Surprising absolutely no one, NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage once again left the other networks in the dust on Wednesday night, nearly tripling the combined ratings for the other four broadcast networks.
Because NBC’s sneak preview of “Go On” aired outside the traditional primetime period, numbers aren’t available yet.
For the night, NBC averaged a 9.2 rating among adults 18-49 and 27.8 million viewers overall. Waaaaay off in the distance was CBS, which averaged a 1.2 and 4.4 million viewers, followed by ABC (0.9, 2.8 million), FOX (0.7, 1.9 million) and the CW (0.4, 898,000).
8 p.m. — The Olympics ratings were only getting warmed up, with a 6.8 demo rating and 23.5 million viewers for the hour. CBS had the only other original programming in the hour with “Big Brother” (1.8, 5.3 million), which ABC had repeats of “The Middle” and “Suburgatory” (0.8, 2.8 million), and FOX had a “So You Think You Can Dance” repeat (0.8, 2 million). The first of two “Supernatural” reruns averaged a 0.4 and 1 million viewers for the CW.
9 p.m. — NBC’s numbers shot up to a 10.2 demo and 31.3 million viewers for the hour. Everyone else was in repeats: “Modern Family” for ABC (1.1, 2.8 million), “Criminal Minds” for CBS (0.9, 3.9 million), more “So You Think You Can Dance” for FOX (0.6, 1.8 million), and more “Supernatural” for the CW (0.3, 753,000).
10 p.m. — NBC continued to make the competition irrelevant with a 10.8 demo rating and 31.5 million viewers. CBS and ABC tied in the demo with a 0.8 rating for both “CSI” and “Final Witness,” but “CSI” averaged 3.9 million viewers to 2.8 million for “Final Witness.”
All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change.