Nastia Liukin was not as big a draw as Carly Patterson.
NBC drew a 17.9/31 final rating and 29.7 million viewers for its coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Thursday night, down 7% and 6% respectively from a 19.3/32 and 31.7 million for the comparable night of the 2004 Athens Olympics, which featured Patterson winning the gold medal at the gymnastics all-around.
The 17.9 rating does mark a 20% increase from a 14.9/26 for the seventh night of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Thursday was the second straight night of declining ratings for the Olympics, as Wednesday night coverage was off 2% from ’04. Still, NBC is averaging a 17.7/30 rating for its coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, up 9% from a 16.2 in 2004 and a 20% jump from a 14.7 in 2000.
