The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Do you guys think the Olympics will hurt the ratings for the Dolphins on Hard Knocks?

If so, do you think there will be a bunch of reports about how "unpopular" the Dolphins have become and those reports will ignore the timing of the Olympics?

I can see it happening, and it seems like it would be difficult to prove one way or the other how much of an affect there would be.  Based on typical media practices, I could see them trying to draw out the most dramatic angle possible.  In this case, that would mean trashing the teams popularity.

Personally, I think the Dolphins are far more popular than most people think (on a national level).  Around the country, I see an aweful lot of Dolphins fans in proportion to other teams.  Pittsburg and Dallas may be the only two teams I observe to be more popular nationally.

They are not even on at the same time. The one night where the Olympics & Hard Knocks are both on TV, there is no Olympic programming during the 10:00 time slot.

That's what DVR's are for.

I don't think there will be any affect.  People who like Hard Knocks will watch it over the 400m butterfly or gymnastics floor routines.  They can watch oodles of Olympics coverage 167 other hours each week.

I recalled having essentially 24 hours of Olympics on my Direct TV service and I didn't pay extra for it.  Could be wrong though. 

I looked up the schedule. NBC has tons of channels and coverage but at 10:00 on August 7th the only thing is a soccer game replay on a channel that I'm not sure what it is. Is it labeled as Soccer Specialty which is something I have never heard of.

Think this way...

10 PM Eastern is like 4 AM in London.  What Olympic events are happening at 4 AM?

The last summer games were in China. All the primetime stuff you watchecd were replays so you probably did have almost 24 hour covereage between live events and replays.

I think that On Demand is big for HBO viewers now.  It probably won't matter.

Personally, I'd much rather DVR than watch On Demand.  My preference...

Just for the record, I realize they were replays and the Olympics aren't 24 hours a day.  But I liked the replay system and how it allowed me to watch the events I particularly wanted to watch.

I was just thinking that non-Dolphins fans that might have watched the show would skip out because they already had their fill of sports for the day.

HBO is a pay service station. One has nothing to do with the other

If we were talking about pay-per-view I would agree.  But that is not the case and so I absolutely believe that they are related.  Let me try to demonstrate my point.

I already know that many of the people on this board have seen episodes of Hard Knocks.  And since Hard Knocks has never been in Miami, it means that non-fans do watch Hard Knocks.  I realize that many people watched re-runs on NFL Network, but regardless of that you still took the time out of your day to watch another team on Hard Knocks.

Only fans of a team (for the most part) would order HBO just for the purposes of watching Hard Knocks.  There are a lot of people that have HBO all year.  Out of these people, how many of them will skip out on watching Miami's Hard Knocks because they are already pre-occupied with other programing (in this case, the Olympics)?

My feeling is that there are a lot of non-fans that would have watched Miami's Hard Knocks when nothing else was on TV.  And that these people will be watching replays or recordings of the Olympics instead.  Dolphins fans with HBO will obviously watch Hard Knocks this year even with the Olympics eating into their TV time, but others may not make the effort to watch both.

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So far, the sentiment on this board is that there will not be an affect on the ratings for Miami's Hard Knocks.  I disagree but can absolutely accept the viewpoints given here and hope you are right because I hate to see something reflect badly on the team when it is actually a matter of coincidental timing.

Most people have 100+ channels.  Olympics will vie for people's TV watching as will CSI.  I doubt there considerably less viewers Olympics week than the other eposoides.

However, I don't expect this season to break any viewership records.  For the average non-Dolphin fan there really isn't anything special to get excited about. 

If it was Denver everyone would be interested in how Peyton is doing.

If it was NO everyone would be following the post-bounygate saga.

If it was Indy or Wash everyone would be interested in Luck/RG3

If it was Jets, Tebow would get a huge draw and love him or hate him Rex Ryan is the most entertaining coach in the NFL. 

Outside of OchoCinco Chad Johnson, there really isn't anything all that exciting about the Dolphins for non-Dolphin fans. 

So you will get Dolphin fans and NFL fans that watch it every year.  But it won't have the draw that some teams would provide. 

I agree with most of what you said. 

But you don't think that "sports fans" will be impacted?

Not really.  I know very few people who are fans of every sport.  I am not going to skip Hard Knocks to watch the shotput compitition.  My mom has zero interest in the NFL so she will be skipping the show but not because she was tied out from watching sycronized swimming. 

IF hard knocks was on at the same time as the US Mens basketball team that would have an impact, but the China vs. Korea badment match isn't going to affect ratings. 

I believe that if you are watching Hard Knocks of a random team, its because you love football and are a hardcore NFL fan.

Hardcore NFL fans can not be placated by men's long jump, in general.  I fully believe that the Olympics are more for casual fans, while Hard Knocks is only for the fanatical.  I don't think they share a large portion of target demographic.

That, and they're not on at the same time, so you CAN watch both if you want to.

And even if they were on at the same time you can set your VCR DVR and watch both this ain't the 1950s anymore when you could only watch a show when it is on. 

I have a friend who claims she hasn't watch a minute of live TV (other than the weather channel) in five years.  Everything else is off of the DVR.

Let's see,one of these things, I'm going to order a premium channel for a month minimum...

The other is going to have most the other channels run crappy reruns during the two week or so period,and I don't really give two shits about...

I've run out of movies at Redbox,that I want to see... :'(

TDMMC has spoken.  It is apparently a non-issue.

me too.  Maybe not five years but pretty close.  The only thing I watch live is the Super Bowl and some Dolphins games (at a bar or something).  Every other aired program is off the DVR.  Commercials can suck it.

I am pretty close also. I watch all sports LIVE, but anything else I watch. Like some drama's, reality shows, sitcoms....all on DVR and never live. Never watch them live.

I'd be watching Hard Knocks anyways.  Once upon a time the Olympics were important.  Now they suck and aren't worth watching because I said so.  So this is a pretty easy choice.

I will watch occasional live TV, but rarely, and only after I've checked DVR.   And then, it's news, sports, or shows I don't care about.  The minute a commercial comes on, I find a new channel and don't go back.  My TV watching habits have definitely changed over the last several years.

In an effort of full disclosure. I'm not sure if the schedule was not released when I first checked it or if I read it incorrectly. There will indeed be Olympic coverage on NBC at 10:00 on the 7th. I still don't think it will affect overall viewership of Hard Knocks though. In today's age people DVR and use On-Demand too much. Anyone who wants toi watch it will.

I have been watching Olympic coverage pretty much every night.  However, I have still been watching every episode of The Franchise, and I will do the same with Hard Knocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAaTfJFZdDQ&feature=player_embedded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAaTfJFZdDQ&feature=player_embedded)

Hard Knocks promo