Several factors contribute to NBC’s lower Olympic ratings

NBC’s Mike Tirico began Friday’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony by saying, “just over six months ago in Tokyo, we said we were about to embark on an Olympics unlike any other. Now we’re about to top that.”

In the case of ratings, though, topping that has meant producing record lows.

Through the first four nights of competition, NBC is on track for the lowest-rated Winter Games in history. Friday night’s coverage on NBC, USA Network and Peacock averaged 12.8 million viewers, significantly down from the 27.8 million average in Pyeongchang four years ago.

Thursday night’s audience of 8 million marks the smallest primetime Olympics audience on record, surpassing the 9 million that tuned in for the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Games.

NBC saw a steady increase in viewers Saturday and Sunday night, but the ratings are down more than half compared to Pyeongchang. Preliminary figures from Saturday show 13.6 million, and 13.7 million from Sunday.