NBC Sees Strong Demo Gains For Primetime Olympic Telecasts
Through the first three nights of the Beijing Olympics, ratings were up across key people, male and female demos. Males 18-34 were seeing the biggest increase, up 31.1% from Athens in '04. Ratings for the Opening Ceremony were strong, with the total household rating beating out the "Academy Awards" and "American Idol" finale. However, the "Academy Awards" did still beat out the Opening Ceremony in P18-49 (10.7 vs. 10.3). Saturday night's ratings showed strong growth in the male demo with heavy coverage of men's swimming and Michael Phelps. Normally, Olympic coverage skews female, but Saturday night was closer to a 50:40 male to female ratio. Sunday night ratings were even stronger than Saturday, and even beat out the Opening Ceremony among adults under 50. The median age also continues to decline and was under 50 for the second night straight night of competition (47 years of age). The following lists a demographic breakdown of primetime Olympic viewership on NBC from recent Olympics through the first three nights (Magna Global).
| WHO IS WATCHING THE SUMMER OLYMPICS IN PRIMETIME ON NBC? |
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(Through the first three nights)
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OLYMPICS
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AVG. HH RAT.
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P18-34
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P18-49
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P25-54
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W18-34
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W18-49
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W25-54
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M18-34
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M18-49
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M25-54
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Beijing '08
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17.1
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8.3
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10.0
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11.3
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8.7
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10.5
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11.8
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8.0
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9.4
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10.8
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Athens '04
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14.1
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7.2
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8.4
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9.4
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8.2
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9.2
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10.1
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6.1
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7.5
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8.6
|
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Sydney '00
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14.6
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6.9
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8.9
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10.1
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7.5
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9.5
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10.4
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6.2
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8.4
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9.7
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Atlanta '96
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21.4
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12.7
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13.6
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15.0
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14.1
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14.7
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15.9
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11.4
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12.5
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14.1
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Barcelona '92
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17.4
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10.2
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11.7
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12.7
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10.2
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11.8
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12.7
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10.2
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11.7
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12.6
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NOTE: Only Beijing '08 ratings are Live+Same-Day.
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