The Numbers Don’t Lie – The London Olympics Are a Huge Hit!

The 2012 Summer Olympics have not gone down perfectly, but NBC is getting the last laugh as the Nielsen Ratings officially prove that the London Games are a huge TV hit!

NBC followed up it's amazing near 41 Million viewers for the Opening Ceremony on July 27 with nearly 29 Million viewers on the next night, and ever better on Sunday July 29th.  On the strength of Michael Phelps, over 36 Million people were watching last Sunday.  Those were by far and away the 3 biggest shows of that week - the nearest competitor was America's Got Talent (ranking 4th and 5th that week as both shows hovered around 10 Million viewers).

Over the first 10 nights of the London Games, NBC has averaged 33.6 Million viewers and 18.8 Nielsen  Household Rating -  the most for any Non-U.S. Summer Olympics in 36 Years!

Last night's coverage saw 31.3 Million watchers - the only time you see numbers like this on a Sunday is usally for the Super Bowl!  Last night’s viewership is up 15% from the comparable night at the Beijing Olympics (27.2 million) and up 20% from the comparable night at the Athens Olympics (26.0 million).

The daytime viewership has also been reaching big-time numbers as well.  Yesterday's Men's Tennis final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer (a rematch of the Wimbledon final) drew over 8 Million viewers during NBC's morning coverage.