Tuesday Ratings: The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Remains a Failure at Colossal Proportions in the Traditional Ratings

Tuesday 8/03/21 Fast Affiliate Ratings

Total Viewers:
NBC: 13.04 million, CBS: 2.14, ABC: 1.25, Fox: 653,000, CW: 473,000

Adults 18-49:
NBC: 2.7 rating/20 share, CBS: 0.3/ 2, ABC and Fox: 0.2/ 1 each, CW: 0.1/ 1

Excluding streaming, night 11 of the Tokyo Summer Olympics on NBC averaged a still diluted 13.04 million viewers and a 2.7 rating/20 share in adults 18-49 in primetime. While adding streaming into the mix will certainly help, it will still pale in comparison to the five most recent Summer Olympics. Consider the ratings for these Summer Olympic Games to be a colossal failure in the ratings. Take a look:
 
Night 11
Total Viewers
2021 – Tokyo: 13.04 million
2016 – Rio: 24.1 million
2012 – London: 30.1 million
2008 – Beijing: 26.6 million
2004 – Athens: 25.0 million
2000 – Sydney: 18.6 million

Adults 18-49 Rating
2021 – Tokyo: 2.7
2016 – Rio: 6.9
2012 – London: 9.6
2008 – Beijing: 9.1
2004 – Athens: 8.7
2000 – Sydney: 7.3

Elsewhere, the only other original telecast of the evening was “Love Island” on CBS, which scored 1.80 million viewers and a 0.4/ 3 in adults 18-49 – second in both categories – in the Tuesday 9 p.m. ET hour.

UPDATED 8/12/2021: What follows are the Live + Seven Day rating results for the night’s network telecasts on Tuesday, August 3:

Source: Nielsen Media Research