CLOSING CEREMONY RATINGS BARELY HALF OF LONDON’S

NBC’s coverage of Sunday’s closing ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics saw an even bigger ratings decline compared to the 2012 London Games than the opening ceremony two weeks prior.

Sunday’s prime- time closing ceremony broadcast drew an 8.8 overnight rating, down from 17 for London, according to Variety. That’s equivalent to about 15 million viewers, about half the number for 2012’ s wrap- up broadcast.

The Rio opening ceremony drew a 16.5 overnight ( roughly 30 million), compared to a 23 ( 40.7 million) for London.

The prime- time ratings for all the days in between, even with audience growth in NBC’s online streaming service, were also down compared to London, although the overall dip was closer to 20%.

NBC reported Sunday that its total audience delivery, which takes into account viewers of NBC and its affiliated cable networks and online streaming, averaged 27.5 million viewers for the 15 nights of competition coverage from Rio, a 10% drop from London.

That still makes Rio the second- most- viewed Summer Olympics using that metric.

Brazil is just an hour ahead of the Eastern time zone, meaning NBC didn’t have to tape delay the events as much as it employed its “plausibly live” broadcasts, especially when it came to women’s gymnastics. The fact that NBC still tape- delayed events in prime time drew criticism, even though a live stream was available online.