Nielsens: Opening Ceremony Ratings, NBA, EPL

Olympic Opening Ceremony ratings edged Rio in the metered markets, but were no match for the previous Winter Games. In other news, the NBA trade deadline boosted ESPN’s The Jump to a viewer record, and a big increase could not save NBC from a two-month low in Premier League viewership.

Olympic Opening Ceremony Ratings Up From Rio

Friday’s Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony earned a 16.9 overnight rating on NBC, down 8% from 2014 (18.5) and down 16% from 2010 (20.0). Compared to the most recent Opening Ceremony — at the Rio Summer Olympics two years ago — overnights increased 2% from a 16.5.

The telecast, which peaked at 18.6 from 9-9:15 PM ET, posted television’s highest non-NFL overnight since Game 7 of last year’s World Series (18.8). It edged the Alabama-Georgia college football national championship (16.7) and cruised past the recent Grammy Awards (12.7). [NBC]

NBA Trade Deadline Boosts “The Jump” to Record

A special three-hour, NBA trade deadline edition of ESPN’s The Jump had 603,000 viewers Thursday afternoon, the largest audience in the history of the show. Viewership increased 31% from the show’s two-hour trade deadline special last season (462K). [ESPN’s Ben Cafardo/Twitter 2.9]

Arsenal-Everton Up Big, But Hits Low, on NBC

Last Saturday’s Arsenal-Everton English Premier League match had a 0.6 rating and 877,000 viewers on the NBC broadcast network, up a third in ratings and 24% in viewership from last year (Watford-West Ham: 0.46, 709K). Despite the increase, it was NBC’s least-watched match in nearly two months (12/9 Newcastle-Leicester City: 776K).

In other action last weekend, Liverpool-Tottenham drew a 0.45 and 692,000 on NBCSN Sunday, marking the fifth-largest cable audience of the season. Manchester United-Huddersfield scored a 0.36 (+33%) and 505,000 (+20%) the previous morning.

Going back further, Manchester United-Tottenham had 324,000 on January 31. [ShowBuzz Daily 2.6]