With the final weekend of competition still to come — typically the least-watched portion of any Olympics — the Tokyo Games hit another viewership low.
Thursday’s primetime coverage of the Tokyo Summer Olympics averaged 13.3 million viewers across NBC’s various television and digital platforms, down 42% from the comparable night of the Rio Olympics five years ago (22.9M) and tied as the least-watched night of competition at any Olympics — Summer or Winter — on record. The final Saturday of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics also averaged 13.3 million, though on NBC alone.
The previous low for a Summer Games was 14.6 million the previous night. The Tokyo Olympics now accounts for the six smallest primetime Summer Olympics audiences this century, and ten of the bottom 11.
The numbers are likely to dip further on the final three nights of the Games. In all-but-one Olympics this century (2010 being the exception), the final Friday and Saturday of competition averaged fewer viewers than the preceding Thursday.
Coverage aired opposite the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on FOX, which averaged 7.3 million. While the Olympics trounced the Hall of Fame Game by six million viewers, that margin is far slimmer than the whopping 29 million viewer advantage the Games held the last time the two events competed in 2012 (31.3M to 2.0M).
The 42 percent viewership drop Thursday snapped a streak of three-straight nights in which the Olympics declined by less than 40 percent. Eight of 14 nights have declined by at least 40 percent, topped by a 55% drop for the opening Tuesday of competition (the day Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics team final and the U.S. team finished with a silver medal in the event).
[Nielsen estimates from NBC Sports PR/Twitter 8.6]
