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The first true night of Olympic competition in PyeongChang seems to have held up pretty well for NBC.
After a tape-delayed Opening Ceremony that brought in an average 28.3 million viewers across platforms — a respectable dip of 3.4 million from Sochi four years ago — early ratings for Saturday’s primetime have the NBC coverage on par with the same night in 2014.
A combined overnight 15.2 rating among metered-market households for NBC and NBC Sports’ primetime block is the same score the pair reached for Sochi’s first night of competition. Granted, that number includes both the early live window and the delayed encore for the West Coast, but it should leave the final tally within the realm of Sochi’s 25.1 million tune-in for its first Saturday of competition.
Saturday stands as the first night from covering South Korea that NBC did not lose any overnight draw from Sochi.
NBC will release updated data with PyeongChang’s full draw later on Sunday — figures that will also account for the significant streaming audience.
