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Olympics Ratings Slide to a 2018 Low

Feb 16, 2018  •  Post A Comment

NBC’s ratings for the Winter Games in PyeongChang have been either terrible or terrific, depending on who’s spinning it. A Deadline report today sizes up Thursday’s results in grim terms.

“With a 13.0/22 in metered markets on combined coverage on NBC and NBC Sports Network, the Comcast-owned outlet was far off the podium on the first Thursday of the 2018 Winter Olympics,” Deadline reports. “Not only is this a low for these Games, which have slipped repeatedly in the ratings, but last night’s numbers also took a face plant from both Sochi 2014 and Vancouver 2010.”

The Deadline report follows a cheerful announcement from NBC about Wednesday’s ratings, which the network called the “most dominant Winter Games Wednesday night since Nancy and Tonya in 1994.” You can click here to read the full press release issued Thursday by NBC.

Today’s Deadline report adds: “If you take the NBC/NBCSN not-so-happy meal of last night and compare it to the February 13, 2014, first Thursday of Sochi, the 2018 Olympics are down 10% in the early ratings. Four years ago, the Winter Olympics primetime show was only seen on NBC proper (as was the case in 2010). So, trim it to just NBC 2018 vs. NBC 2014 and last night fell 22% from the equivalent night out of Russia, and 32% from the Vancouver Winter Olympics eight years ago.”

The report acknowledges that the PyeongChang games still have a long way to go before they wrap on Feb. 25, but Deadline observes that “day-in and day-out, even with all of NBC’s combos and streaming stats, a trend is emerging — and it’s downward.”

3 Comments

  1. Must be those athletes taking a knee during the national anthem causing the ratings dump, right?

  2. Not sure if that’s it, but I just don’t really care about the Olympics like I did in the 60’s-80’s anymore.

  3. One of the problems is that the big names, the presumed American favorites, aren’t winning. There is no “feel good” story that will draw potential viewers attention. And one of the few presumed gold medal winners that actually won, now 3 time gold medalist in the snowboard half pipe, Shaun White, got accused of sexual harassment during the Olympics. The timing really sucked for NBC

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