NBC’s TV Ratings Tank for Winter Olympics in Communist China
Games averaged 7.7 million total viewers
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The ratings for NBC’s first day of coverage for the 2022 Winter Olympics in communist China have bombed, according to reports.
According to a report published Friday by TV Line.com:
The network’s coverage in primetime Thursday for the opening ceremony to kick off the games averaged 7.7 million total viewers.
The Olympic viewership also landed with a 1.3 rating in the coveted demographic of ages 18-49, the outlet noted.
Though the numbers helped the network, those numbers are down over the last decade, Outkick’s Clay Travis noted.
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He appeared to be noting numbers from Sports Media Watch.
“Just 7.2 million people watched the first day of the Olympics from China,” Travis tweeted Friday.
“That’s down 55% from 2018 and down 64% from 2014,” he added.
Just 7.2 million people watched the first day of the Olympics from China. That’s down 55% from 2018 and down 64% from 2014. Americans are overwhelmingly refusing to watch an Olympics that features athletes and countries bowing down to Chinese dictators. Love to see it.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 4, 2022
“Americans are overwhelmingly refusing to watch an Olympics that features athletes and countries bowing down to Chinese dictators. Love to see it.”
“Via Sports Media Watch, average primetime Olympics viewership –Tokyo last year was least-watched ever; Beijing 2022 set to plumb new depths,” Medium Buying tweeted.
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The tweet included a graphic showing average primetime Olympic viewership dating back to the games in Seoul in 1988 when the Olympic Summer Games scored 25.3 million viewers.
Via Sports Media Watch, average primetime Olympics viewership --
— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) February 4, 2022
Tokyo last year was least-watched ever; Beijing 2022 set to plumb new depths pic.twitter.com/xqDzKmZO4c
The average viewership for the games in Tokyo in 2021 was 15.6 million, a steady drop over the last several decades, the outlet noted.
The news comes after a Dutch reporter in the middle of a live broadcast was dragged away by a Chinese security official during the opening ceremony.
As The Guardian reported:
Footage from Dutch public broadcaster NOS showed several security officials surround Sjoerd den Daas before one of them forcefully grabbed him as he stood not far away from the Bird’s Nest stadium in the Chinese capital.
“Unfortunately, this is increasingly the daily reality for journalists in China,” the Dutch outlet later tweeted, adding that Den Daas “is fine and could, fortunately, finish his story a few minutes later.”
The International Olympic Committee has said this was an isolated event and will not affect foreign media’s reporting at the Games.
