Team USA is still holding in sixth place in overall medal count at the XXIII Winter Olympics, but its 5-1 hockey victory over Slovakia in the qualifying round on Monday felt like pure gold.
Add to that glow skaters Maia and Alex Shibutani clinching the bronze in the free dance and Brita Sigourney doing the same in freestyle skiing, and the total American medal count is 12, with five of those being gold.
Heading into the final days of competition out of PyeongChang and Sunday’s Closing Ceremony, the ratings for NBC out of these games aren’t going to make it on any podium. Looking on track to be the lowest-rated Olympics ever, with a drop of about 8% from the previous last place of Sochi 2014, the coverage last night presented mixed results.
With a 12.6/21 metered market rating, last night’s Presidents Day primetime coverage on NBC and NBC Sports Network was down 13% from the early numbers of February 12, the first Monday of the 2018 Games. That is not a low for PyoengChang as the hockey saw NBCSN have its best Monday prime since June 2015 and actually represents an overall bop up of 7% from the results of February 18’s primetime NBC and NBCSN airing.
Still, with that breathlessly said, the combo ratings from the two Comcast-owned outlets also saw a 14% drop from the NBC-only primetime coverage of the Sochi Olympics on the comparable night of February 17, 2014.
