Anyone unfortunate enough to pay close attention to American politics has probably by now become acquainted with the concept of ‘vibes’ and their inevitable shifts. To boil the concept down to its memetic form, this would be the transition — always abrupt — from ‘it’s so over’ to ‘we’re so back.’ For the Olympic Games, the vibes have shifted sharply from the miserable austerity of the COVID-delayed Tokyo Games to a Parisian free-for-all that seemed to touch every aspect of popular culture, for better or worse.
From the very first NBC ratings press release of this Olympic Games, the narrative was set. Like Magic Johnson at a dunk contest, the network proclaimed — with an exclamation point — “The Olympics are Back!” Even longtime NBC Olympic host Bob Costas, generally not one for public relations (hence his unceremonious ouster from NBC), said on the network that the Olympics is getting its “groove back.”
The Good Vibes Games
At the end of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the second COVID-affected Games in as many years, this writer observed the following:
It seems increasingly apparent that London was the end of a particular era of the Olympics. That was a Games hosted by a stalwart U.S. ally in which American stars (and American-adjacent stars like Usain Bolt) succeeded without particular difficulty or controversy. The decade since has seen the Games hosted by highly controversial nations Russia and China; the USA gymnastics scandal; Russia’s suspected performance-enhancing drug use and its murky so-called exclusion from competition; the retirements of Bolt and Michael Phelps; and displays of human frailty and vulnerability — from Simone Biles’ exit last year to Mikaela Shiffrin’s uncharacteristic performances this year — that are gaining in societal acceptance but clash with the image of physical triumph over all that NBC and the IOC have been selling for decades. By current standards, London was strikingly uncomplicated.
Paris was a return to the uncomplicated. Yes, there were culture war skirmishes, as there will be in any mass event from now until eternity. Yet those skirmishes rarely overshadowed the Games as they did in 2021, when Biles pulling out of gymnastics events became fodder for politicians. Instead, the focus was on the athletes, who largely delivered in ways that were sorely missing in Tokyo — including Biles’ return to gold medal form; redemption for a U.S. women’s soccer side that fell short in Tokyo and last year’s Women’s World Cup; wins for the biggest stars of track (Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Sydney McLaughlin) and pool (Katie Ledecky); and a valedictory run for a generation of men’s basketball stars, including a gold medal game flurry by Olympic newcomer Stephen Curry that rivaled any of his NBA accomplishments. Add to that an iconic host city with some of the most recognizable landmarks in all the world, particularly the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower, and the similarities to the halcyon days of London only grow.
Even the social media discourse was reminiscent of the (relatively) uncomplicated days of 2012, focused primarily on comedic and off-color viral moments, from a casual Turkish shooter to an unfortunate French pole vaulter to a breakdancing performance by Australia’s “Raygun” that seemed best-suited for Rifftrax or Red Letter Media. While controversies in boxing and gymnastics turned ugly on and off social media, this was in large measure the ‘good vibes’ Olympics.
For proof, look no further than the fact that NBC — often panned during any Olympics — was widely praised. The network’s heavy deployment of celebrities with no obvious connection to the Games, particularly Snoop Dogg, was apparently well received. Its “Gold Zone” whiparound show gained far more attention in this year’s Games than in any of its past iterations, with credit owed to the addition of NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson and also to the growth and increased prominence of Peacock. NBC was even able to bring back Costas and Al Michaels, two broadcasting legends whose tenures with the network ended on bad terms, for an on-air segment with host Mike Tirico. Perhaps the network’s worst moment of the Games was Leigh Diffey’s flubbed call of the men’s 100m final, and he was able to redeem himself quite effectively the rest of the way.
When the vibes are this good, poking any holes in the narrative is a bit like spotting the Androstenedione in Mark McGwire’s locker. Nevertheless, there are caveats worth noting. NBC’s viewership figures have been widely cited as proof that “The Olympics Are Back!” The viewership has indeed been impressive by the standards of post-COVID sports television, but the figures NBC has produced would have one thinking that the Games performed on the same level as London, and that is plainly not true.
Does NBC’s Olympic viewership add up?
No sports network has ever produced a viewership figure as — let’s say creative — as the one that NBC publicized the past two weeks. NBC has always been strategic with its Olympic ratings, for years sanding off the lower-rated early and late portions of its primetime window. (The primetime show might begin at 8 and end at 11:35, but the Nielsen-rated portion might run from 8:30 to 11.) This year, the network made a welcome and long-overdue decision to get with the times and start airing its marquee events live outside of primetime, and that proved incredibly savvy — as it provided a rationale to start adding three hours of daytime viewership to its primetime audience.
One might think that is a fair addition, as why should NBC cannibalize itself when the audience is watching the same product? Yet the network’s definition of primetime expanded to cover all manner of afternoon events. NBC’s practice of adding concurrent cable viewing to its primetime figure — which began with the 2016 Rio Games — allowed the network to include daytime events that had never before counted to its primetime window, including basketball games and soccer matches on USA that NBC would not typically carry in primetime. The result is a primetime figure that bears no resemblance even to Tokyo in 2021, much less London — when viewership consisted of a single primetime window on a single network.
Add to that NBC’s practice of adding Adobe Analytics to its Nielsen figure — and Nielsen’s inclusion of out-of-home viewing in its estimates — and one has a viewership figure so inflated relative to past years that it rivaled the hot-air balloon holding the Olympic torch.
There is no question that viewership increased considerably from Tokyo in 2021, but any comparison to a COVID-era year will be flattering. On an apples-to-apples basis, Paris would probably clock in below Rio, much less London. That is not necessarily an indication of declining popularity, but of changes in television viewing that have afflicted all programming outside of the NFL.
NBC has a decent enough story to tell without all of the combinations, as the network was averaging 20 million for primetime coverage on NBC, USA and Peacock into the second week of the Games. That is an impressive figure in 2024, particularly given all of the events had aired previously earlier in the day. Then again, why claim 20 million when you can claim 30 million? If not quite chicanery, the numbers should be received with at least some skepticism.
Is the Olympics “so back”?
So is the Olympics actually “back”? Back from COVID, absolutely. Then again, there are few live properties of any kind that are not faring better now than they were in 2020 and 2021.
Back to London is the better question. The competition was as good as in London, the scenery was perhaps even better. The viewership is simply impossible to compare one way or the other, as London had advantages that Paris did not (for example, the far greater number of viewers watching television in 2012 as compared to today). The fact that it is even a conversation is a win in and of itself, as in the current television environment, the Games does not have to be fully ‘back’ in order to achieve success.
The Games now heads to two more glamorous cities, Milan in 2026 and of course Los Angeles in 2028. It is hard to imagine the momentum slowing.
