UPDATED: With the final numbers in, the second Wednesday of the 2018 Winter Olympics notched their second-worst day in the ratings.
Wednesday’s primetime coverage averaged 16.4 million viewers, up just under two percent from the 2018 Olympics low set on Saturday, Feb. 17 (16.1 million). 14.1 million of Wednesday’s viewers came from NBC, with the rest coming from NBC Sports Network and NBC’s various streaming platforms.
With four days left to go, this year’s Olympics are averaging 20.8 million viewers in primetime. That is down approximately eight percent from the comparable time period of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
On the bright side, the gold medal victory for the U.S. women’s hockey team delivered 3.7 million viewers across all platforms. The NBC Sports Network-only telecast delivered 2.9 million viewers, which is the largest audience ever for the network in the 11 p.m.-2:15 a.m. ET late-night window.
PREVIOUSLY: The 2018 Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea, delivered less than stellar numbers in the Nielsen ratings Wednesday night, nearly matching the previous low.
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The primetime coverage of the second Wednesday of the 2018 Olympics drew an 11.1 rating in metered market households on NBC and NBC Sports Network. That is up just 7 percent from the previous low set on Saturday, Feb. 17 (10.4 rating). That is also down a steep 20 percent from what the combined coverage drew on Tuesday, Feb. 20 (13.9 rating) and approximately 15 percent from the first Wednesday, Feb. 14 (13.1 rating).
Part of the problem could be that the USA women’s hockey gold medal win over Canada aired outside of primetime. However, that game delivered NBC Sports Network’s best ever late-night rating with a 2.06 in metered market households.
In the fast national numbers, primetime coverage of the Olympics drew a 3.3 rating in adults 18-49 and 13.98 million viewers. That is the second lowest fast national numbers of these Olympics thus far, with the only day that was lower again being Saturday, Feb. 17. (3.2, 13.62 million). Fast national numbers do not include West Coast viewership, those who watched on NBC Sports Network, or those who watched on NBC’s streaming platforms. Total audience delivery data will be available later today.
As usual, very few broadcast originals aired against the Olympics.
On CBS, “Big Brother: Celebrity Edition” drew a 1.4 and 5.5 million viewers, up in both measures from Monday’s episode as well as the previous Wednesday. The season finale of “The Amazing Race” drew a 0.9 and 4.3 million viewers, staying even in the demo and ticking up slightly in total viewers.
On ABC, a new episode of “Match Game” (0.4, 2.2 million) was down in the demo.
