NBC kicked off its Sochi Winter Olympics coverage Thursday night—one day prior to Friday night’s opening ceremonies—drawing an 11.8 rating and 18 share among Nielsen metered market households. The metered-market performance was the best for any network since NBC kicked off the NFL season with the Ravens-Broncos game Sept. 5.
In fast-national numbers, NBC averaged a 5.8/16 and 19.56 million viewers with its Olympics coverage to lead all networks.
CBS finished second with a 2.5/7. The Big Bang Theory drew a 5.0, down 4% from last week. The Millers grew 4% to 2.7. The Crazy Ones declined 11% to 1.7 and Two and a Half Men fell 10% to 1.8, both to series lows. Elementary was down 5% at 1.8.
Fox came in third with a 2.1/6. American Idol drew a 3.0, down 6% from last Thursday. Rake was down 15% to a 1.1.
ABC finished fourth with a 1.0/3. The Taste declined 9% from last week to a 1.0.
The CW finished with a 0.8/2. Vampire Diaries was down 18% at 0.9, and Reign was even at 0.6. In the network’s target 18-34 demo,Vampire Diaries drew a 0.9 and Reign earned a 0.5.
