Salt Lake City continued its reign atop the local Olympics ratings, part of a successful Games for Mountain and Pacific markets.
Salt Lake City led all markets for NBC Sports’ primetime Winter Olympics coverage, averaging a 21.1 rating across NBC and NBCSN — up 11% from 2014 (19.0) and its highest Olympic average — Summer or Winter — since 2012 (25.0).
The market has at least tied for the top spot in nine of the past ten Olympics. The lone exception was a second-place finish in 2014.
Denver ranked second at a 20.2, up 10% from 2014 (18.3) and its highest average since 2012 (22.1).
Western markets by and large posted significant growth. San Diego, which was not among the top 25 markets four years ago, ranked fifth at a 17.0 (+44%). San Diego posted the biggest jump of any market, followed by Los Angeles (14.1, +28%) and Las Vegas (13.9, +20%).
Other Western markets posting growth included Seattle (16.7, +18%), Portland (16.5, +5%) and Sacramento (16.5, +15%).
The strong Western performance was due in large part to NBC’s decision to televise primetime windows concurrently nationwide instead of delaying coverage an additional two-to-three hours in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. After live coverage concluded in Western markets, NBC aired primetime encore presentations that counted toward the overall rating.
As for the Eastern and Central time zones, Minneapolis-St. Paul ranked third among all markets with a 17.5 rating — down 10% from 2014, when it led all markets (19.4). Milwaukee ranked fourth at a 17.1 and Kansas City sixth at a 16.8, both up 1%.
Other notable increases include Austin, Tex. (15.8, +11%), West Palm Beach (15.5, +12%) and Washington D.C. (14.5, +9%). Notable declines include Ft. Myers (14.5, -12%), Pittsburgh (13.8, -9%), Chicago (12.8, -12%) and Boston (12.6, -14%). Top market New York declined 5% from 12.0 in 2014 to an 11.4 this year.
[Local numbers from NBC Sports, SI.com 2.26]
