Several factors contribute to NBC’s lower Olympic ratings

By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer

NBC’s Mike Tirico began the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics 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.” But in the case of ratings topping that has meant producing record lows. NBC is on track for the lowest-rated Winter Games in history through the first four nights of competition. The coverage Friday night on NBC, USA Network and Peacock averaged 12.8 million viewers. That is significantly down from the 27.8 million average in Pyeongchang four years ago. The audience of 8 million on Thursday night marked the smallest primetime Olympics audience on record.