Medal chasing and controversy helped make NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics the number-one rated show in the country last week. Viewers tuned into to see if swimming phenom Michael Phelps would capture a record-setting amount of medals and gymnastics coverage. The ratings are up 3% from the 2000 Sydney Summer Games but still lower than the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. Thursday's coverage hit a peak, averaging 31.7 million viewers, while Saturday's was the week's lowest with 22.5 million. Other networks are mainly running re-runs or reality TV allowing NBC to pull in the maximum amount of viewers. CBS was in the number two position with repeats of “CSI” and “Without a Trace.” Total TV viewing was up but the Olympics coverage didn’t take away from cable which still saw viewers flocking to USA’s “Monk” with 5.9 million viewers, making it first among prime-time cable programs last week. FX's “Nip/Tuck” pulled in a respectable 3.5 million viewers, although the network's new Denis Leary firefighter drama “Rescue Me is losing steam, now attracting only 2.1 million viewers which is half of the premiere’s audience.