NEW YORK (AP) — For most nights at the Tokyo Olympics, NBC’s prime time coverage is drawing about half the audience that the Games had in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
The numbers are sobering: Sunday’s NBC audience of 13 million was down 51% from the 26.7 million who watched the corresponding night in Rio. Saturday night was down 57%, last Wednesday down 53% and Tuesday down 58%, the Nielsen company said.
NBC’s best night last week, when it reached 16.2 million on Thursday, was still down 43% from Rio, Nielsen said.
“We’ve had some bad luck,” NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Shell said last week. “There was a drumbeat of negativity … and that has resulted in linear ratings being probably less than we expected.”
COVID restrictions that left largely empty arenas, the time difference with Japan and a lack of star power has played a part. Add in cable networks and streaming, and NBC Universal’s position improves, but not by much.
The marked change in how people experience television in the past five years plays a part in the ratings decline. NBC’s prime time had, on average, 35% less viewers this season than it had in 2015-16, Nielsen said.
One saving grace is NBC’s dominance against its rivals. In fact, Fox last week averaged below 1 million viewers in prime time, believed to be the first time that’s ever happened for one of the top four broadcast networks.
NBC averaged 13.4 million viewers in prime time last week. CBS had 2.22 million, ABC had 2.17 million, Univision had 1.9 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million, and Fox and Telemundo tied with 980,000.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks with an average of 1.95 million viewers in prime time. USA had 1.68 million, MSNBC had 1.1 million, HGTV had 979,000 and TLC had 882,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.5 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.2 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.8 million.
For the week of July 26 to Aug. 1, the top 20 shows in prime time, their networks and viewerships:
1. “Summer Olympics” (Thursday), NBC, 16.19 million.
2. “Summer Olympics” (Monday), NBC, 14.76 million.
3. “Summer Olympics” (Tuesday), NBC, 14.01 million.
4. “Summer Olympics” (Sunday), NBC, 13.02 million.
5. “Summer Olympics” (Wednesday), NBC, 12.29 million.
6. “Summer Olympics” (Friday), NBC, 11.73 million.
7. “Summer Olympics” (Saturday), NBC, 10.91 million.
8. Soccer: Copa Oro 2021: EEUU vs. Mexico, Univision, 5.17 million.
9. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 4.9 million.
10. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 3.86 million.
11. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 3.79 million.
12. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 3.4 million.
13. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 3.36 million.
14. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 3.33 million.
15. “NCIS,” CBS, 3.31 million.
16. Soccer: Copa Oro 2021: Mexico vs. Canada, 3.26 million.
17. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 3.25 million.
18. “The $100,000 Pyramid,” ABC, 3.19 million.
19. “Press Your Luck,” ABC, 3.05 million.
20. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Tuesday), Fox News, 3.01 million.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.