The Olympics managed to score its first win for ratings Thursday since the opening ceremony a week ago, but still, the numbers are way below previous winter games.
NBC’s coverage at the Beijing Olympics scored its highest night so far with a 1.9 rating in the highly coveted demographic of ages 18-49, Deadline reported Friday. The win also brought about the highest night in viewership of the 2022 games to date, with 9.86 million viewers, the outlet noted. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Haley Calls Biden’s Diplomatic Olympics Boycott A ‘Joke’ Because China Doesn’t Care If He Shows Up)
What an Olympic career. What a legacy.
Thank you, @ShaunWhite. pic.twitter.com/rtKjwJkBkN
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) February 11, 2022
The network scored in both areas of demographics and viewers compared to the previous night, which had a 1.8 in the demo and 9.65 million people watching. (RELATED: Meghan McCain Slams Beijing Olympics, Says It Looks Like Chernobyl ‘With A Ski Slope’)
Thursday night fans watched Olympic gold medalist Shaun White on the men’s halfpipe final, come in just short of landing on the medal podium and place fourth for his final run of the games. White came in behind Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, Australia’s Scotty James and Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer. (RELATED: The TV Ratings For The Opening Weekend Of The Olympics Tank)
Thursday night also bested the games’ opening ceremony when it scored a 1.2 in the key demo and had 7.39 million viewers, the outlet noted.
In comparison, on the same night in the 2018 winter games in Pyeongchang, 19.3 million people were watching, the outlet noted. At the time, the publication noted how those numbers were down from the same night at the 2014 winter games in Sochi by 29% in viewership.