NBC’s lead is an Olympian effort

NBC’s viewership for the second full week of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics was 23.8% lower than the second full week of the London Games four years ago, but nearly 2 1 ⁄2 times the combined amount of the three other major broadcast networks.

NBC averaged 19.85 million viewers for its primetime programming between Aug. 15 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.

CBS was second, averaging 3.81 million viewers, followed by ABC, which averaged 2.9 million. Fox averaged 1.39 million viewers to finish fourth among the major broadcast networks for the 19th consecutive week.

NBC has been the mostwatched network for eight consecutive weeks, its longest streak since an 18week streak from the weeks of May 7-Sept. 1, 1997.

NBC’s 19 1⁄2 hours of programming for ratings purposes consisted of six nights of Olympics coverage, the closing ceremony, “Rio Gold” Olympics highlight show, the comedy “Superstore” and a half-hour auditions episode of the singing competition “The Voice.”

NBC’s 10 programs swept the week’s top 10 mostwatched programs, topped by the Aug. 15 Olympics coverage that included track and field’s women’s 400 meters and women’s gymnastics vault competition, and averaged 24.22 million. Sunday’s closing ceremony was sixth for the week, averaging 17.03 million, 45.1% less than the 31.01 million average for the 2012 closing ceremony, the most-watched closing ceremony since 1996.

NBC’s all-Olympics prime-time programming for the second full week of the 2012 London Games averaged 26.06 million viewers.

Factors cited by NBC for the lower broadcast viewership is that these were the first Summer Olympics in U.S. television history with broadcast network coverage, including prime time, being streamed simultaneously on digital platforms and cable coverage opposite the prime-time broadcast coverage.