The TV ratings for the Olympics in Tokyo were brutal.
According to Sports Media Watch, the games in Japan had the lowest rated primetime performances for the Olympics on record, and the numbers are brutal. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
The summer games averaged 15.6 million a night on NBC and NBC digital platforms, which is substantially lower than the previous record low average of 19.8 million in 2018 for the winter Olympics.
Tokyo Olympics ratings recap:
— Least-watched primetime Olympics ever, Summer or Winter
— 16 of 17 nights below 20M viewers (compared to 11 nights combined for previous 5 Summer Games)
— Closing Ceremony sets new record-low with fewer than 10M viewershttps://t.co/dGrihaQcjt— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) August 10, 2021
Furthermore, the ratings declined 42% from the summer games in Brazil in 2016 and the numbers were down a staggering 50% from 2012.
Tokyo is first Summer Olympics since 2004 (Athens) to average fewer viewers than the preceding Winter Games.
Here is the average primetime audience for every Olympics since NBC’s streak of Summer Games began in 1988: pic.twitter.com/ihC3XqiQGq
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) August 10, 2021
To really drive the point home of just how bad the numbers were, Tokyo had the nine lowest rated primetime performances since at least 1992, according to the same report.
No matter how you slice it, the TV ratings for the games in Tokyo were an absolute disaster.
Here are the smallest primetime Summer Olympics audiences dating back to 1996. You might spot a trend. pic.twitter.com/IpuNaMcPqg
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) August 10, 2021
There are probably a lot of different reasons why the games tanked in the fashion they did. The time zone differences between the U.S. and Japan didn’t help, and people are also sick and tired of the woke politics consuming sports.
Let’s not forget that we spent a ton of time debating Gwen Berry disrespecting America, and she didn’t even end up medaling!
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the 2022 winter games in China, which start in February. If we have back-to-back Olympics with horrific ratings, it might be time to officially panic.