Last night's primetime Olympics on NBC (8-11 p.m. ET) featuring Meryl Davis and Charlie White winning America's first-ever ice dancing Olympic gold medal ranks as the most watched and highest rated second Monday of a Winter Olympics since the live U.S.-based Salt Lake City Games in 2002. The Monday night telecast averaged 23.5 million viewers and a 13.8 household rating/21 share, according to live plus same day fast national data released today by The Nielsen Company.
In addition, NBC last night topped the combined primetime viewership and household rating of ABC, CBS and FOX (18.2 million viewers and 11.7 household rating) by 29% and 18% -- marking the most-dominant Monday night in the Sept.-May TV season by any broadcast network compared to the combined performance of the other major broadcast networks since the 1998 Academy Awards, which featured Titanic as Best Picture.
Last night's 23.5 million viewers and 13.8 household rating/21 share topped the comparable second Monday for the 2010 Vancouver Games by 12% and 10% respectively (20.9 million viewers; 12.5 household rating/20 share) and the 2006 Torino Games by 4% and 1% (22.5 million viewers; 13.6 household rating/21 share).
NBCSN posted another daytime (6 a.m.-3 p.m. ET) viewership milestone on Monday, averaging a network weekday-record 1.6 million viewers for coverage which featured ice dancing, men's ski jumping and Team USA women's hockey. In six weekdays of Sochi Olympics coverage to date, NBCSN has recorded its six most-watched weekdays ever in the 6 a.m.-3 p.m. ET time period.
