happen to be Denver, Milwaukee (a speed skating mecca) and Salt Lake City, where all of this got started. But too many people are watching for it be limited to these winter sports havens.
Nope, Americans have definitely caught Winter Olympics fever. And, like the feats of their athletes, it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.