NBC Sports recently broadcast the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, which included standout performances by Simone Biles in gymnastics and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone for track & field, as athletes from around the country vied to earn spots at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The event concluded Sunday night on NBC and Peacock as the most-watched Trials telecast in eight years with an average audience of 7.6 million viewers watching the action on NBC and Peacock between 8:36 and 11:03 p.m. EST. This is up by 29% from the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, which averaged 5.9 million viewers ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Sunday’s telecast amassed a peak audience of 8.2 million viewers from 10 to 10:15 p.m. EST as the gymnasts completed their final rotations. Biles, the most-decorated gymnast in U.S. history, finished first in the U.S. Olympic Trials and qualified for her third Olympic team.
Earlier in the night, McLaughlin-Levrone attained a world-record 50.65 in the 400-meter hurdles in the final event of the track & field trials. Viewership for the trials averaged 4.5 million viewers during the eight nights of competition on NBC and Peacock. This is representative of a 38% rise from the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials in this category that realized an average of 3.2 million viewers.
Live prime-time television coverage of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for swimming, diving, gymnastics and track & field across NBC, Peacock and USA Network garnered a 58% viewership increase from the previous trials in 2021, according to custom fast national data from Nielsen Media Research and metrics from Adobe Analytics. Moreover, live prime time coverage on NBC and Peacock secured an average audience of 3.9 million viewers, a 24% boon from the figure the company attained during its last broadcast of the trials in 2021.
Peacock and NBC Sports Digital platforms registered more than 488 million live minutes streamed of the U.S. Olympic Trials Competition. The metric is more than three times greater than the combined total of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials (79 million minutes) and 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials (53 million minutes).
NBCUniversal will broadcast the Olympic Games through 2032 as part of an agreement with the International Olympic Committee for $7.65 billion. The deal was agreed upon in May 2014 and started in 2021, and it will include future games in Milan Cortina, Italy (2026), Los Angeles, Calif. (2028) and Brisbane, Australia (2032) with a host city for 2030 yet to be selected.
NBCUniversal will implement several broadcasters, analysts and hosts at the Olympic Games, including Mike Tirico, Kelly Clarkson, Snoop Dogg, Peyton Manning, Jimmy Fallon, Maria Taylor and Michael Phelps. Peacock recently revealed that an A.I.-generated version of Al Michaels’ voice will narrate daily highlights in a new consumer feature within the OTT streaming platform. Coverage of the Olympic Games begins on Friday, July 26 at 12 p.m. EST with the Opening Ceremony and concludes on Sunday, Aug. 11. This will be the third time that the city of Paris hosts the Olympic Games since the modern iteration of the event was created 130 years ago.
