Like so many Super Bowl lead-outs in the past, the Winter Olympics failed to build on the momentum in subsequent airings.
NBC’s primetime coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics averaged 7.87 million viewers on Monday, 8.70 million on Tuesday and an all-time low 6.93 million on Wednesday, down 52%, 50% and 51% respectively from the equivalent nights in PyeongChang four years ago (16.36M; 17.50M; 14.10M).
Including coverage on USA and CNBC, primetime coverage averaged 9.45 million on Monday, 10.14 million on Tuesday and 8.48 million on Wednesday. An across-all-platforms figure that includes additional streaming viewership was only available for Tuesday’s telecast (10.6M, -48% from 2018).
The early week viewership marks a return to reality after a Super Bowl-inflated audience of 21.28 million tuned into NBC’s coverage Sunday night (22.49 million including USA Network and 24.0 million across-all-platforms).
Heading into the final weekend of competition (traditionally the lowest rated portion of any Olympics), the Beijing Games already accounts for the six smallest primetime Olympic audiences ever on U.S. broadcast television. Including last year’s delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics, 23 of the 25 smallest audiences have come in the past year — including the bottom 18.
Smallest primetime Olympic audiences on broadcast television
2000-present
* Keep in mind that last year’s figures include a Nielsen undercount of out-of-home viewing.
