NBC’s Feb. 17 curated primetime presentation from Sochi was the most-watched and highest-rated second Monday since the network’s live coverage from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
Monday night’s telecast -- showcasing Meryl Davis and Charlie White becoming the first Americans to win an Olympic gold medal in ice dancing and Steve Holcomb and Steve Langton earning the first U.S. two-man bobsled medal, a bronze, since the 1952 Games in Oslo -- averaged a 13.8 rating/21 share and 23.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen live + same-day fast national data.
Those numbers topped the comparable second Monday for the live telecast of the 2010 Vancouver Games by 12% and 10% (20.9 million viewers, 12.5/20), and the 2006 Torino Games by 4% and 1% (22.5 million viewers, 13.6/21), respectively.
Moreover, NBC on Feb. 17 beat the combined primetime viewership and household rating of ABC, CBS and Fox (18.2 million viewers and 11.7 household rating) by 29% and 18%. According to NBCUniversal officials, that marked the most-dominant Monday night in the traditional TV season by any broadcast network compared to the collective performance of its counterparts since the 1998 Academy Awards, which featured Titanic winning best picture.
NBCSN posted another daytime viewership milestone on Monday, averaging a network weekday-record 1.6 million viewers from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. (ET) for its coverage, which featured ice dancing, men’s ski jumping and Team USA women’s hockey.
Over six weekdays of Sochi Olympics coverage to date, NBCSN has recorded its six most-watched weekdays ever in the aforementioned time period.
