Versus an extremely strong night of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, this year’s Sochi coverage had a major decline on NBC.
Primetime coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympics earned a 13.3 overnight rating on NBC, down 31% from Vancouver in 2010 (19.3). Overnights for the comparable night of the 2006 Turin Olympics were not available. The comparable night of the most recent Olympics — London in 2012 — earned a 20.1 overnight.
Wednesday’s 31% decline is easily the largest of the Olympics. So far, final ratings for the Olympics have performed better relative to previous years than the overnights, so the 31% gap may narrow.
The big decline may seem surprising, considering that NBC’s coverage featured pairs figure skating and the comparable telecast in 2010 featured no figure skating at all. However, the 2010 telecast featured Americans Lindsay Vonn, Shaun White and Shani Davis each winning gold medals.
Minneapolis was the top market Wednesday night, with a 19.9 rating. This marks the first time since last Thursday’s ‘bonus’ coverage that no metered market earned at least a 20.0 rating for the Olympics. Rounding out the top five were Denver (19.2), Salt Lake City (19.1), Milwaukee (17.5) and Ft. Myers, FL (17.4).
Outside of primetime, NBCSN earned a 0.8 overnight for its live coverage — up 133% from the comparable night of the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
(Wed. numbers from NBC Sports)
