NBC off to golden start at Olympics

Performers take part in the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium, Beijing, August 8, 2008. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Actors perform at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium, Beijing, August 8, 2008. The stadium is also known as the Bird's Nest. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

LOS ANGELES - NBC's Olympic dream of ratings fireworks have come true.

The network's presentation of the Summer Games from Beijing got off to a roaring start thanks to a record-breaking Opening Ceremony and a strong first day of competition coverage.

Friday's telecast was the most-watched and highest-rated non-U.S. Summer Olympics opener ever. The opening gala at Beijing's National Stadium averaged 34.2 million viewers.

In the nearly 50 years of televised Olympics, that's higher than any previous nondomestic summer opener, -- up 35 percent in viewers from the Athens ceremony in 2004 (25.4 million and 25 percent higher than Sydney in 2000 (27.3 million).

The mammoth figures weren't quite enough to overturn all Opening Ceremony telecasts based in the U.S., however. The Atlanta Games in 1996 kicked off with 39.8 million viewers).

NBC's performance was far above industry expectations, especially given that overall broadcast television ratings have fallen 16 percent since 2004.

Plus, NBC was chided for delaying the broadcast of the ceremony until primetime while most nations aired the event live. Yet NBC's patience might have aided the show in ways not anticipated by the network; with gushing reviews and lavish images saturating the media Friday, many viewers likely tuned in to see whether the event could live up to the hype.

NBC has claimed more than $1 billion in advertising revenue for the Summer Games and spent a reported $894 million to acquire the U.S. broadcast and digital rights.

The momentum continued Saturday night with the network's first round of competition coverage, which averaged 24.1 million viewers.

Overall, NBC's two-day average Olympics viewership marks the best primetime rating performance through the first Saturday for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics since Montreal in 1976.

"If you track past Olympics by day, the first few days of competition are what really tell the tale -- like the second and third episode of a new series," TV historian Tim Brooks said. "This is definitely a good start."

(Agencies)