NBC’s Monday Rio Olympics clocked a primetime crowd of 24.3 million viewers. The evening featured gymnast Simone Biles’ balance beam gold-medal bid, men’s beach volleyball and a desperate dive that cost Allyson Felix the gold in the women’s 400 meter race.
In the demo, the Games broadcasts logged a 7.0 rating.
NBC’s tally was nearly 15M viewers ahead of its combined broadcast competition. But it was NBC’s smallest haul for the Rio Games since Friday, and the third smallest in the Summer’s Olympics 10 days to date. Sunday’s primetime coverage hit 26.7M viewers featuring Usain Bolt’s third straight Summer Games victory in the men’s 100-meter final.
Top local markets for Monday’s NBC Olympics were Salt Lake City with a household 20.6/39; Austin (19.9/34); Denver (19.6/37); and St. Louis (19.4/30).
ABC took second on Monday to Olympics-fueled NBC in both total viewers (3.9 million) and in the demo adults 18-49 (1.1/4). Despite the Games competition, ABC was up 22% in the demo compared to comparable night a year ago. The network’s Bachelor in Paradise was Monday’s No. 1 TV series for a second consecutive week in both metrics (4.7M viewers, 1.4 demo rating), growing week to week in overall crowd and hanging on to last week’s demo showing.
