Winter Olympics ratings are as expected, with NBC suffering sharp viewership declines for each of the first four nights of the Beijing Games.
Sunday’s primetime coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics averaged a 6.0 rating and 11.0 million viewers on NBC alone and 13.7 million across NBC’s various platforms, down 52%, 51% and 47% respectively from the comparable night in PyeongChang four years ago (12.4, 22.7M, 26.0M across all platforms).
The Sunday night window ranks as the most-watched of the Games thus far.
Saturday night coverage averaged a 5.3 and 10.15 million on NBC and 13.6 million across all platforms, down 54%, 53% and 44% respectively from 2018 (11.6, 21.4M, 24.2M).
Friday’s Opening Ceremony averaged a healthier 7.6 and 13.84 million on NBC, combining the live morning airing (2.0, 3.08M) and taped primetime replay (5.6, 10.76M). That still marks a decline of 48% in ratings and 50% in viewership from 2018, when NBC only aired taped primetime coverage (14.7, 27.8M).
NBC’s full primetime window Friday night, which included competition coverage on USA Network, averaged 12.8 million viewers.
As previously reported, NBC’s “bonus” coverage last Thursday averaged a mere 4.1 rating and 7.25 million viewers, with that figure rising to 8.0 million across all platforms — down 54%, 55% and 53% respectively from ’18 (9.0, 16.0M, 17.2M).
Despite the sharp declines in viewership from PyeongChang, NBC is touting the fact that primetime viewership has increased over the previous night for each night of the Games thus far. The network says that is a first for the Winter Games, though it is largely attributable to the diminished primetime audience for this year’s Opening Ceremony (in previous Winter Games, the first two nights of competition were no match for the Opening Ceremony).
As should go without saying for an Olympics, NBC’s primetime windows have been the most-watched programs of each night and easily topped all of television in the key adult demographics.
* NBC’s “Total Audience Delivery” figures mentioned in this article are the network’s projections and will be updated. The NBC-only figures mentioned in this article are the official final nationals.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 2.8, NBC Sports PR]
