NBC 2022 Winter Olympics Coverage Dominates Thursday Primetime, First Night Tallies 7.4M Viewers In Early Numbers

The 2022 Winter Olympics, now three Thursdays into competition, are back where they started ratings-wise.

Simone Biles has shared her support for Winter Olympics star Mikaela Shiffrin after she posted a heartbreaking message to fans.MORE: Simone Biles is engaged! See the heartwarming proposal and stunning ringMikaela took to social media to share a powerful message about the online hate and trolling she has received as she struggled through the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Mikeala was one of Team USA's big hopefuls but she failed to finish the women's combined event, and lost control during the opening few seconds of her run in the giant slalom; Mikeala was defending her 2018 gold medal.WATCH: Simone Biles falls off mat during Tokyo 2020 qualifying roundsShe fell and skied out, ending her 30-race streak, and ended up being disqualified from the event."I know this all too well.

Leading into Wednesday primetime, the lowest-rated evening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing was the very first night of competition pre-Opening Ceremony. However, Wednesday marked new lows for NBC Olympics coverage.

Fresh off the gold medal wins for Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim, NBC’s coverage of 2022 Winter Olympics ventured to new heights with Thursday earning the highest demo of the games so far.

Six nights in and NBC’s primetime coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing continues to see steady declines in both demo ratings and viewership.

Figure skater Nathan Chen brought glory to the United States on the ice during Monday’s primetime coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics, shattering the world record in the men’s short program at the Beijing games. Nabbing 113.97 points, Chen brought in the highest short program score in figure skating history. Monday saw new highs for Chen and the winter sport, not for NBC’s fifth night of coverage, or at least in early numbers.

kicked off their opening day, tweeting her thoughts about the city’s alleged human rights violations.“There is no reason to watch a Winter Olympics that is holding up and spreading propaganda for a regime that is committing actual genocide and ethnic cleansing,” she claimed. “On top of poisoning the world and killing 6 million people.

With the first full day of games tucked away, NBC posted some early numbers from the Beijing Winter Olympics and the glass seems to be half full.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC Sports says 16 million viewers tuned in to watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, an all-time low for Olympic ceremonies on linear television.That’s around 43% down compared to the 28.3 million viewers that watched the PyeongChang Winter Olympics opening ceremony in February 2018.Friday’s torch-lighting in Beijing aired live on NBC and the streaming service Peacock beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET yesterday morning and was replayed again in primetime.

It’s early days at the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, but NBC must already be praying for some Gold medal glory or the Super Bowl to give them a boost. Right now, coming off record low viewership in the first night of primetime coverage, the billions the Comcast-owned network fork out to broadcast the Games until 2032 isn’t looking like money well spent.

Shaun White has announced that he is retiring from professional snowboarding.

Chinese authorities interrupted a Dutch journalist’s live report on the Winter Olympics Friday, dragging him off-camera and creating confusion as to why his broadcast was halted.

2022 Winter Olympics are underway! The opening ceremony was held on Friday, at Beijing's National Stadium, which is also known as the «Bird's Nest,» and signaled the official start of the Games.The Parade of Nations, the part of the ceremony that highlights each competing nation in the Games, featured many standout moments including a shirtless skeleton competitor, a long-awaited moment for Jamaica, and a Ralph Lauren-clad Team USA.While the U.S. counted its second-largest Olympic delegation in history, other countries had just one athlete set to compete on their behalf. It all came to a close with an epic torch lighting that differed from years past.Keep reading for the five biggest moments from the opening ceremony.With Tonga's Pita Taufatofua sitting out the Olympics for the first time since 2014, fans worried that the cross-country skier's absence would mean they'd be deprived of a shirtless, oiled-up athlete during the Parade of Nations.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticTwo hours of parading nations later, IOC president Thomas Bach stood on the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony stage and did his best to justify the Olympic ideal in 2022, a year more surreal than most. “Division, conflict, and mistrust are on the rise,” Bach said.

only 15 out LGBTQ athletes competed.Outsports reports that the athletes hail from 14 countries and will compete in nine different sports, including ice hockey, figure skating, skiing, and snowboarding.They include veteran LGBTQ competitors like Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, the first out gay man to win a gold Winter Olympics medal, bisexual Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst, the most decorated LGBTQ Olympian of all time, and gay skier Gus Kenworthy, who will be competing for Great Britain after switching from Team USA (Kenworthy holds dual citizenship).Also Read: A tennis player yelled anti-gay slurs at the Olympics. He blamed the weather.The Beijing Winter Games will also feature a number of freshly out LGBTQ athletes, including Brazilian skeleton athlete Nicole Silveira and Team USA figure skater Timothy LeDuc, who will be the first out nonbinary athlete at the Winter Olympics.Team USA’s Brittany Bowe, a world record-holding speed skater, holds the honor of being the only out LGBTQ athlete to be chosen as a flag bearer for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.Bowe, the only openly LGBTQ woman athlete on Team USA, will compete in her third Olympic games in Beijing.

NBCUniversal is using the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony to highlight the extravagant plumage of its nascent streaming service Peacock.