Ratings
Through August 12, NBC was averaging 30.4 million viewers for each night of primetime coverage, up five million from the same period in 2004. The increased number was attributed to Michael Phelps' ongoing quests for the most gold medals in a single Olympics and in a career. On August 11, NBCOlympics.com had 7.8 million unique page visits and 476,062 downloads from cellular telephones. The number of average viewers had dropped to 28.7 million by August 17, but it still far outpaced shows on other networks. Most programming opposite the Olympics was in reruns, except for Big Brother 10 on CBS and High School Musical: Get in the Picture on ABC.
By the end of the Olympics, NBC estimated a total audience of 214 million people for at least some of the telecasts, an all-time record for any Olympics. In the second week of the Games, all eight primetime telecasts (there were two on August 24) finished in the top eight of the ratings. On all 17 nights, NBC had more viewers than ABC, CBS, and FOX combined. However, ratings on the final Friday and Saturday of the Games were the lowest for primetime coverage since 1988.
Even other sports events saw ratings downturns attributable to Games coverage. Declines ranged from 14 percent for the PGA Tour The Barclays to 36 percent for the Little League World Series final. (scroll to middle of page)
Read more about this topic: 2008 Summer Olympics On NBC