NBC Ratings Spike During Michael Phelps’ Final Olympic Swim

While ratings for the Rio Olympics are down overall compared with the 2012 London games, viewers were decidedly glued to their screens as Michael Phelps took his final Olympic swim.

NBC dominated primetime on Saturday, attracting 26.8 million viewers, earning a 15.0 rating. That’s up by 14 percent from the games’ opening Saturday last week. (See the chart below.)

NBC earned an 8.0 primetime rating in the coveted demographic of adults aged 18 to 49. That’s five times the combined rating of the other Big 4 networks (1.6 on ABC, CBS and Fox) — and counts as the largest advantage in the first nine days of any Olympics on record, according to NBC.

Also Read: Ryan Lochte, 3 Other US Swimmers Robbed at Gunpoint in Rio

Viewership peaked on NBC last night from 10-10:15 p.m. ET/PT, reaching 32.7 million viewers during Michael Phelps’ final race, for which he won another gold medal in the 4x100m medley relay.

NBCSN averaged 967,000 viewers on Saturday in primetime for coverage featuring the Brazil-Colombia men’s soccer game.

Golf Channel’s afternoon Olympic men’s golf coverage was up 336 percent among average viewers vs. the same Saturday in 2012 opposite London Olympics (967,000 average viewers, Noon-3:27 p.m. ET).

Also Read: Leslie Jones Makes Her On-Air Rio Olympics Debut Tonight

NBC Olympics through Friday has surpassed 2 billion streaming minutes on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.

Here’s a breakdown, provided by NBC, comparing London Olympics ratings to Rio’s:

*NBC pointed out that the 2012 London Olympics didn’t have simultaneous live streaming or competing primetime Olympic cable coverage.

Olympics 2016: Team USA Gold Medal Tracker (Videos)

• Team USA is once again expected to contend for the top spot in the medal count at this year's Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. Here are the athletes that have claimed the gold medal so far.

• Virginia Thrasher, Women's 10m Air Rifle -- The 19-year-old engineering major at West Virginia University dreamed of being a figure skater, but found her path to Olympic gold through a rifle instead. She surprised everyone by beating out Chinese shooters Du Li and Yi Siling, who have won the gold in this event in past Olympics.

• Katie Ledecky, Women's 400m Freestyle -- Ledecky's quest to go four-for-four in her swimming events got off to a flying start on Sunday, when she smashed her own world record time and beat the rest of the field by five seconds.

• Caeleb Dressel, Michael Phelps, Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian, Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay -- For all his success, Michael Phelps regretted coming second in the freestyle relay to France at the London Olympics in 2012. This time was different, as Phelps used his powerful kick to give Team USA a lead that they would never give up.

• Ryan Murphy, Men's 100m Backstroke -- With Murphy's record-setting victory at 51.97 seconds, Team USA has won the gold in this event in six consecutive Olympics. Murphy was joined on the podium by teammate David Plummer, who took bronze.

• Lilly King, Women's 100m Breaststroke -- King made headlines when she called out Russian rival Yulia Efimova, who was initially among those banned from competing during the Russian doping scandal but was later cleared to compete by the International Olympic Committee. King backed up her words by setting a new Olympic record in the event with a time of 1:04.93. Efimova took silver and American Katie Meili took bronze.

• Katie Ledecky, Women's 200m Freestyle -- Swedish sprint swimmer Sarah Sjostrom was neck and neck with Ledecky through the entire race, but Ledecky managed to stave her off and win gold #2 by 0.35 seconds.

• Michael Phelps, Men's 200m Butterfly -- Much was made by the media about the rivalry between Phelps and South Africa's Chad Le Clos, who beat Phelps in London. But the biggest threat was Japan's Masato Sakai, whom Phelps edged out by just four hundredths of a second to win his 20th Olympic gold.

• Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas, Ryan Lochte, and Michael Phelps, Men's 4x200 Freestyle Relay -- Team USA has now won the gold in this event in the last four Olympics, with Lochte and Phelps as members of every winning team.

• Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian; Women's Team Gymnastics -- In London, there was the Fierce Five. In Rio, there was the Final Five, named in honor of being the last team coached by legendary gymnastics guru Marta Karolyi. Indeed, the U.S. women gave their coach a sendoff for the ages, winning the gold by a whopping 8.2 points.

• Kristin Armstrong -- Women's Cycling Time Trial -- Though the roads of Rio were slick with rainwater, Armstrong prevailed in the "Race of Truth" to become the oldest American woman to win an individual gold medal with a victory a day prior to her 43rd birthday.

• Allison Schmidt, Leah Smith, Maya DiRado, and Katie Ledecky; Women's 4x200 Freestyle Relay -- Team USA was just under a second out of the lead when Ledecky entered the pool as the team's anchor, but once she was in, Ledecky pulled out to a firm lead to win USA Swimming's eighth gold of these Olympics.

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Here’s every American victory at the Rio Olympics

Team USA is once again expected to contend for the top spot in the medal count at this year's Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. Here are the athletes that have claimed the gold medal so far.

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