TURIN, Italy -- Word from the States is that most of you care more about the so-called reality-TV show hosted by Ryan Seacrest than you do about the real-life TV show hosted by Bob Costas.

A lot more.

At least according to the Nielsen ratings.

Last Tuesday, the final score was "American Idol" 26.3 million, Winter Olympics 18.5 million, a significant victory in the pivotal demographic of viewers in the 18-49 age group in the 8 p.m. time slot.

And "Idol" won again Wednesday night, 31.1 million to 15.4 million.

But it's not just the pop singer wannabes who are beating our Olympians on TV. Fox's popular medical drama, "House," edged them out at 9 p.m., too, as the ratings for NBC's coverage of the 2006 Winter Games dropped millions of first-week viewers each night since the Opening Ceremonies.

Thus far, in fact, the ratings for these Olympics are down more than 30 percent from 2002, more than 15 percent from 1998 and more than 40 percent from 1994.

One reason, for sure, is the six-hour time difference between Italy and the eastern United States, which means almost everything you're seeing back there has already happened, which means it's being televised on a tape-delay basis, which means the results have been available for hours on the Internet.

And some folks won't bother to watch a sporting event, even something as grand as the Olympics, if they already know the outcome.

Another reason the Winter Olympics don't seem to be playing well in the U.S. is the competition.

No, not from the Russians.

From the competing networks.

Rather than simply surrender those prime-time hours to NBC _ which is what the non-Olympic networks used to do, thinking there was no reason to waste otherwise-attractive programming when everyone was watching America's team _ Fox, CBS and ABC are putting up a fight.

That counter-programming is, at the very least, holding its own.

Especially against these Olympics.

Truth is, there's not much star power here.

There's no Dan Jansen, no Picabo Street, no "Miracle on Ice."

And there's nothing remotely as tantalizing as the Tonya-versus-Nancy feud, the figure-skating soap opera that provided the 1994 Lillehammer Games and NBC with a ratings bonanza.

Thing is, it's not that the Americans are doing poorly in Torino. We're near the top of the medal count. It's just that the the marquee names haven't done much.

Michelle Kwan wasn't healthy enough and went home. Bode Miller wasn't sharp enough and hasn't yet won a medal. Apolo Anton Ohno wasn't fast enough and settled for bronze.

Then there's the U.S. hockey team, which is limping into the medal round.

Of course, Miller and Ohno still have chances to redeem themselves this week. The hockey team is still skating, albeit on very thin ice. And Sasha Cohen, who doesn't take the stage until the women's figure-skating competition begins Tuesday night, still could emerge as the face of the Games.

But even with the always-popular, ratings-grabbing women's figure skating still to come, it might be too late to give NBC's advertisers the bang they expected for their bucks.

It might not matter, anyway, because we've already lost something.

Something that made the Olympics so compelling. Something that won't easily be replaced.

An enemy.

Somebody to root against. Somebody to hate. Somebody like the old Soviet Union.

Let's face it: Since the Cold War ended, the Olympics haven't been the same.

It's no longer us against them, good versus evil, the stars-and-stripes versus the hammer-and-sickle. It was our way of life versus their way of life, and it was important to beat them . . . at everything.

Including sports.

Especially at the Olympics.

It made us feel better, like the right side won.

True, the Olympics are not supposed to be about politics. But they were. Maybe they still are.

I'm still not sure I trust sports where the winners and losers are determined by judges.

Yes, we have new enemies now. But they're not from any particular country, really. And they're too busy plotting terrorist attacks to care about sports.

So where does that leave us, when it comes to our lost passion for the Olympics?

Watching "American Idol," apparently.

(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him .)