Viewership for NBC's Sunday night broadcast featuring Usain Bolt's historic victory in the 100 meters, peaked at 34.9 million between 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET/PT, as Bolt sprinted to his third-consecutive 100-meter Olympic gold. Sunday's primetime Rio Olympics coverage posted a Total Audience Delivery (which accounts for average minute viewing across broadcast, cable, and digital) average of 28.1 million viewers with a 15.8 household rating. Bolt's sprint topped the previous night's peak of 32.7 million for Michael Phelps final Olympic race.
The Olympic rings are a ubiquitous site at the various Olympic venues in Rio.
Monday Night's Numbers
NBC's Monday primetime Rio Olympics broadcast was the most-watched show of the night - marking the 50th consecutive night that an NBC Olympic presentation has topped primetime (beginning with Day 14 of the 2010 Vancouver Games). Monday's primetime Rio Olympics coverage posted a Total Audience Delivery average of 25.5 million viewers with a 14.9 household rating.
Last night's NBC-only Rio Olympics coverage (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) averaged 24.3 million viewers and posted a 14.1/24 household rating, according to national data from The Nielsen Company.
Also in primetime on Monday, NBCSN's live Olympic competition coverage averaged 948,000 viewers.
The top five metered markets NBC's Monday primetime telecast were Salt Lake City (20.6/39), Austin (19.9/34), Denver (19.6/37), St. Louis (19.4/30), and Minneapolis (18.3/33).
Sunday Night Ratings Big, But Down From London 2012
Sunday night's NBC-only Rio Olympics coverage (7-11 p.m. ET/PT) averaged 26.7 million viewers and posted a 14.9/27 household rating. Those numbers are down 15% in ratings and viewership from London in 2012 (17.5, 31.3M) and down 7% and 2%, respectively, from Beijing in 2008 (16.0, 27.2M). Versus the same night of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, ratings jumped 23% and viewership 26% from a 12.1 and 21.3 million.The 14.9 rating is the lowest for the middle Sunday of the Summer Olympics since at least 1984, falling below the previous mark of 15.8 for Athens in 2004. (SMW)
Also in primetime on Sunday, NBCSN's live Olympic competition coverage averaged 1.02 million viewers, while Bravo's live coverage of Andy Murray's victory in the men's tennis gold-medal match (7-8:30 p.m.) averaged 929,000 viewers.
Golf Returns to Olympic Stage
NBC and Golf Channel both provided coverage of the dramatic closing holes of the men's Olympic golf tournament (1:12-2:49 p.m.). Aside from the final round of the Masters, this ranks as the highest-rated 90-minute window of final round golf coverage in 2016 with a combined 5.6 household rating and 8.8 million average viewers. Additionally, streaming of the men's competition ranks second to The Open in every metric for NBC Sports' golf events on record, including Live starts: 873,025, Live minutes: 27,463,315, Uniques: 483,616 and Visits: 692,472.
Afternoon coverage on Golf Channel (Noon-3:12 p.m. ET) earned a 1.02 household rating with 1.6 million viewers, marking the best performance in the time period for total viewers and Adults 25-54 (495,000) since the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am featuring Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in February of 2012. Golf Channel coverage peaked at a 1.22 household rating and 1.845 million viewers (2:30-2:45 p.m.). Early coverage (6 a.m.-Noon) is Golf Channel's best performance in the time period in more than eight years since the Dubai Desert Classic won by Woods in February 2008 for both total viewers (556,000) and Adults 25-54 (174,000).
Olympics Odds and Ends
Through Monday, NBC Olympics' live streaming for Rio 2016 has reached two billion live streaming minutes for the first time in history. That total tops by more than 500 million minutes the combined total of ALL prior Olympics.
After 11 days, the NBC-only average primetime viewership (27.5 million viewers) and household rating (15.3) have respective 272% and 212% advantages over ABC, CBS and FOX combined - the second-largest Games advantage on record (behind only the London Olympics).
Among Adults 18-49, NBC's 11-night 7.9 primetime rating in the demographic is nearly five times greater than the other broadcast networks combined (1.6 on ABC, CBS and FOX) - the largest advantage in the first 11 days of any Olympics (on record).
NBCSN's Arsenal-Liverpool match averaged 745,000 viewers - marking the most-watched Premier League opening weekend match ever on U.S. cable television. In addition, the match is the third-most streamed Premier League match ever with 6.8 million live minutes.
Telemundo averaged 494,000 viewers from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Sunday - up 29% from the comparable day in London. Coverage featured boxing, the U.S.-France Men's Basketball game and the Brazil-Switzerland Women's Volleyball Quarterfinal.
NBC Olympics coverage on other channels and digital streaming has lifted primetime viewership each night (chart below).
Date Total Audience Delivery NBC-only viewership TAD Lift
Sat. 8/6 23.5 million 20.6 million 14%
Sun. 8/7 31.8 million 29.8 million 7%
Mon. 8/8 31.5 million 28.9 million 9%
Tues. 8/9 36.1 million 33.4 million 8%
Wed. 8/10 28.6 million 26.4 million 8%
Thur. 8/11 33.0 million 31.2 million 6%
Fri. 8/12 26.0 million 24.0 million 8%
Sat. 8/13 26.8 million 25.5 million 5%
Sun. 8/14 28.1 million 26.7 million 5%
Mon. 8/15 25.5 million 24.3 million 5%
Average 29.5 million 27.5 million 7%
Through the 10 nights of competition, Total Audience Delivery for Rio 2016 and the 2012 London Olympics:
Day Rio 2016 London 2012* Rio 2016 London 2012*
1st Sat. 23.5 million 28.7 million 13.0 rating 15.8 rating
1st Sun. 31.8 million 36.0 million 17.3 rating 19.8 rating
1st Mon. 31.5
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Viewership for NBC's Sunday night broadcast featuring Usain Bolt's historic victory in the 100 meters, peaked at 34.9 million between 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET/PT, as Bolt sprinted to his third-consecutive 100-meter Olympic gold. Sunday's primetime Rio Olympics coverage posted a Total Audience Delivery (which accounts for average minute viewing across broadcast, cable, and digital) average of 28.1 million viewers with a 15.8 household rating. Bolt's sprint topped the previous night's peak of 32.7 million for Michael Phelps final Olympic race. 
