The Beijing Olympics started with a bang in the ratings and ended with a whimper.
Coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics averaged a 10.2/19 final rating with 16.5 million viewers on NBC Saturday night, down 8% in ratings and total viewers from an 11.1/21 and 18.0 million for the comparable night of the 2004 Athens Olympics. The 10.2 rating also marks a 3% decline from a 10.5 for the comparable night of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The 10.2 rating is the lowest for a prime time Summer Olympics telecast in at least the past 20 years, and is the third-lowest rating for any prime time Olympics telecast — summer or winter — during that span.
While the numbers for Saturday night were among the lowest in Olympics history, NBC did achieve a major milestone. The 2008 Beijing Olympics will finish as the most viewed television event in U.S. television history, as 211 million viewers watched at least six minutes of coverage.
