olympics

Vancouver Olympics Draw Big Ratings

The Vancouver Olympic Games are delivering strong ratings for NBC after the first two nights of competition, way outpacing ratings for the Torino Games four years ago. NBC’s coverage Saturday night, which mostly focused on speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, was watched by 26.2 million people, more viewers than any night of the Torino Games garnered. This comes on the heels of the 32.6 million who watched Friday night’s opening ceremony, significantly more than the 22.2 million who watched Torino’s, though less than the 45.6 million for Salt Lake City’s opening ceremony in 2002.

And it appears that Wisconsinites are as passionate about short-track speed skating as they are about beer and cheese (generalizations!): the highest local market scores for the first two nights of the Games came from Milwaukee. [Variety]

Vancouver Olympics Draw Big Ratings