CLEVELAND -- Despite weather that's far from a wintry feel in Canada, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, have racked up big ratings for NBC and WKYC.In the half-century of televised Olympics, NBC's coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday was the MOST WATCHED EVER for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics with 67.5 million viewers.
Those numbers were 17 million higher than the Torino, Italy, games four years ago and six 6 million more than the previous record holder, Lillehammer Games in 1994. Those tabloid fueled games held the record for 16 years.
According to NBC Universal, the top five most watched include:
- Vancouver (2010) - 67.5 million
- Lillehammer (1994) - 62.0 million
- Nagano (1998) - 52.4 million
- Torino (2006) - 50.2 million
- Albertville (1992) - 46.7 million
So far for the first 4 days of the Games, 129 million people have watched on the networks on NBCU - about 4 million more than watched the first 4 days of the 2006 Games.
WKYC has the 8th largest audience for the first 4 days with a 19.5 rating and 31 share.
The Vancouver Games are the first Winter Olympic Games to be presented entirely in high definition.
The Games continue through February 28th.
