Insert your own “gold” pun here, as we’ve already used up all of ours. Plus, Thursday was more like a silver medal performance for NBC — at least, against itself.
Still, the network once again destroyed its primetime broadcast competition last night, thanks to the superhuman efforts of Michael Phelps and Simone Biles, among others. NBC scored its second-best Rio Olympics overall viewer tally to date and tied Sunday’s runner-up mark in the key 18-49 demographic.
All-Rio-everything NBC was first in ratings with a 9.0 rating/31 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 31.3 million, according to preliminary numbers.
CBS was second in ratings with a 1.3/4 and in viewers with 4.8 million. Following reruns, “Big Brother” at 9 p.m. ET earned a 1.8/6 and 5.9 million viewers. Another repeat followed.
ABC, Fox, Univision and Telemundo all tied for third in ratings, each with a 0.6/2. ABC was third in total viewers with 2.6 million, airing all reruns; Fox was fourth with 2.3 million, also airing only repeats; Univision was fifth with 1.7 million; Telemundo was sixth with 1.5 million.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.4/1 and in viewers with 1.2 million. Following a rerun, “Beauty & the Beast” at 9 p.m. ET received a 0.3/1 and 1.1 million viewers.