Olympics’ opening ceremony big hit with area viewers
Based on the TV audiences watching Friday night’s opening ceremony, Denver should produce consistently high prime- time ratings during NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage.
Seattle, Vancouver’s neighbor, produced a 47 audience share on its NBC affiliate, followed nationally by Denver’s 45 share, aired locally on KUSA-9.
A share is a percentage of television homes in a particular market watching television and tuned into a particular program.
Overall, the Vancouver opening ceremony attracted an average of 32.6 million U.S. viewers. That ranked second for a non- U.S. Winter Olympics carried by an American network.
The figure bested by 14 million the opening ceremony for the Turin Games in 2006.
The record for an American network televising an opening ceremony from a foreign Winter Olympics site: 33.8 million for the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
Meanwhile, in Canada, audience ratings show the ceremony was the most-watched TV event in the nation’s history, reaching 78 percent of the country’s population.
