NBC's Today Beats GMA for First Week Since 2012 Summer Olympics

ABC’s Good Morning America may have pulled a mid-Olympics upset over NBC’s Today Show on Tuesday of last week, but early ratings number show that over the course of the first week of the Winter Games in Sochi, Today beat GMA in both total viewers and the 25-54 demo, breaking an 18 month streak by the morning leader of late. It was the first time NBC topped ABC for a full week since the week of August 6th, 2012, when NBC was carrying the Summer Olympics from London.

From February 10-14th, NBC’s Today averaged 6.221M total viewers and 2.545M in the demo, while ABC’s GMA averaged 6.010M total viewers and 2.360M in the demo. It was Today’s biggest audience since their April 2011 coverage of the British royal wedding.

The Sochi Olympics also appear to have helped NBC’s Meet The Press, which was #1 on Sunday, February 9th and had its highest total viewer ratings since December 2012.

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Bob Costas Planning Return to Olympics Coverage Monday Night

NBC’s Bob Costas has been out of the anchor’s desk for almost a week at the Sochi Olympics because of an eye infection. Costas kicked off the first night of Olympic coverage with some very noticeable pink eye, but after the brief absence, the veteran sportscaster is planning on returning to the desk on Monday night.

NBC told TheWrap that the plan right now is to bring Costas back on tomorrow night, with the assumption that he’s all better by then. In a recent interview, Costas said he’d likely be back by the weekend, and generally felt fine aside from how the eye infection made him sensitive to even normal room light.

During his absence, the duties of Olympic anchor were carried out by Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, which made Vieira the first woman to ever anchor primetime Olympics coverage.

Source: Mediaite
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Muslim group prayers for earthquake at Sochi Olympics

A militant Islamist group has urged followers to pray for an earthquake in Sochi during the Winter Olympics to avenge Muslims who died there fighting "Russian infidels".

The appeal was made by a local branch of the Caucasus Emirate, a group which is waging an insurgency for an Islamist state in Russia's North Caucasus and called on supporters last year to attack the Games.

"All who are able to read this letter can supplicate that the Almighty destroys the land in Sochi with an earthquake, and makes the infidels 'drunk of water' before Hell and drown in a flood!," said the appeal posted online on Monday.

"The Games of the atheists and pagans! The pigs are so arrogant that they decided to host the Games on the ground where our ancestors shed their blood to defend Islam and Muslims. Even the blind can see it!"

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who waged a war in Chechnya to try to rein in separatists in the North Caucasus, has staked his personal and political prestige on the Games.

But some of the events are being held in territory that was the homeland of ethnic Circassians until they were expelled in the 19th century.

Islamist leaders say this amounts to performing "Satanic dances" on the graves of Muslims killed fighting Russian forces and one, Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov, urged followers last year to prevent the Games going ahead.

"We know how the Russian infidels - those who we have been fighting for centuries in the Caucasus - have become arrogant and decided to hold the Satanic Games on the ground of the companions who brought Islam," said the new appeal, issued by the Ingushetia media branch of the Caucasus Emirate.

"May Allah give the infidels in Sochi the last earthquake of their lives," it said.

Ingushetia lies about 650 km (400 miles) by road from Sochi across the Caucasus mountains.

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GOP Rep. McCaul: High Degree of Probability of Explosion During Sochi Olympics

Representative and Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Mike McCaul (R-TX) caught Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace off-guard when he said Sunday morning that there was a “high degree of probability” of an explosion somewhere in Russia during the Sochi Olympic games.
“There’s a high degree of probability that something will detonate, something will go off,” McCaul said. “But I do think it’s probably, most likely going to happen outside of the Ring of Steel at the Olympic Village.”
“You’re saying, as the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, you think there is a high probability there will be some explosion outside the Ring of Steel?” Wallace asked.
“I hope I’m wrong in this assessment, but you’re talking about an area of the world where suicide bombers go off all the time,” McCaul replied. “The fact is, right now, the eyes of the world are upon these Olympics. The Chechen extremists know this. They want to make a global statement. They want to make a jihad statement. And what better time to do this than right now?”
“Remember, they don’t have to hit in the Ring of Steel, at the Olympic Village,” McCaul added. “As long as they hit somewhere in Russia, that, to them, is a victory.”

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How to Watch the Sochi Olympics Live Streaming

The 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia officially began Friday, February 7th. And while NBC will be showing as much of the games as they possibly can during their prime time schedule over the next couple of weeks, in order to watch much of the action live, your best bet is to do it online. But unlike Fox Sports’ ultimate decision to live stream Super Bowl XLVIII free without restrictions, NBC will be requiring that you have a cable subscription (or access to one) in order to watch all 98 medal events live.

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