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UPDATE, 1:13 PM: The first night of competition in the Olympics in London (8:30-11:28 p.m. ET/PT) was the most-watched-ever Summer Games opening night on record, with 28.7 million average viewers. That was more than 2 million higher than the first night of competition from the 1996 Atlanta Games (26.3 million) and nearly 5 million more than the first night of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (24.0 million), and nearly 9 million more than the first night of the 2004 Athens Olympics (19.8 million). NBC’s two-day primetime average of 35.6 million viewers is the best start to a Summer Olympics on record.
London Event Is Most Watched Summer Games Opening Ceremony
Last night’s competition featured the initial duel between Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps and was the best national rating and share for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics opening night in 36 years — since Montreal Olympics. The 15.8/29 national rating and share for the first night of competition was 14% higher than Beijing (13.9/27, which featured live coverage of Phelps’ first of his eight gold medals) and 34% Higher than Athens — the last European Olympics.
PREVIOUSLY, 7:35 AM: On the first night of competition in the London Summer Olympics, NBC on Saturday garnered an 18.0 overnight rating and 33 share (8:30-11:30 p.m. ET/PT), the best ever overnight rating for the first night of competition for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics. That 18.0 rating and 33 share is 8% Higher than Beijing and 22% Higher than Athens, the Last European Olympics.
Last night, which featured Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte facing off in the 400 IM (shown on delay in primetime and live on NBCOlympics.com), is 8% higher than the first night of competition for the opening Saturday night of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (16.6/30), when Michael Phelps won the first of his eight gold medals. The first Saturday night in Beijing was live to the Eastern and Central time zones in the U.S.
Last night’s overnight is 22% higher than the first night of competition at the 2004 Athens Games (14.8/25), the last European Olympics. NBC’s 18.0/33 overnight is the second-highest for the first day of competition of ANY non-U.S. Olympics (Winter or Summer), only eclipsed by the first night of the tabloid-fueled Lillehammer Games (21.0/34) which featured the Opening Ceremony.
London Opening Ceremony posts 14-year high rating for BBC
AVERAGE VIEWERS FOR 1ST NIGHT OF COMPETITION
| 1. London – 2012 | 28.7 million NBC |
| 2. Atlanta – 1996 | 26.3 million NBC |
| 3. Beijing – 2008 | 24.0 million NBC |
| 4. Seoul – 1988 | 23.8 million NBC |
| 5. Barcelona – 1992 | 21.6 million NBC |
| 6. Sydney – 2000 | 21.0 million NBC |
| 7. Athens – 2004 | 19.8 million NBC |
RATING/SHARE FIRST NIGHT OF COMPETITION FOR NON-U.S. GAMES
| 1. London – 2012 | 18.0/33 NBC |
| 2. Seoul – 1988 | 17.1/32 NBC |
| 3. Beijing – 2008 | 16.6/30 NBC |
| 4. Barcelona – 1992 | 16.5/32 NBC |
| 5. Sydney – 2000 | 18.6/30 CBS |
| 6. Athens – 2004 | 14.8/24 NBC |
OVERNIGHTS FOR FIRST NIGHT OF COMPETITION (U.S. GAMES)
| 1. Los Angeles – 1984 | 29.5/55 ABC |
| 2. Atlanta – 1996 | 19.9/39 NBC |
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The promos for Revolution were interesting and clever. NBC comedies look awful.
Those ratings are based on a little over 125,000 TV’s with metering equipment attached to them. Then a big equation that Nielsen Analyst make up. 125,000 TV’s, how many TV’s are there in the US ? ? ? ? i CAN’T BELIEVE news stories can be made up by polls and ratings, what a farce, keep believing true American.
It isn’t so much that ratings sampling is unreliable, as the figures given still represent less than 10% of the American population – so much for being a “mass media”
And the winner for first Olympic event – the “Hype Jump”
Just another example of our broken education system.
Anyone even remotely familiar with statistics would understand that 125,000 is a gargantuan sample!
It’s the Twitter effect. Lots of major live events – sports playoffs, awards ceremonies, etc. – have seen big ratings bumps over the last two years. I think it’s a result of people being reminded of these events by their Twitter feeds and wanting to be a part of the conversation.
Audience fragmentation wiped out shared cultural experiences. Twitter is bringing them back.
No it’s not. You’re a moron. Twitter effect? You think that many people look at their Twitter and then run to the TV? Ha. It’s because the American people want something to cheer about. 3.5 years of the clown in office with no results. Bad economy still. Getting us into more wars. No good news in sight. That is why people are watching.
Funny, I don’t twitter, tweet or whatever it is called. I am sure I am not the only one that still tuned in to watch without the help of twitter. Apparently nothing would get done if it were not for twitter and facebook.
Wow, you are hosed.
But sure.. keep praising Twitter like it matters.
Twitter, yea right. Tool.
NBC is catching hell for not showing the Phelps vs Locke live at midday, and for NBC News reporting who won on the evening news BEFORE they aired it primetime. It’s only day 2 and NBC has already found a way to screw this up.
You haven’t seen anything yet Alex. NBC is sure to blow it tonight. The only real drama in tonight’s telecast is how Ryan Seacrest and Bob Costas will react to the #NBCfail hashtag. I think the bookies better start on bets to if the IOC will suspend the Olympics because we are getting coverage so awful it is beyond belief. Of course, there are massive organizational problems as well in London.
What are these “massive organisational problems”? There’s a few of minor problems and a few empty seats (thanks to IOC rules), but nothing significant.
The British press are the most hawkish in the world, yet even they have found little to be critical about.
They’re screwing it up so badly that they just set a ratings record!
If only my screwups were so fruitful.
You honestly can’t be serious with that post.
They’re screwing it up by refusing to broadcast a LOT of competitions live, and basically forcing everybody to watch their taped broadcast later in the day – the Phelps debacle is a prime example. They refused to broadcast the race live, and BEFORE their tape was played – the NBC news show talked about how he’d finished fourth! Then, a lot of their ‘live’ coverage is absolutely TERRIBLE. My mother is a gymnastics fan, and in trying to watch women’s gymnastics, spent 30 minutes watching, and getting 2 routines. At one point, they had a camera set up on an empty piece of equipment – with a girl performing her routine way in the background! At another point, a girl is walking towards the equipment, they cut to a commercial, and cut back from the commercial as she is walking away after finishing!
They’re artificially increasing their ratings by lowering the number of broadcasts so they can claim, “look guys, look how awesome we are!” It’s simple math. If 4 million would have watched it live, and 4 million would have watched the tape, then if they ONLY show the tape, even if they lose half of the live viewers, they get a rating of 6 million (with LESS total viewers).
Oh, get over yourself. You can broadcast para-olympic table tennis until the cows come home, no one is getting interested in your sport.
Niche-sport groupies are weird.
NBC needs to just make the primetime for highlights and the touching personal stories for the luddites and not hold anything back from live broadcast/streaming. The Olympics and NBC are pimping twitter as the voice of the games so how can they expect in 2012 folks not to know the results of the phelps loss before it airs in primetime.
to me this is the same as the popularity/increased ratings of the superbowl and other televised events. people have no money, and free television is a more attractive entertaiment option as a result. no?
NBC should be banned from the Olympics. They have been doing them exclusively for way to long. Does anyone remember the last time they didn’t have the rights? ESPN would make a great fit if they were ever given the opportunity. And Disney is a worldwide marketing machine that could really help the IOC push merchandising to the next level. Hope it happens in my lifetime.
Duh ! When your the only game in town your ratings should be high.
Exactly, one original show on SyFy and tonight True Blood.
I never watch the Olympics, duller than baseball, dumber than football and more pointless than basketball
As long as the IOC allows NBC to continue overpaying them, the golden rule will prevail for Olympics coverage in the US … he who has the gold, makes the rules.
It’s not too late to plan a summer holiday in Canada to watch the Games on CTV in-between sight-seeing, etc. Closing ceremony is on Sunday, August 12.
Of course their ratings will be high, it’s the Olympics. Wait until the new season of regular programming starts and then check their ratings.
They may have high ratings now since people have no other choice if they want to see the Olympics even if most of it is delayed, but I know at least for my family we will purposefully avoid NBC after the Olympics are over.
Please can another network buy the rights to broadcast the Olympics next time around. Please no more NBC covering the Olympics!!! I could barely watch seeing Meredith, Matt and Ryan Seacrest. Ugh is this the best they’ve got?
Here’s the problem guys — we can complain all we want about NBC failing and the tape delay…but these ratings are insane. Their approach to prime time works, just look at the numbers. With much of the Brazil games going to be live in prime time because of the proximity to the eastern time zone, nothing is going to change anytime soon.
Don’t kid yourselves. Since most families likely can’t afford to go anywhere, watching the Olympics is probably what they’re doing on their stay-cations at home. I guess we’ll see about the ratings during the week when the cable networks return to new episodes of original programming which they pre-empted this Sunday. Meanwhile, I got some baseball to watch.
Go REDS !
Why do we not see the award ceremony and hear the national anthem when the us wins a gold medal? Always used to. Gotta get the commercials in and the stupid interviews.
NBC commited the worst crime in world soccer today they went
to commerical breaks twice during a live broadcast today,
Never seen that before “What dose it profet a man if he gains the whole but suffers the loss of his own soul”
The are a disgrace to sports broadcasting.
I think it may be possible that the reason these broadcasts are so great is partly due to the economy. Many folks are foregoing cable for free to air service antennas. I know that the US affiliate that I catch NBC is doing an awesome job of presenting the event. The local Canadian station televising the Olympics is lame and the commentary stinks. The ethnic language stations in my Canadian serving area are doing a better programming job – and I can’t understand what they are talking about. I always liked the American broadcasts of sporting events (except for hockey…nobody beats the CBC as this is the only thing the CBC is good for!). Good job NBC.
Let’s not pretend like these ratings have anything at all to do with the utter incompetence and lack of credibility nbc has – there’s nothing else on and ‘we’ tend to watch the olympics. The network who televises it just ‘gets it’.
nbc commentators have been absolutely horrible – that kremer skank with the 7 gallons of bondo on her face and the intellect of an empty, recycled, soda can is all but intolerable.
The good news is nbc is not actually involved in the competitions, the bad news is we’re stuck with the morons through the olympics. The really good news is once they’re over nbc goes right back to being the integrity challenged, hyper moronic clowns who no one pays attention too.
I cannot wait until the American people hold these intellectual coward, so called ‘journalists’ to account! Being paid millions doesn’t change the fact that your ignorant, biased, scum!
ESPN couldn’t deliver numbers this big on it’s own. They’d need ABC to help. NBC is doing what they need to do to serve the American audience.
See all those empty seats in the stadiums? People would rather watch on their giant high-def televisions.
When are you morons going to figure out that tape-delay is about ADVERTISING, which is to say getting the advertisers the highest possible ratings. While I’m sure many of you are bouncing out of bed at 8am on a Sunday to catch some hot Olympics swimming, normal people get most of their Olympics fix at night. In prime time. As it’s always been. That’s why advertisers are paying a gazillion dollars to have their commercials in prime time. Do you think they’re paying the same on Sunday morning?
From the outside lookinbg in the lack of live televised coverage sounds very disappointing. The BBC is live from the Olympic Park from 6am to midnight each day with 3 of its 4 main channels providing live coverage throughout. Plus 24 event pop-up channels on cable and satellite showing all sports each day. Now that’s proper coverage.
Now if somebody could explain the major organisational issues, because not one UK media outlet is reporting it.
The empty seats is due to allocated sponsor tickets not being used, as already suggested.
NBC doing horrible job with coverage. Over and over again cite score necessary by Raisman. Cite she did it but NEVER cite actual Score!! No, will DVR events … skip commentary and commercials.
Meredith Viera needed to provide more scripted commentary at the opening ceremony. She never did tell us how many rose petals are on the Olympic flame.
What a brilliant move to have Ryan Seacrest do sports.
Teddy needs to talk more on the boxing coverage. He is so insightful when he speaks.
There aren’t enough super close-ups of the athletes especially the female gymnasts when they cry.
They are showing too much sport and not enough human interest stories.
I wish they would promote their dazzling NBC fall schedule more. Can’t wait to see these wonderful new shows.
this is the first Olympics I haven’t cared about since i was a child and I’m 67 yrs old. NBC is a joke. I haven’t watched any and I probably won’t.
I think the coverage is awful. This is the Olympics a celebration of the best athletes in the world. Yet I have watched the primetime coverage for two nights and have no idea what sports the USA have won medals in so far. All they seem to be airing is qualifying rounds of swimming and gymnastics. There are a ton of other sports and athletes who have worked as hard to be there that get no mention it seems.