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NBC loses its biggest star from Winter Olympics
http://www.suntimes.com/output/olympics/kwanside12.html
BY DAVID BAUDER ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK-- Faced with the loss of its biggest Winter Olympics star only two days into the Turin Games, NBC tried to keep Michelle Kwan-- in the broadcast booth.

Kwan turned down the job offer, saying she didn't want to be a distraction for remaining members of the U.S. Olympic figure skating team, NBS Sports spokesman Michael McCarley said Sunday.

The star withdrew from the Olympics on Sunday because of a strained groin muscle, ending her quest for her first gold medal in what was expected to be one of the most compelling stories in Turin.

NBC Sports had first contacted Kwan's agent in January, when it had appeared unlikely that she would be competing, McCarley said. NBC Universal Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol made Sunday's offer only an hour after her news conference, when she had come to NBC's studios to be interviewed by Bob Costas.

Women's figure skating traditionally is the most-watched Winter Olympics event, and Kwan is its biggest star. More women than men usually watch the Winter Games, and that's due largely to figure skating.

"It's like a lead actor leaving a series," said Marc Berman, television analyst for Media Week Online. "It's not positive."

NBC broke into its overnight rebroadcast of its prime-time coverage at 4:20 a.m. EST to report Kwan's withdrawal.

"She's probably the most significant athlete at these Olympic Games," said skating analyst Scott Hamilton. "And so for her to pull out is a gigantic story, and a loss for the U.S. team because so much of the focus was going to be on her."

Even if Kwan had stayed, national champion Sasha Cohen was likely to be the U.S. team's best hope for a gold medal in figure skating, McCarley said. Viewers tune in because of the Olympic experience, not necessarily because of athletes they knew beforehand.

"Stars emerge during the games themselves-- not before," McCarley said.

Recognizing the importance of figure skating, NBC had hired well-known skating analyst Dick Button for its broadcast team. NBC also inaugurated a daily one-hour show just on skating, aired each evening on the USA Network.

Kwan's withdrawal will most hurt NBC in attracting casual viewers who might not have watched much Olympics coverage otherwise-- the type of person who transforms something merely popular into a television event, Berman said.

"I'm not a die-hard viewer of the Olympics," he said. "But I wanted to watch Michelle Kwan. And I would have gone out of my way to watch it."

NBC's rivals aggressively are trying to compete against the Olympics this year. Fox, for instance, will air four "American Idol" episodes during the Olympics, and each "Idol" episode so far this season has had more viewers than the Olympics opening ceremony did on Friday.

The opening ceremony was seen by 22.8 million people on Friday-- half the number of viewers for the opening of the Salt Lake City games four years ago.

"Nobody expected them to do 45 million again," Berman said. "To lose about half the audience-- that's big. That's dangerous. That's very dangerous."

NBC rebounded Saturday, when its viewership went up to 23.6 million people on what is usually the least-watched night of the week on television. It was still below the 29.4 million who watched the second night of Salt Lake City, but higher than Nagano eight year ago.