From the initial light of the torch, the Olympic ratings thus far are scoring gold. The Opening Ceremony was an automatic winner on Friday night. The average HH rating during the four hour long broadcast was 24.0 with a 40.4 share; in addition the Opening Ceremony won across all demos by a wide margin delivering 2 digit numbers for both ratings and share.
The weekend broadcast also drew in many viewers. While the Saturday morning broadcast of the road cycling competition was only able to tie with WPVI for the first two hours, as the final hour of the 155 mile race neared completion, the ratings favored NBC’s Olympic broadcast again. NBC also won Saturday afternoon with indoor volleyball. During prime time on Saturday, as US women’s beach volleyball team took that win against Argentina, it also won in the ratings game – an average of 16.8 rating points with a 30.1 share against HH – that day’s highest ratings. Swimming attracted the biggest audience on Sunday morning with a 9.7 HH ratings. Gymnastics scored high ratings in the early afternoon and no surprise there – 4-6pm enjoyed a 10+ HH rating when the 2nd US women’s beach volleyball team took on Argentina. Phillies lost against the Braves on Sunday afternoon on the field as well as in the ratings, as the Olympic broadcast won in every demo. Sunday prime time didn’t disappoint either with a 19.7 average HH rating and a 32.8 share.
Monday was a little bit of a different story as we were looking into the first weekday of the Olympic broadcast. WPVI took a win in a few dayparts during the day, but the prime time broadcast crushed everyone else across all demos.
It seems that despite all the turmoil surrounding NBC and the choices they are making while broadcasting the games (incomplete coverage of the Opening Ceremony, loading problems of online “live streaming” and time delayed sports broadcasts on TV), the ratings haven’t been affected that much.