The first Thursday in PyeongChang was not a good night for U.S. Olympians — and the ratings reflected it.
NBC coverage dipped ever-so-slightly from Wednesday’s overnight ratings, earning another 2018 low with an early 13.0 rating among households. That score, a combination of NBC telecasts on both coasts and NBC Sports Network coverage, was off just a hair from Wednesday night’s low. Compared to Sochi’s NBC-only coverage, the night was down 10 percent.
The evening was not without a strong lineup of events. U.S. slalom skier Mikaela Shiffrin and figure skater Nathan Chen were both on deck — but both underperformed, the latter taking several tumbles in a catastrophic routine.
Still, PyeongChang is holding up quite well for NBC. Gross viewership, with streaming and NBC Sports, is at an average 23.0 million viewers. (It’s just 20.9 million if you look at the broadcast network alone.) Compared to Sochi in 2014, viewership for the games are down just 6 percent. It’s a conservative loss for a Winter Games that had the potential for dramatic drops.
ABC was the only Big Four network to bother with counterprogramming. The Bachelor Winter Games held mostly steady in its second outing, earning a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 in Fast Affiliate returns. A Roseanne-centric 20/20 pulled a 0.8 rating in the key demo at 10 p.m., doubling its last weeknight showing two weeks ago.
