The United States men’s basketball team is already proving to be a big hit with viewers at the Paris Olympics.
Despite this, the second US game – with NBA stars like LeBron James in action – will not be shown on NBC’s main channel.
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The USA’s first game – against Serbia on Sunday – was a huge success, with an average of 10.9 million viewers.
That was a larger audience than the 9.3 million who watched the gold medal game at the Tokyo Olympics.
Comparisons to previous games are not always easy or appropriate, given the differences in game times and the different viewing platforms offered.
However, Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp made some interesting comparisons in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
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Starting with the word “Wow,” Karp highlighted that the game had more viewers than a number of major television events in recent months.
He paid more attention to the USA vs. Serbia game than he watched Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks and the final round of April’s beloved golf, the Masters at Augusta.
It also drew larger audiences than the Golden Globes and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Despite NBC’s success, the United States’ second game against South Sudan on Wednesday is scheduled to be broadcast on the USA Network rather than the main channel.
This will certainly affect this game’s numbers, although they could still be healthy.
Overall, it was a strong start to the Olympics for NBC.
This will be especially welcome given the time zone issues of the European Games.
This suggests that some momentum has returned to the Games, and those tuning in to watch.
NBC reported some mediocre viewing figures during the two Games that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022.
Its coverage on Sunday, across NBC, cable platforms and Peacock, averaged a total audience delivery of 41.5 million viewers.
This continued the strong momentum from Friday’s opening ceremony and the first full day of competition on Saturday.
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The return to atmospheric arenas with crowds should be a factor in the resurgence of television audiences at these Games.
There have also been a number of stories and events with strong American interest thus far.
That continued on Tuesday, when the American women’s gymnastics team, inspired by the great Simone Biles, won gold.
It was the fifth Olympic gold for Biles, the first since the Rio 2016 Games.
The athletics schedule, which starts on Friday, tends to make the Games speed up as well.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
