The colorful Olympics opening night ceremony from Beijing on NBC averaged 34.2 million viewers, making it the biggest television event since the Super Bowl.

 It was the biggest audience ever for an Olympic opening ceremony not held in the U.S., and even eclipsed this year's Academy Awards and finale of "American Idol," Nielsen Media Research said on Saturday.

The numbers were all the more impressive since it was a Friday night in August, when many people have better things to do than watch TV. If they do choose to watch TV, the number of options are growing year by year, meaning most television events typically go down in ratings.

The most recent summer Olympics, in Athens four years ago, averaged 25.4 million viewers for its first night, Nielsen said. Sydney in 2000 had 27.3 million viewers.

"It was a magical and memorable spectacle and a great way to start the Beijing Olympics," said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics. ...(By Associated Press, August 10, 2008)

NBC Scores Record Rating For Olympics Opening Ceremony:

NBC can feel satisfied that it carried Friday night's Olympic opening ceremony on a 12-hour tape delay rather than streaming or broadcasting it live. The 21.5 overnight rating was the best on record for a non-domestic Summer Games opener, with the closest being an 18.5 from Sydney in 2000.

Twelve years ago, the ceremony that opened the Atlanta Summer Games produced a 27.2 overnight rating for NBC. In other foreign-based Summer Games, NBC's overnights were an 18.0 in Athens in 2004, a 16.5 for Barcelona in 1992 and an 18.3 for Seoul in 1988.  (huffingtonpost.com)

NBC Gets Record Rating for Tape-Delayed Opening Ceremony
By Richard Sandomir

The tape-delayed opening ceremony of the Beijing Games attracted an average of 34.2 million viewers Friday night, nine million more than the figure for the Athens Olympics on the comparable night in 2004.

At 34.2 million, it is the most on record for an Olympics televised in the United States from a foreign country. Before Athens, the average viewership for the 2000 Sydney Games was 27.3 million, for Barcelona in 1992 it was 21.6 million, and for Seoul in 1988 it was 22.7 million. (The New York Times)

Click Here, Download Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

Olympics | Opening Ceremony.
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Watch the Opening Ceremony. Watch the 2008 OLYMPICS on NBC from August 8 to August 24.

Visit NBC 2008 Beijing Olympics Website

Complete coverage, schedules, medal counts, videos, and more!

NBC Olympics Coverage on Windows Media Center

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics takes place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24. With a free download service1 called NBC Olympics On The Go,2 you can catch up on TV coverage from NBC Sports. Select your favorite sports and NBC Olympics On The Go will automatically download the right events to your Windows Media Center-based PC. You can watch your selected events in up to HD quality, even when offline, and you can pause, rewind, or fast-forward the video.

Download NBC Olympics On The Go

• To get NBC Olympics On The Go, start Windows Media Center and scroll to the Online Media menu. You'll see an NBC Olympics graphic.
• Select the graphic and follow the instructions to install the service on to your computer.
• Launch NBC Olympics On The Go and read the User Tips to get started.

What you'll get

    * An easy-to-use service that lets you watch your favorite Olympic sports
    * 200+ hours of catch-up TV programming over the 17 days of the Olympics
    * Coverage of approximately 24 sports, the full opening ceremony, and a closing ceremony montage
    * Up to HD quality video

About 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony:

The 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, better known as the Bird's Nest. It began at 8:00 PM China Standard Time (UTC+8) on 8 August 2008. The number 8 is associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture.

The ceremony was directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and was noted for its focus on ancient Chinese culture, and for its creativity. The musical score for the ceremony was arranged by composer Tan Dun.

The final ascent to the torch featured Olympic gymnast Li Ning, who appeared to run through air around the top ring of the stadium. Featuring more than 15,000 performers, the ceremony lasted over four hours and was reported to have cost over $100 million to produce. The opening ceremony was lauded by spectators and various international presses as spectacular and even the "greatest ever".

About NBC:

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center. It is sometimes referred to as the Peacock Network due to its stylized peacock logo.

Formed in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in 1986 control of NBC passed to General Electric (GE), with GE's $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. After the acquisition, the chief executive of NBC was Bob Wright, until he retired, giving his job to Jeff Zucker. The network is currently part of the media company NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric and Vivendi.

NBC is available in an estimated 112 million households, or 98.6% of the country. NBC has 10 owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates in the United States and its territories.

(From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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