The Summer Olympic games finished up last weekend as the lowest-rated Summer Games in NBC’s history, averaging 15.5 million primetime viewers. NBC has covered the Olympic games since 1988 and saw a 42% drop off from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.
There are a number of reasons as to why there was such a drop-off in viewership. Outkick’s Bobby Burack says that Americans have lost the passion and spirit to watch the games due to politics being injected, “American viewers no longer share those emotions toward the Olympics”. U.S hammer thrower Gwen Berry turned away from the flag during a playing of the national anthem at the Olympic Trials prior to the games in Tokyo. U.S soccer star Megan Rapinoe is the most notable athlete to protest the national anthem and has consistently spoken out against the country she represents. Burack told Fox News, “Here’s the problem: the Left is ashamed of what America represents, and the Right is ashamed of the athletes’ divisive portrayal of the country, combine the two, and neither side cares if Team USA takes gold, silver, or gets humiliated.”
Another reason for the viewership drop-off could be attributed to poor viewing options and the time difference. Most of the events were played on a time delay, to account for the massive time difference between the United States and Japan. With social media and real-time alerts coming in on almost everyone’s phone, it became difficult to avoid the outcome of events, especially if you wanted to watch the event later. NBC is also taking heat for diverting much of the sports coverage onto Peacock, their streaming service. Sports reporter Darren Rovell who covered the 2008 Beijing games said, “I don’t think NBC helped itself out. Obviously they wanted to drive people to Peacock, I think that didn’t work.” NBC has blamed the viewership on COVID primarily, as they believe the delay in the games which were supposed to happen last year hurt viewership according to NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua. The opening ceremony only attracted 16.7 million viewers and the closing ceremony only had about half of that at 8.8 million viewers, both the smallest since 1988.
Despite the delays in the games and COVID restriction protocols, the United States still finished at the top of the medal leaderboard as a nation, winning a total of 113 medals and 39 gold medals.
