NBC has gotten an earful from critics across the globe – but based on the number of viewers tuning in to the games, most of us are liking what we are seeing and coming back for more.
Friday night’s opening ceremony was the most watched Olympic opening ceremony in the US ever, with 42 million US viewers. While many of us were complaining about NBC’s 3-hour delay in broadcasting the event, apparently we watched it anyway.
For comparison, the opening ceremony for the 2008 summer games in Beijing was watched by about 35 million viewers in the US. The opening ceremony for the 1996 games in Atlanta was watched by about 40 million US viewers.
The strong viewer numbers continued on through the first few days of competition. The Huffingtonpost is reporting that NBC averaged 28.7 million viewers on Saturday, and said NBC saw a 20% increase on Sunday. Nielsen is pegging Sunday’s numbers at approximately 36 million.
Looking at just the numbers, it would appear that NBC is getting a big thumbs up from viewers – and after all, wouldn’t the number of viewers be the final judge of what we like?
But following the social media networks, you would think that the coverage was horrible. On Twitter, the hashtag NBCFails is being used to tag thousands of complaints regarding NBC’s coverage. And a small, but growing, number of complaints is gathering on the “NBC Olympic Coverage Sucks Butt” Facebook page.
Are you giving NBC a thumbs up or thumbs down on their Olympic coverage? Leave your thumbs, and comments, below:
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