Supporting the notion that widespread availability of “spoilers” is not erasing interest in the 2012 Olympic Games, NBC’s primetime broadcast of Tuesday’s events again attracted massive viewership.
According to fast affiliate data, the broadcast, which was built around the US Female Gymnastics Team’s successful quest for a Gold Medal and swimmer Michael Phelps’ similarly-successful effort to set the all-time Olympic Medal record, delivered a 12.2 adults 18-49 rating with 37.5 million viewers from 8-11PM.
Based on that data, Tuesday was NBC’s highest-rated and most-watched primetime Olympics telecast since the actual Games began airing on Saturday.
And when all is said and done, the already lofty ratings should trend higher once Tuesday’s final broadcast data is revealed. The aforementioned ratings only measure the action from 8-11PM; the final number will also account for the night’s most significant segments, which occurred between 11PM and 12AM.