NBC wears Olympic gold

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2008 | by Gary Levin

*Olympic jump. NBC's

17-day coverage of the Beijing Olympics averaged 27.7 million viewers in prime time, surpassing the 2004 Athens Summer Games (24.6 million viewers)

by 13% and the 2000 Sydney Games (21.6 million) by 28%. Sunday's coverage of the Beijing closing ceremonies beat Athens

by 42% (27.8 million vs. 19.6

million) and Sydney by 66%

(16.7 million). NBC is claiming the title of the "most-watched event in U.S. history" for Beijing, based on total audience for network and cable: 214 million viewers, each of whom tuned in somewhere, sometime, for at least six minutes in the 17 days.

*High hurdle. Many series and movies likely felt the Games' effects. Friday's Cheetah Girls: One World, the third installment of...