Beijing tops with US viewers

If you feel cheated by Olympic broadcasting so far, you could be living in America. NBC screened the Opening Ceremony 12 hours after it took place. And they still got a bumper audience for it.

An average of 34.2m viewers watched the event, the biggest yet for a non-US Olympics. It pipped Sydney’s 27.3m audience.

Yet holding off may have actually aided the show in ways not anticipated by the network. With gushing critic reviews and lavish images saturating the media on Friday, many viewers likely tuned in to see if the ceremony could possibly live up to the hype.

The US east coast is 13 hours behind Beijing, the reason that NBC insisted on swimming finals to be held in the morning.

NON-U.S. OPENING CEREMONY AVERAGE AUDIENCE:
1) Beijing – 2008 – 34.2 million
2) Sydney – 2000 – 27.3 million
3) Athens – 2004 – 25.4 million
4) Seoul – 1988 – 22.7 million
5) Barcelona – 1992 – 21.6 million

-Opening Ceremony in Atlanta had an average viewership of 39.8 million; Average viewership data did not exist for Los Angeles in 1984

Source: Hollywood Reporter