'American Idol' Winning Streak Beat by NBC's Olympics

American Idol's reign has ended. What could have been a perfect six year run at the top of the ratings for the reality TV music contest has been broken thanks to NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

According to The Los Angeles Times, NBC's Wednesday coverage of the games obliterated Fox's annual contest, bringing in a huge 30.1 million viewers during the 9:00 - 10:00pm hour, thanks in large part to Lindsay Vonn's triumphant gold medal win in downhill skiing after overcoming a shin injury, while Idol brought Fox just 18.1 million viewers, despite the announcement that this would be Cowell's final year on the show and the judge shift that occurred when Ellen DeGeneres took her place on the judging panel. Much of this could be attributed to the games only coming about every four years, as opposed to each season, as with Idol.

Despite the 2010 games expected to be just average in the ratings compared to the 2002 Salt Lake City and 1994 Lillehammer games, when taken into account with the record breaking 106.5 million viewers for this CBS's coverage of the Super Bowl this year, the message network execs are hearing is that viewers will tune in to live event coverage in lieu of recording them or watching scripted programing. Expect more "can't miss it" moments being broadcast on networks this year!

However, that doesn't mean scripted shows are in danger. Though NBC expects to lose $250 million, regardless of how many viewers it brings in, the benefit of having the games on its network may benefit their other shows, especially first year efforts like Parenthood, which could receive boosts in ratings thanks to Olympic promotion.

Should their coverage be considered a success, it may diminish the bad press NBC has received after their Tonight Show fiasco, too.

Still, Fox would be happy to point out to NBC that, despite their streak being broken this past week, the American Idol ratings are only down 4% in the 18-49 age demographic this year. And NBC won't have the Olympics as a crutch next year.