Olympics give NBC a win
But fewer watched prime-time coverage than they did past Winter Games.
Viewership for NBC’s prime-time coverage of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was lower than at least each of the past six previous Winter Games, even when cable and streaming viewership is included.
NBC’s 18 nights of coverage, which concluded with Sunday’s closing ceremony, averaged 17.8 million viewers, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen. What NBC dubbed its Total Audience Delivery — which includes cable and digital viewership — was 19.8 million viewers.
The NBC viewership was down 16.4% from its 21.3 million average for the 2014 Sochi Games. When the cable and streaming audience is included, the drop was 7%.
Viewership for most forms of programming has dropped in recent years, in part because of increased viewership of streaming programming.
The Pyeongchang Games were the first Winter Games where cable and streaming coverage was available at the same time as prime-time broadcast coverage.
The Olympics coverage was profitable for NBC, according to Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Broadcasting and Sports.
Even with the drop in viewership, NBC’s Olympics coverage was 82% larger than the combined audiences of CBS, ABC and Fox, 9.8 million, the largest Winter Olympics advantage.
An Olympics telecast was the most-watched program for all 18 nights of the Pyeongchang Games, just like it was during the Sochi Games. Olympics telecasts came in first on 14 of the 17 nights of the 2010 Vancouver Games and eight of the 17 nights of the 2006 Turin Games.
“We are successful against every important measurement,” Lazarus said in a statement. “Viewers came in droves across all dayparts and platforms, our advertisers are all delivered, and our affiliate and distribution partners are extremely happy.”
NBC’s prime-time programming between Feb. 19 and Sunday — which for ratings purposes consisted entirely of the Olympics-related programming except for an episode of the comedy “A.P. Bio” that followed Sunday’s closing ceremony — averaged 14.19 million viewers, 19.9% less than its 17.72 million average for the final week of the Sochi Games.
CBS was second, averaging 4.83 million viewers, ABC third, averaging 3.47 million, and Fox fourth among the broadcast networks, averaging 2.04 million.
As is typical for a final week of the Winter Olympics, Olympics programming accounted for each of the week’s eight most-watched programs. The week’s most-watched night of Olympics coverage was Tuesday, which featured the ladies figure skating short program, averaged 17.53 million viewers.
For the second consecutive week, the most-watched non-Olympics program was the CBS news magazine, “60 Minutes,” which averaged 8.33 million viewers.
“A.P. Bio” averaged 5.89 million viewers after Sunday’s closing ceremony, finishing 17th among the week’s prime-time and cable programs and sixth among scripted programming. The program that followed the 2014 closing ceremony, the comedy “Growing Up Fisher,” averaged 8.86 million viewers.
Fox News Channel returned to the top of the cable ratings after a one-week absence, averaging 2.23 million viewers.
The week’s mostwatched cable program was the first original episode of the AMC horror series “The Walking Dead” since Dec. 10, which averaged 8.28 million viewers, 10th overall. are the combined rankings for national prime-time network and cable television last week (Feb. 19-25), as compiled by Nielsen. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish during its scheduled telecast or on a playback device the same day. Nielsen estimates there are 289 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.