Vancouver 2010: NBC Notches Largest Audience Thus Far with Sunday Coverage

The networks of NBC Universal scored it largest Vancouver Games audience to date on Sunday, as 87 million viewers tuned in to watch NBCU’s coverage.

Boosted by Bode Miller’s gold medal win in the Super G, figure skating on the Peacock, and the U.S. triumph over Canada in hockey on MSNBC, NBCU’s Sunday total was 22% higher than the 72 million that watched the middle Sunday of the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy.

The primetime coverage on NBC and MSNBC brought in 69 million total viewers, the most for a comparable Sunday night since the 79 million CBS drew in 1994 with the tabloid-fueled Games from Lillehammer, Norway.

In primetime, NBC posted a national household rating of 13.2/21 share, 14% higher than the 11.6/18 in Torino. That translated into average viewership of 23.3 million, 21% above the 19.2 million from Torino on the middle Sunday night.

MSNBC averaged a 4.3 rating and 8.22 million viewers with its telecast of the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team’s 5-3 victory over rival Canada. The game – the Americans first over the Canadians since 1960 and – ranked as the third-highest rated program in MSNBC history, behind only the 4.9 mark for the Democratic presidential debate on Feb. 26, 2008 and the 4.4 for the analysis immediately following.