THE NUMBERS
Now that the 2022 Winter Olympic Games are behind us, we wondered just how well (or not so well) the sporting event did in the ratings compared to the performance of “Days of our Lives” which did not air for the duration of the games. The soap returned with all-new episodes on Monday, February 21.
Thanks to the folks at ShowBuzzDaily we now know how the games performed in Total Viewers, Households and Adults 18-49, the primary sales demo used to set ad rates for sports and other non-female centric programming.
Note: Daytime soaps, talk shows and game shows use Women 18-49 and Women 25-54 to set ad rates.
Running on weekday afternoons from February 7-11 and February 14-18, 2022, the games averaged 1.989 million viewers overall in Live+Same Day. The first full week averaged 2.103 million viewers while the second full week averaged just 1.875 million viewers.
By comparison, “Days of our Lives” averaged 1.850 million viewers during the week of January 31-February 4, 2022 despite airing just four episodes over that period – the Olympics took over the slot beginning Friday, February 4, and averaged just 1.932 million viewers for its 12:00 p.m. ET start time on the day.
Later today we’ll be posting the Daytime Broadcast ratings for the week of February 14-18, 2022. In the meantime, what follows is a breakdown of how the Olympics performed in the ratings during its weekday afternoon duration on February 4, 2022; February 7-11, 2022; and February 14-18, 2022. All times are for the 2:00 p.m. ET slot except where otherwise noted.
Winter Olympics Rankers – NBC Airings Only
Adults 18-49 Viewers
| Rank / Show / Day | A18-49 Viewers |
|---|---|
| 1. WINTER OLYMPICS – Mon, 2/14 | 471,000 |
| 2. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/11 | 435,000 |
| 3. WINTER OLYMPICS – Tues, 2/8 | 394,000 |
| 4. WINTER OLYMPICS – Thurs, 2/10 | 389,000 |
| 5. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/4 – 12PM | 385,000 |
| 6. WINTER OLYMPICS – Wed, 2/9 | 382,000 |
| 7. WINTER OLYMPICS – Tues, 2/15 | 361,000 |
| 8. WINTER OLYMPICS – Thurs, 2/17 | 350,000 |
| 9. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/18 | 349,000 |
| 10. WINTER OLYMPICS – Wed, 2/16 | 340,000 |
| 11. WINTER OLYMPICS – Mon, 2/7 | 327,000 |
Households
| Rank / Show / Day | Households |
|---|---|
| 1. WINTER OLYMPICS – Thurs, 2/10 | 1.6 |
| 1. WINTER OLYMPICS – Wed, 2/9 | 1.6 |
| 3. WINTER OLYMPICS – Tues, 2/8 | 1.5 |
| 4. WINTER OLYMPICS – Mon, 2/14 | 1.4 |
| 4. WINTER OLYMPICS – Tues, 2/15 | 1.4 |
| 6. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/4 – 12PM | 1.2 |
| 6. WINTER OLYMPICS – Mon, 2/7 | 1.2 |
| 6. WINTER OLYMPICS – Thurs, 2/17 | 1.2 |
| 6. WINTER OLYMPICS – Wed, 2/16 | 1.2 |
| 6. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/11 | 1.2 |
| 11. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/18 | 1.0 |
Total Viewers
| Rank / Show / Day | Viewers |
|---|---|
| 1. WINTER OLYMPICS – Thurs, 2/10 | 2,408,000 |
| 2. WINTER OLYMPICS – Wed, 2/9 | 2,323,000 |
| 3. WINTER OLYMPICS – Tues, 2/8 | 2,163,000 |
| 4. WINTER OLYMPICS – Mon, 2/14 | 2,149,000 |
| 5. WINTER OLYMPICS – Tues, 2/15 | 2,067,000 |
| 6. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/4 – 12PM | 1,932,000 |
| 7. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/11 | 1,813,000 |
| 8. WINTER OLYMPICS – Mon, 2/7 | 1,809,000 |
| 9. WINTER OLYMPICS – Thurs, 2/17 | 1,806,000 |
| 10. WINTER OLYMPICS – Wed, 2/16 | 1,772,000 |
| 11. WINTER OLYMPICS – Fri, 2/18 | 1,582,000 |
