Parting Schotts: NBC Sports' Saturday night Summer Olympics coverage is most-watched opening night on record

NBC Sports' Saturday night Summer Olympics coverage is most-watched opening night on record

NBC announced Sunday that it averaged 28.7 million average viewers for Saturday's prime-time coverage of the Summer Olympics from London.

The network said it's the most-watched or a Summer Games opening night on record, topping the first night of competition from the 1996 Atlanta Games by more than two million viewers (26.3 million).

Some other numbers: Viewership is nearly five million more than the first night of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (24.0 million), and nearly nine million more than the first night of the 2004 Athens Olympics (19.8 million), the last European Olympics.

The rating/national share was 15.8/29, the best for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics opening night in 36 years since Montreal Olympics. The rating is 14 percent higher than the first night of the Beijing Olympics (13.9/27).

Here are the top-20 metered markets from Saturday night. What is interesting is neither New York nor Los Angeles made the top 20:
1. Salt Lake City 23.9/46
2. San Diego 22.8/43
3. Kansas City 22.4/42
4. Columbus 21.5/39
5. Ft. Myers 21.3/40
6. Milwaukee 20.6/38
7. Denver 20.5/44
8. Indianapolis 20.4/39
9. Sacramento 20.2/41
10. Nashville 19.6/34
11. Oklahoma City 19.2/32
12. St. Louis 18.9/35
13. Richmond 18.7/33
14. Portland 18.5/41
T15. San Francisco 18.4/40
T15. Boston 18.4/36
T17. Norfolk 18.3/30
T17. Albuquerque 18.3/34
T17. Jacksonville 18.3/31
20. Phoenix 18.1/32

Source: http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/schott/2012/jul/29/nbc-sports-saturday-night-summer-olympics-coverage/

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