NBC 2022 Winter Olympics Coverage Dominates Thursday Primetime, First Night Tallies 7.4M Viewers In Early Numbers

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The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing have finally commenced, as has NBC’s primetime-topping coverage of the global sports event.

The first night of the games, which came before Friday’s grand opening ceremony, included coverage of the qualifiers for men’s and women’s freestyle skiing, figure skating and more. Per fast affiliates, NBC took Thursday primetime with a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demo and 7.39 million viewers. The non-adjusted numbers of last night’s broadcast was down significantly from 2018’s PyeongChang games (3.4, 14.53M). Numbers are set to rise pending adjustment, as is often the case with major live events.

Obviously, NBC’s coverage won the night with a pretty large margin. CBS earned the highest ratings among non-sports programming on Thursday, first with a rerun of Young Sheldon (0.5, 4.72M) then a second episode of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition (0.5, 2.56M). The CBS competition program was down from its premiere the night before.

ABC featured two Soul of a Nation presentations, Screen Queens Rising (0.3, 2.27M) and X/onerated — The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice (0.2, 1.68M). A repeat of Promised Land topped off the network’s night.

Fox touted Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer (0.3, 1.65M), Call Me Kat (0.3, 1.77M) and Pivoting (0.2, 1.18M). The CW was also in repeats.

Friday primetime will see The CW and ABC in repeats while CBS’ returns with new, two-hour episode of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition. Fox will broadcast WWE Friday Night SmackDown from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. while 2022 Winter Olympics coverage continues on NBC.