MORE THAN HALF OF ALL AMERICANS, 157 MILLION, WATCH FIRST EIGHT DAYS OF VANCOUVER GAMES
26.2 Million Average Audience For First Eight Nights; Nearly 6 Million More and 27% Higher Than 2006 Winter Games
70 Million Watched Networks of NBC Universal on Friday; 10 Million More Than Middle Friday From The 2006 Winter Games
Mobile Usage Through 8 Days Already Surpasses Entire BeijingGames
More than half of all Americans (157million) have watched the Vancouver Olympics on the networks of NBC Universal through the first eight days of the Games; five million more than watched the first eight days of the 2006 Winter Games (152 million)
according to data available today from The Nielsen Company.
NBCU’s Friday broadcasts were seen by 70 million total viewers, 10 million more and 17 percent higher than the middle Friday from the 2006 Games (60 million).
EIGHT-DAY AVERAGE BEST SINCE TABLOID-FUELED LILLEHAMMER GAMES: The 26.2 million average viewers for the first eight nights of the Vancouver
Games is the most for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics since the *tabloid-fueled Lillehammer Games (38.3 million). The 26.2 million is nearly 6 million more and 27 percent higher than the average viewership of the first eight nights from Torino in 2006 (20.7 million).
*Fueled by the tabloid coverage of the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal.
OLYMPICS DOMINATES PRIMETIME AGAIN: After dominating performances throughout the Games in primetime, dealing American Idol its first defeat in six years on Wednesday and nearly tripling the audience of Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday, the Olympics drew 23.3 million viewers last night, which was nearly double the combined delivery of the other three major networks (CBS, Fox, ABC combined: 12.5 million).
The national household rating of 13.4/23 for Friday night is an increase of 20 percent over the first Friday night in Torino in 2006 (11.2/19). The 14.7/24 average household rating to-date is more than two full ratings points and 20 percent higher than 2006 (12.3/20).
See Metered Markets rankings for Friday
(source: NBC)
