Beijing Winter Olympics Open to Abysmal Ratings

The 16 million viewers is a record-low for an Opening Ceremony, with the previous low being 20.1 million viewers for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. According to polls, one of the main components to the lack of interest is the Olympic Games’ location itself.

Daily Wire

Beautful. Keep it up… or should I say, down. Screw China.

As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics approached, the lack of enthusiasm for the games was palpable.

Whether it was because of the COVID-19 restrictions — the fans who usually accompany the events are mostly missing — or the location of the Winter Games — controversy around China’s record of human rights abuses has swirled — the energy around the Winter Olympics was noticeably lacking.

The early television ratings tell the story.

According to NBC Sports, the Opening Ceremony drew just 16 million viewers, which includes people watching on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. Per Axios, the 16 million total viewers for Friday’s main event puts this years’ Opening Ceremony 43% down from the Opening Ceremony at the 2018 Winter Games.

“Including viewership across digital platforms — like NBC’s streaming service Peacock and the NBC sports app — NBC Sports says the event drew 16 million viewers total,” Sara Fischer of Axios wrote. “That’s down about 43% from the 23.8 million people who watched the opening ceremony for the last winter Games in Pyeongchang in 2018.”

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As reported by Yahoo Sports, the 16 million viewers is a record-low for an Opening Ceremony, with the previous low being 20.1 million viewers for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

According to polls, one of the main components to the lack of interest is the Olympic Games’ location itself.

Per FiveThirtyEight, “40 percent in the Morning Consult poll said they don’t plan to watch the Olympics this year because they are opposed to China hosting the Games, and 31 percent cited it as a ‘major’ reason.”