NBC had its lowest rated, least-viewed night of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Thursday.
The Olympics drew a 13.8/23 final rating with 22.4 million viewers on NBC Thursday night, flat in ratings but up 4% in viewers from a 13.8/24 and 21.5 million for the comparable night of the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The 13.8/23 is down 1% from a 14.0/24 for the fourteenth night of the 2000 Sydney Games.
In Chicago, preseason football on FOX nearly equaled the Olympics; 49ers/Bears drew a 13.3/22 on FOX, compared to a 13.8/23 on NBC. In San Francisco, where the game aired at 5 PM local time, three hours before the Olympics on NBC, the Olympics drew a 16.3/32 and 49ers/Bears drew a 7.0/16.
Among the top fifteen markets, Washington D.C. finished on top with a 19.4/34, followed by Minneapolis St. Paul with a 19.0/33. No other market in the top 15 averaged more than a 16.6 for the Olympics.
Through Thursday, NBC is averaging a 16.8/29 rating and 28.6 million viewers for prime time coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, up 8% and 11% from a 15.6/27 and 25.7 million through the second Thursday of the 2004 Athens Olympics. The 16.8 average is also up 16% from a 14.5 through the second Thursday of the 2000 Sydney Games.
Precedent holds that the ratings for NBC’s final three prime time broadcasts (Friday, Saturday and the Closing Ceremonies on Sunday) will be even lower than the 13.8 on Thursday. In 2004 and 1996, two of the three lowest rated telecasts of the Olympics took place during the final three nights. In 2000, the final three nights of the Sydney Olympics were the three of the lowest rated prime time Olympics telecasts of all time.
