TV Sports Ratings

Also, this was the first time that Game 2 had a smaller audience than Game 1 since 1998 (SD at NYY; aired on a Sunday).  In that Game 2, the Yankees were up 7-0 by the third inning.

Through 2 games, this is on pace to be the lowest rated World Series ever  (an honor currently held by the 2006 matchup of STL/DET).  At this point, it is -12% behind the 2006 series in average audience and -6% in M18-49.

You’ve all probably read stories about the impressive ratings for the Opening Ceremonies - stories based on metered market ratings.  Well, we now have official national numbers for Friday night’s coverage and some idea of why these numbers were so much above the 2004 and 2000 games.

As per NBC, the rated portion of the telecast aired from 8-11:19p.  However, we have confirmed that local news had a start time of 12:04a, meaning that a full 45 (lower-rated) minutes were removed from the nationally rated portion.  This can legitimately be done, given the proper circumstances, but apparently has not been the practice in prior years (Athens ended at 11:49p, Atlanta at 12:38a) - at least not to this degree.

Using NBC’s timings, the telecast had a 10.3 in P18-49, a 9.4 in M18-49 and 34.9 million viewers.  The audience was 44% male with a median age of 50 years.  W50+ (21.4 rating) were the strongest demo - accounting for nearly 1/3 of viewers.  Conversely, M12-34 made up just 10% of viewers.

Using some crude arithmetic, it appears as these numbers are about +5-7% higher in most demos than they would have been with a “proper” 12a end time.  While these are still strong ratings and dwarf those of Athens, it would put them virtually flat with Sydney.

NBC is clearly going to use every trick in the book to pump up these numbers and you’re bound to see some very impressive cross-platform viewership numbers being thrown around.  But, when it comes to primetime broadcast coverage, this is a relatively huge, but still older and female skewing property.

Attached is a track of the last four Summer Games Opening Ceremonies