No, the only difference is they are real people.
Seriously, the Olympics are cool and all, but each person really only likes a few events. Like I said, DANCING WITH THE STARS, got higher ratings than the Olympics. Because their other shows got higher ratings, CBS LOST MILLIONS OF DOLLARS because they aired the Olympics. People do not care that much about the Olympics. They care, as I said, about a few events. In 2008 I cared about Michael Phelps and....yea, that's about it, this year it was hockey and that's it. I don't care about the various running events, I'll probably watch some phelps.
I'm not discrediting the Olympics or those athletes, because they're amazing. I'm just saying the numbers clearly point out that people just don't care about the Olympics that much.