No new eppie on the 8th?

[idlewild202]

People who watch SCI-FI generally aren't into sports. I know it's a stereotype, but from my own experience it's pretty much dead on.

I also love the Olympics, it's once 4 years and it's a lot of fun. I'd love to go to London in 2012.

Oh yeah, the open ceremony was amazing.

Yeah, that is true. Guess to each his own.

[perkin127]

i still wish they could have just changed the time of atlantis then we could watch them both

[The_Carpenter]

People who watch SCI-FI generally aren't into sports. I know it's a stereotype, but from my own experience it's pretty much dead on.

I also love the Olympics, it's once 4 years and it's a lot of fun. I'd love to go to London in 2012.

Oh yeah, the open ceremony was amazing.

I live in the UK and am dreading 2012... I was sick to death of the Olympic coverage a week and a half ago! I dread to think what its going to be like in 2012

And also the fact thats its gone obscenely over budget (four times the original budget and that was in 2007 Thor only knows what the state of it is now). We should of let Paris have it and if anyone wants to see it in person there's this handy little railway called Eurostar

[Laura Dove]

I live in the UK and am dreading 2012... I was sick to death of the Olympic coverage a week and a half ago! I dread to think what its going to be like in 2012
And also the fact thats its gone obscenely over budget (four times the original budget and that was in 2007 Thor only knows what the state of it is now). We should of let Paris have it and if anyone wants to see it in person there's this handy little railway called Eurostar

Err, no, not Paris, please. I live in Paris and I'm very glad that YOU got them.

[Daedalus-304]

So once again my favorite show gets canceled because of some boring sports event. So what to do tonight, maybe Continuum or something. I can't play Xbox until my little brother goes to sleep.

[The_Carpenter]

Err, no, not Paris, please. I live in Paris and I'm very glad that YOU got them.

Only the British and the French could start an argument about not wanting something

[MathiasE]

If it's no new eppie tonight because of the olympics why is there a new eppie next friday when the olympics is still going and probably more interesting due to finals in some events while tonight is just the starting events?

And yes, the opening ceremony was awesome, very well coordinated.

[The_Carpenter]

If it's no new eppie tonight because of the olympics why is there a new eppie next friday when the olympics is still going and probably more interesting due to finals in some events while tonight is just the starting events?

And yes, the opening ceremony was awesome, very well coordinated.

more people tune in for the light show apparently... I was surprised you could see anything though all the smog

[ykickamoocow]

People who watch SCI-FI generally aren't into sports. I know it's a stereotype, but from my own experience it's pretty much dead on.

I love sport. I watch atleast 5 games of football a week and i intend to plant myself infront of the tv for the entire 2 weeks of the Olympic games.

GO AUSTRALIA

[PG15]

I caught some of the opening ceremony today; simply magnificent.

I am SO proud of my fellow Chinese peeps.

[RanCorX2]

dammit, hate it when sport delays good tv. argh! If I see that monkey crap on the bbc one more time I will go nuts, thats the most annoying tune I've heard in a long time!

[MediaSavant]

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Record ratings for NBC's Olympic opening ceremony
NBC’s Olympic dream of ratings fireworks is coming true.

The network’s coverage of the Summer Games got off to a roaring start Friday with an opening ceremony that's trending as the highest-rated non-U.S. opener ever.

The four-hour Beijing ceremony received a 21.5 (37 share) overnight household rating from metered markets.

That's up 19% from the overnight numbers from 2004's Athens ceremony (18.0/30) and 16% higher than Sydney in 2000 (18.5/32), but 10% shy of Atlanta in 1996 (23.6/45).

National, total viewer and demo ratings will be available in a few hours. Though the numbers will likely shift as more data becomes available, NBC expects the figures to continue outperforming all previous non-stateside opening ceremony telecasts.

The initial figures are far above industry expectations. Insiders had estimated that NBC's event last night would drop about 11% from the Athens Games opener. Though public curiosity and media interest in China’s opening ceremony has been high, overall broadcast television ratings have fallen 16% since 2004. Viewership for major events such as the Academy Awards have plummeted in recent years.

Plus, NBC has been chided for delaying broadcast of the ceremony until primetime while most nations aired the event live. Yet holding off may have actually aided the show in ways not anticipated by the network. With gushing critic reviews and lavish images saturating the media Friday, many viewers likely tuned in to see if the ceremony could possibly live up to the hype.

By most accounts, viewers of NBC’s telecast were as impressed as viewers worldwide. Tom Shales of the Washington Post wrote that "eye-poppers gave way to jaw-droppers, stunners were followed by dazzlers,” but THR.com’s Barry Garron said NBC all-but ignored the political context of the production.

NBC has claimed more than $1 billion in advertising revenue for the Summer Games and spent $894 million to acquire the U.S. broadcast and digital rights. Whether Friday’s performance heralds the beginning of lofty Olympics ratings remains to be seen. NBC's Web site saw its most traffic ever on Friday with 70 million page views -- 10 times more than the opening day of the Athens Games.

In general, however, the opening ceremony isn’t necessarily a barometer of how the Games perform overall. And with NBC Universal airing an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage during the 17-day event, comparisons to previous Games may be futile.

"If you track past Olympics by day the first few days of competition are what really tell the tale -- like the second and third episode of a new series," says TV historian Tim Brooks. "Still, it's definitely a good start."

You all should be glad that Atlantis didn't compete with that. It's not like they reduced the number of episodes. They just shifted them over one week.

[Daedalus-304]

dammit, hate it when sport delays good tv. argh!

Same here, I hate it when I got to watch a show and sports are on or they cancel for some other event. I remember it happening when I was a little kid, I would turn the TV to watch a cartoon, and baseball was on... How annoying.

Sports always makes me think I belong on a different planet or something. Same with some people's obsession with music: something that completely bores me and I don't know why everyone seems to be obsessed.