NBC sports boss admits Beijing winter Olympics ratings have flopped after 50% drop in viewers from summer games as viewers reject Communist China as host
NBC's sports boss has admitted the 2022 Winter Olympics has been a ratings flop - and blames COVID for desolate stadiums as well as masked athletes that have turned-off viewers.
Sports CEO Pete Bevacqua put a brave face on the flop and said in interview that the network - which holds the rights to the Olympics for $7.75billion until 2032 - expected the lower numbers.
An average of just 13.2 million viewers a day have watched this year's nightly highlights from Beijing on NBC - around half the 23 million who were tuning in at the same stage of the 2018 Games, which were broadcast from South Korea.
'For us, it's been difficult. There's no way around this,' Bevacqua told The Hollywood Reporter. 'The fact that we've been able to bring these Games to life during a pandemic with only a six-month window between the two [Olympics], the ratings are - of course we always want to have the ratings better - but the ratings for these Games, as I said, are about where we thought they'd be.'
Bevacqua also said that the venues being empty and many athletes having to wear masks has also like hurt viewership.
'It's no secret that athletes in masks, venues without spectators, so much of the passion and excitement, those great moments of Olympic athletes hugging their family and friends and spouses and partners, so much of that magic is just out of necessity not present,' Bevacqua said.
NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua (pictured)
Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb have been taking NBC's Olympics coverage to the mornings
'Look at the difference in NFL ratings in '21 compared to '20,' he added. 'I think one of the main differences is because in '20, we didn't have the passionate NFL fan base in those stadiums adding to the atmosphere. We did our best out of necessity. But this year, those fans were back and the ratings showed that.'
Other problems the games have faced have included concerns over China's human rights record and the National Hockey League pulling its athletes from the men's hockey tournament due to COVID-19 concerns.
Thursday's primetime coverage of games drew 11.09 million viewers on NBC and 13.2 million across all platforms in primetime, a 32 percent drop from the equivalent night of the PyeongChang Winter Games in 2018 - and that was the smallest decline of the Olympics so far.
Officials blamed the coronavirus pandemic played a role in the lack of viewership for last year's delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The network admitted it had seen 'underwhelming ratings' for the Tokyo Olympics, amid a backlash at athletes protesting the the American flag and national anthem, and empty stadiums due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Just 14.7 million viewers tuned into the Tokyo games during primetime on July 26, a decrease of 49 percent on 2016's Rio games, and 53 percent on the 2012 games in London, Fox News reported.
The opening ceremonies also saw the lowest viewership since 1988.
Bevacqua is looking to future Olympics - held in big name cities with less controversy attached like Milan, Paris and Los Angeles - for hope, for more reasons than just ratings.
'Why I'm energized is I think about where we're going, think about Paris and Italy and LA,' he said. 'And, knock on wood, not just for the Olympics, but for the sake of all of us, hopefully this pandemic is well beyond us by then, we have those spectators back in these venues bursting at the seams, we have those passionate family and friends and athletes without masks hugging each other and celebrating these Olympic achievements.'
Bevacqua cited the sparsely attended games themselves
'It's no secret that athletes in masks, venues without spectators, so much of the passion and excitement, those great moments of Olympic athletes hugging their family and friends and spouses and partners, so much of that magic is just out of necessity not present,' Bevacqua said
NBC Sports was hoping to have the stars of the National Hockey League participating in Saturday's USA-Canada men's hockey game before the league pulled out of competition due to COVID-19
'We have our eye on that normalized future coming back into focus as we work our way through this pandemic, so that's why we're hopeful,' he added.
In addition to low ratings, the network has faced criticism for being too soft on China's human rights record during the games.
Senator Marco Rubio hit out at NBC for what he believes is favorable coverage of Communist China during the 2022 Winter Olympics, comparing the Beijing games to the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.
Writing in an op-ed for Fox News Friday, Rubio said that the Peacock network is taking their talking points straight from Xi Jinping's Communist Party.
Rubio said that in recent days, NBC has 'dutifully recited Chinese Communist Party talking points at every turn.'
'NBC has opted for a "both sides" approach that makes the CCP out to be as trustworthy as our own government,' the Florida Senator writes.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio hit out at NBC for what he believes is favorable coverage of Communist China during the 2022 Winter Olympics
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics
NBC has televised round-the-clock coverage of the Beijing games
Illustration of the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
'During the Feb. 4 opening ceremony, NBC analysts described first-hand accounts and verified reports of Beijing's human rights abuses as "allegations." Meanwhile, the network made sure to pronounce the Communist Party line, reminding viewers that 'the Chinese government [says] that accusations of genocide are the lie of the century' and is 'looking to demonstrate diversity.'
Rubio also said that NBC is downplaying China's 'one-child' policy and that the network claimed Chinese investment is helping to build economies in the third world.
The Senator compared the situation in Beijing to that of 1936 in Germany under Hitler.
'We don’t remember the 1936 Berlin Olympics as an occasion when the world came together to celebrate national pride and athletic excellence,' Rubio wrote. 'Instead, 1936 is remembered as the year the West failed to stand up to a mass-murdering Nazi regime. We should be able to learn from that mistake.'
With many skeptical about NBC's handling of it, network hosts Mike Tirico and Savannah Guthrie discussed the potential minefield of China hosting the games with Bloomberg's Andy Brown, and Yale professor and author Jing Tsu live during the Opening Ceremony.
NBC Sports' Olympic host Mike Tirico moderated a discussion about China during the Opening Ceremony
Andy Browne, Editorial Director, Bloomberg New Economy
Dinigeer Yilamujian (L) and Zhao Jiawen wave with the Olympic flame in the middle of a giant snowflake during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games
These Games are attracting renewed global controversy as they spotlight the host country's treatment of the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. According to researchers, authorities have locked up an estimated 1 million or more members of minority ethnic groups in mass internment camps over the past several years - most of them Uyghurs.
Human rights groups have dubbed these the 'Genocide Games,' and the US and other countries have cited rights abuses in leading a diplomatic boycott of the event.
Browne, while acknowledging that the Chinese government calls the accusations of genocide 'the lie of the century,' laid out everything the country is alleged to have done to the ethnic minority on-air.
'Western governments and human rights groups allege that the Chinese government is engaged in a systematic repression of Muslim Uyghurs,' he said. 'They allege that this is a massive program of social engineering aimed at suppressing Muslim Uyghur culture, language, identity... human rights abuses, forced labor, birth control. They say that all of this adds up to a form of cultural genocide.'
Guthrie was criticized for falling for Chinese propaganda after she praised Xi's decision to have an Uyghur co-lighting the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony.
NBC Today anchor Savannah Guthrie on Tuesday
During the NBC telecast, Guthrie described the decision as 'provocative' and an 'in- your-face response to Western nations, including the U.S, who have called Chinese treatment of that group genocide and diplomatically boycotted these games.'
The Communist Chinese regime chose Zhao Jiawen and Dinigeer Yilamujiang, an Uyghur athlete, to light the Olympic flame at the Winter Games Opening Ceremony in a blatant propaganda attempt to deflect claims it is guilty of genocide of the Muslim minority.
Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur cross-country skier from the north west region of Xinjiang, was one of the Chinese athletes to light the flame.
Browne, editorial director of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, also appeared to fall for the move.
'This was a riposte to President Joe Biden for skipping these Olympics and a message to the West: China won’t be lectured to on human rights, or on any other issue,' he said of the lighting ceremony.
People on social media were quick to criticize Guthrie for praising the controversial president and promoting his propaganda.
NBC will attempt to juice the ratings for the games with help from the highest-rated TV program of the year: the Super Bowl.
Sunday is a sports bonanza for NBC, which is airing the Super Bowl in addition to the Winter Olympics.
It's the first time those two events are happening at the same time, and the chance to air them both is part of the reason NBC switched Super Bowl spots with CBS and took this year's game.
The football game is obviously forcing some changes in NBC's Olympic schedule. Instead of its usual afternoon and prime time slots, NBC will have coverage from 8 a.m. ET until Super Bowl pregame coverage at noon.
Olympic coverage picks up again after the game, when NBC plans to show live coverage of ice dancing's free dance.
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February 13, 2022
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