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The Olympic Games surged back to U.S. households in a big way. After low U.S. viewership for both the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2021 (delayed from 2020 due to COVID-19) and the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022, a big question loomed: had Americans simply lost interest in tuning into TV coverage of the Olympics?
This year’s viewership numbers of the Summer Olympics in Paris have answered: a resounding “no.” From the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26, to Saturday, August 3, NBCUniversal (including Peacock, their streaming service) has reported a Total Audience Delivery average of 32.6 million viewers (across both Paris and U.S. primetimes, stretching from 2:00-11:00pm ET) – up a whopping 77% from Tokyo. Tokyo’s summer games, plagued by a larger time difference and on the heels of COVID, averaged just 18.4 million viewers a day.
NBC reports that two-thirds of their viewership is tuning in each night to watch replays of the day’s events in primetime – even after watching events live during the afternoon. For example, on the afternoon of July 30, a staggering 12.7 million viewers tuned in live to watch the women’s gymnastics team finals. Team USA’s medal-worthy performance in these games – including historic achievements from familiar faces like Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles – continue to capture Americans’ attention this summer, setting the stage for a captivating last few days of these Paris games… and adding Snoop Dogg as an unofficial commentator probably doesn’t hurt either.
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