With Lance Armstrong retiring from the "Tour de France," OLN knew there would be a drop in interest among U.S. viewers, I don't think they knew it would be as dramatic as it's been.
After several days of the event, ratings have dropped a dramatic 40 percent from last years same coverage.
On the first day of coverage on last Saturday, the rankings dropped a dismal 47 percent to 0.7 of households, down from last years' 1.31 rating, according to Nielsen. Sunday's viewership rose a little with a 0.85 rating, down from 1.44 it received last year. Monday drew a 0.81 rating in comparison to 1.67 a year ago.
Armstrong's absence hasn't been the only factor in ratings as two of the best contenders in the race - Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich - where tossed out of the event for being implicated in doping.
OLN said in a statement, "It is hard to know what impact the allegations have had on our coverage, what we do know is that several stars, most notably Lance Armstrong, are absent from the competition and this has most likely had an impact on the number of viewers tuning into the race. That said, this is a three-week race and we are building new stars. It is going to take some time for the race to gain traction."
One of the positive developments coming out of all of this is that some of the new stars emerging are American racers who used to be racing teammates of Lance Armstrong. They are George Hincapie, Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer.
According to analysts, having quality American racers will be needed to keep the American public watching.
Comment Preview