By: Kari Breidert
Well, we have made it another four years to once again watch the summer Olympics. This is a time when Americans take a minute or two and remember the sports of swimming, gymnastics and maybe even table tennis.
NBC Universal is once again playing host to the games. NBC as well as the cable stations MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo will be showing coverage most days from 9a-6p. So, much like March Madness, get all four of your televisions hooked up so that you can take it all in because hey, it only happens every four years. However, before the games begin, team USA needs to pick its players through Olympic trials and like the Olympic games themselves, NBC will happily take those ratings as well.
NBC had already predicted that swimming will be one of the most wanted to watch Olympic events for the summer 2012 games. For the first time, every night the swimming trials were and will be in primetime on the station due the infamous Michael Phelps and his rival/teammate Ryan Lochte going head to head. And, lucky for NCB, they were right (for the trials at least). After a slow weekend showcasing the track and field events, ratings increased to a 14.4 national rating. These ratings have been the highest since the gymnastics trials in 2000. We can only imagine the ratings to continue to increase with the actual Olympic Games.