The Opening Ceremony for the Sochi Winter Olympics drew a large audience for NBC in the ratings, but was down from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, though that had the benefit of being in the Pacific time zone.
Early returns for ratings have NBC snagging an 8.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 31.74 million viewers for the night, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Nothing else even came close in the ratings, but the numbers were slightly down from the Vancouver games, which averaged a 9.4 rating. The 9 p.m. time slot produced the strongest hour for the Olympics, with the ratings surging up to a 9.4 in the demo before dropping back down.
ABC was the second closest to NBC with a 1.1 rating and 4.67 million viewers. Two encores of Last Man Standing started off the night, managing 0.9 in the demo. Shark Tank was also a repeat and still managed a 1.2 rating, reports HitFix. ABC ended the night with a new episode of 20/20, which was predictably down, to a 1.2 in the demo.
CBS was third with a 0.8 in the 18-49 demo and 5.58 million viewers. The network only aired repeats for the night, with plenty of viewers still interested in tuning in, with an episode of Blue Bloods drawing in 6.71 million viewers.
Fox was right behind with a 0.7 rating and 2.41 million viewers. Fox aired a repeat of Bones, but new episodes of Enlisted and Raising Hope, which managed to get a 0.7 and 0.6 in the demo, respectively, only a small fall from last week.
The CW aired a film for the night, the horror-comedy Attack the Block, which drew a 0.2 demo rating and 826,000 for the network.
image: NBC