After the least-watched Opening Ceremony in years, NBC’s second night of Olympics coverage also hit a multi-year low.
Primetime coverage of the Rio Summer Olympics earned an 11.4 final rating and 20.6 million viewers on NBC Saturday night, down 28% in ratings and viewership from London in 2012 (15.8, 28.7M) and down 18% and 14%, respectively, from Beijing in 2008 (13.9, 24.1M).
Compared to the same night of the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, ratings and viewership each dropped 18% from a 13.9 and 25.1 million.
The 11.4 rating is the lowest for the first Saturday of any Olympics since at least 1984, falling below the previous mark of 11.8 for Athens in 2004. Viewership fared better, ranking as the lowest since Athens (19.8M).
Among adults 18-49, Saturday’s telecast had a 5.9 rating — down a third from 2012 (8.8) and down 26% from 2008 (8.0). The 5.9 is the lowest for the first Saturday of any Olympics since at least 1998, falling below the previous mark of 6.7 in 2006.
Keep in mind ratings and viewership are for the 8:30-11 PM portion of the telecast only, excluding both the first half-hour and the final hour. That portion of the telecast included live swimming and taped men’s gymnastics, but not the live beach volleyball that capped off the night. The 2012 telecast was measured from 8:30-11:30 PM.
Contributing to the lower numbers was competition from NBC’s other Olympic networks. NBCSN averaged 1.5 million viewers for its Olympic coverage from 8-11 PM ET Saturday night, while Bravo scored 705,000 for tennis from 7-10:40 PM. While that does not come close to making up the eight million viewer drop from 2012, it certainly played a role.
NBC has now averaged 24.4 million viewers for primetime coverage of the Rio Olympics, down 32% from 2012 (35.6M) and down 17% from 2008 (29.5M).
(Numbers from NBC Sports Group Press Box, additional info from ShowBuzz Daily)
