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The Tokyo Olympics television ratings were a major flop.
According to the New York Times, the 2020 Olympics drew the smallest TV audience for a Summer Games since 1988. The average nightly viewership was 15.5 million.
The Tokyo Olympics were initially scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020, but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
From the report:
The final audience number was down 42 percent from the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, which averaged 26.7 million viewers. It was less than half that of the 2012 London Games, which drew an average of 31.1 million.
Despite the major dip in numbers, NBC was positive about putting on the broadcast in the middle of a global pandemic.
“Despite being thrown a series of curveballs over the last 18 months, the power of the Olympics delivered to audiences across the various platforms of NBCU has proven itself unequaled,” Pete Bevacqua, the chairman of NBC Sports, said in a statement. “The pandemic fundamentally altered virtually every aspect of these Games, but our team pivoted, and reimagined, in the midst of showcasing history-making performances across 41 sports.”
