Beijing Olympic Ratings Were the Worst of Any Winter Games

The Beijing Olympics on NBC Universal platforms had an average of 11 million viewers each night, which was the smallest prime-time audience on record for a Winter Games.

160 million people watched the two weeks of coverage across the NBC television channel, the Peacock streaming service and other platforms, NBC Universal said on Monday.

During NBC Universal's 2,800 hours of coverage, there were many dramatic story lines, but few of them were for an audience that was looking for escapists and tales of triumph. The competition were held in a bubble because of the Pandemic restrictions. The result was mostly empty stands, and NBC commentators such as Tara Lipinski had to deliver their dispatches from a compound in Connecticut.

The uplifting, inspiring qualities that make for blockbuster Olympic broadcasts were missing from several of the most memorable episodes. The American skier, who had won three Olympic medals before arriving in Beijing, stumbled disastrously in several events and went home empty-handed. The 15-year-old Russian figure skating star fell apart during her free skate while weathering a DOPING scandal. Her coach berated her when she stepped off the ice.

There were political tensions during the Olympics. The Games of political overtones were scrubbed using fake accounts. Concerns about the welfare of the Chinese tennis player who accused a political official of sexual abuse threatened to overshadow the Games.

The Olympics brand is struggling. Tang Tang, a media professor at Kent State University who has studied the Olympics, said that a lot of people don't feel that emotional connection anymore.

The Beijing Olympics did not have the kind of powerhouse narrative that made the American swimmer Michael Phelps famous. The Chinese American skier Eileen Gu was one of the stars of this year's Games. The players in the National Hockey League did not participate.

People watch the Olympics for the stories. Professor Tang said they need that superhero story, that star quality.

NBC Universal bought the American rights to the Olympics for $8.25 billion. The Beijing Games and those in Tokyo were difficult to organize. The Summer Games in 1988 drew a bigger audience than the Tokyo Olympics.

The time difference between Beijing and New York meant that social media and news reports usually delivered Olympic results long before viewers watched a broadcast. The company said that this year's Olympics were its most streamed Winter Games ever, with 4.3 billion minutes streamed across digital and social media.

Advertisers were told to expect lower ratings for the Beijing Games compared with the event in South Korea. The company said on Monday that its coverage in Beijing was the best in prime-time television.

The biggest night of the year was Feb. 13 when 24 million people watched the Super Bowl. 70 percent of the total viewers who watched the Olympics over more than two weeks watched the football game.