NEW YORK (AP) – The final scores are in, and NBC is no doubt happy to put the Beijing Winter Olympics in the rear-view mirror.
The games reached an average combined audience of 11.4 million people in prime time on NBC, the USA cable network and Peacock streaming service, the network said. That’s the lowest-ever American audience for any Olympics, and down 42% from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.
For NBC alone, the prime time telecasts reached an average of 9.3 million viewers, or 48% down from South Korea, the Nielsen company said.
The games never really captured the public imagination, and were hurt by COVID-19 restrictions that had most of NBC’s announcers working half a world away in Connecticut.
In a diminished world for broadcast television, however, NBC beat every other network in prime time during the Games’ duration. Only pro football can say the same this season. The Peacock streaming service, which will undoubtedly play a bigger role in future Olympics, had its best stretch of usage since the service began, NBC said.