The U.S. Olympic Trials hardly made a dent in the ratings over the holiday weekend.
NBC scored a 2.7 overnight rating for coverage of the U.S. Olympic Trials Sunday night, which featured the final night of the swimming competition and the third night of track and field. On the comparable date in 2012, the network earned a 5.3 for the penultimate night of swimming and a 4.0 for the final night of track and field. In 2008, it posted a 5.3 and 4.3, respectively, for the final nights of both events.
The 2008 and 2012 telecasts aired in the same 7-9 PM ET window, but the were measured separately (track and field from 7-8 and swimming from 8-9).
On Friday, the sixth night of the swimming trials had 4.7 million viewers on NBC — down 13% from coverage on a Saturday night in 2012 (5.4M) but up 31% from 2008 (3.6M). Entering the weekend, every night of the swimming trials had drawn fewer viewers than four years ago.
The same night, track and field coverage also pulled 4.7 million. There was no weeknight primetime coverage on NBC in 2012.
