Shaun White didn’t drop in on the podium, but that didn’t stop NBC from scoring Nielsen gold with its curated primetime coverage from Sochi on Tuesday.
The Peacock’s Feb. 11 telecast averaged 23.7 million from 8 p.m. to 11:03 p.m. (ET) up 17% from the network’s live coverage from the 2010 Games in Vancouver and 29% from the corresponding Tuesday night during the 2006 quadrennium from Torino, the last European Winter Olympics.
Tuesday night’s coverage – which featured snowboarding legend and two-time Olympic gold medalist White finishing fourth in the half-pipe competition and Erin Hamlin becoming the first American to medal in the luge with a bronze -- recorded a 13.7 national household rating/22 share, a 21% increase over Torino’s 11.3/18 and a 12% gain from Vancouver’s 12.2/19.
Overall, from the Opening Ceremony through Tuesday, NBC’s five-day primetime national household rating of 14.4/23 was up 13% from a 12.7/20 from Torino and down slightly from the 14.5/24 from Vancouver.
NBC’s midnight show averaged 5.8 million viewers on Tuesday – up 45% and 21%, respectively, from the 2010 Vancouver Games and 2006 Torino Olympics on the opening Tuesday. Late-night Sochi viewership has posted increases over Vancouver and Torino for each of its four shows thus dar.
For its part, national cable network NBCSN continued its daily record-setting streak, averaging a network-best 1.1 million viewers for the 6 a m.-3 p.m. on Tuesday, topping the mark for best weekday viewership set Monday. NBCSN set weekend daytime records for its live Sochi Olympic telecasts on Saturday and Sunday.
On the digital watch, unique visitors to NBC Olympics.com, NBC Sports Live Extra app and the NBC Olympics Highlights and Results app through Feb. 10 were up a combined 54% from the Vancouver Games.
Nearly 600,000 viewers concurrently live-streamed White’s performance yesterday, making it NBC Olympics’ second-largest live stream, trailing only the 700,000 for the women’s soccer final at the 2012 London Games.
