ABSTRACT
In an age of fragmented media consumption, the anomalies are the media offerings that still offer tremendous demographic reach. Programs such as American Idol and Dancing with the Stars draw a multitude of ages and backgrounds within a weekly viewership of 20–25 million Americans (Seidman, 2011).The Super Bowl offers a singular yearly rating that is the envy of all US media content, drawing over 100 million viewers, regardless of the teams that are playing or the media markets in which they reside. The men’s FIFA World Cup soccer tournament offers reach beyond a single nation, with billions of people watching at least part of a game (FIFA Online, 2011). However, one consistent major player within all megasports (and megamedia) offerings has been the Olympic telecast. In a variety of ways, the Olympics represents the most epic scope of all: billions of people watching among virtually every nation, over 200 different nations competing, and 17 consecutive days in which the Olympic telecast dominates all media coverage: often morning, afternoon, evening, and late-night (Billings, 2008).
