NBC’s presentation of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games on Tuesday drew nearly 35 million viewers to the broadcast network, its cable channels and Peacock, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
The 34.7 million Americans who watched some or all of the Olympics coverage was 88 percent higher than the number of people who watched events from the first Tuesday of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, which were delayed to 2021 due to the global health pandemic.
NBC’s five-day total audience delivery — which includes the network’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony last week — is up 79 percent compared to the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, the network said in a statement.
NBC’s afternoon coverage of the women’s gymnastics team finale averaged 12.7 million viewers across the broadcast network and on Peacock, making it one of NBC’s most-watched daytime Olympics broadcasts ever.
NBC has held the domestic telecast rights to the Summer Olympic Games since 1988, and is the exclusive distributor of the Summer and Winter Olympics through 2032. Coverage airs on NBC, Telemundo and Comcast-owned cable channels like E!, USA Network and CNBC throughout the day.
Tuesday’s coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games drew 5 million viewers to Peacock and other NBC digital properties, including the NBC Sports app and NBC’s connected TV apps. Peacock is streaming all 39 events from the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in real-time, and also offers a whip-around channel called Gold Zone that offers live look-ins on key competitions.
The number of people watching Gold Zone has doubled since it was introduced over the weekend, NBC said, though the network offered no specific viewership figures. Gold Zone broadcasts daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time, timed to coincide with the start and conclusion of most Olympic events in Paris.
Also on Wednesday, NBC released the top markets that have watched its coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games over the first five days, including the Opening Ceremony. The markets and stations that are seeing the highest Olympics audience by share are:
- 1. West Palm Beach, Florida (WPTV, Channel 5)
- 2. New Orleans (WDSU, Channel 6)
- 3. Tulsa, Oklahoma (KJRH, Channel 2)
- 4. Minneapolis (KARE-TV, Channel 11)
- 5. Fort Myers, Florida (WBBH, Channel 20)
- 6. Dayton, Ohio (WDTN, Channel 2)
- 7. Indianapolis (WTHR, Channel 13)
- 8. Kansas City, Missouri (KSHB, Channel 41)
- 9. Louisville (WAVE-TV, Channel 3)
- 10. St. Louis (KSDK, Channel 5) / Pittsburgh (WPXI, Channel 11) [tie]
- 12. Milwaukee (WTMJ, Channel 4)
- 13. Austin (KXAN, Channel 36)
- 14. Providence (WJAR, Channel 10)
- 15. Dallas (KXAS, Channel 5)
Interestingly, the only NBC-owned local broadcast station that made the top 15 markets by viewership of the 2024 Summer Olympics thus far is in Dallas-Fort Worth, where KXAS-TV ranked last in the list.
