Another night, another massive decline and historic low for the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
NBC said Thursday that Wednesday’s primetime coverage of the Tokyo Summer Olympics averaged 15.0 million viewers across all of its platforms, down 48% — or nearly 14 million viewers — from the comparable night of the Rio Olympics in 2016 (28.6M). Compared to the first Wednesday of the most recent Olympics, the Pyeongchang Winter Games in 2018, viewership fell a more modest 22% from 19.2 million.
Wednesday’s primetime audience — which, again, includes NBC, its various cable channels, and streaming — is the second-lowest on record for any night of the Summer Olympics. NBC’s primetime replay of last Friday’s Opening Ceremony averaged 12.0 million, but that figure rises to nearly 17 million including live, early morning coverage.
Less than a week in, the Tokyo Olympics now accounts for four of the five smallest primetime Summer Olympics audiences on record.
The Olympics is now averaging 17.2 million viewers in primetime, a full 11 million viewers short of the NBC-only average in 2016 (28.2M). While well below previous Olympics, the primetime average is only slightly behind the 17.4 million Sunday Night Football averaged across all NBC platforms last season. It also comfortably exceeds the viewership for the most recent NBA Finals (9.91M) and World Series (9.79M), though that usually goes without saying for the Summer Olympics.
* The NBA Finals and World Series averages are solely for the primary broadcast network airing (ABC and FOX respectively).
Smallest primetime Summer Olympics audiences dating back to 2000
