Olympics Ratings Kicking Some Ass!

I have something to confess. I have a bad case of Olympic Fever. My eyes have been glued to the tube for the past 5 days rooting for various countries in a variety of sports. Who knew badminton could be an exciting sport? 

Seems like America has caught the sickness too.

According to Yahoo! News, during the first two days of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an average audience of 29.1 million tuned in, making it the most highly rated broadcast of the Summer Olympic Games held outside of the United States since 1976.

NBC Universal paid an unbelievable $900 million for the exclusive rights to broadcast the Summer Games, which will consist of 3,600 hours of coverage between August 8 through August 24.  

Before the Olympics started, many critics predicted that Americans would be to consumed with other entertainment like music, movies, and video games (three of my specialties;). How wrong they were! They also criticized NBC for taping the Opening Ceremonies and broadcasting it during prime-time, which was 12 hours after the actual event. I don't blame them- they promised a lot of sponsors air-time, and more viewers would be able to tune in at night rather than the morning. 

The Opening Ceremonies pulled in an average of 34.2 million American viewers, so NBC made a wise decision. If you were not able to watch the opening, you definitely missed out. The four hour performance was absolutely beautiful. It featured many performers displaying the rich Chinese culture and also an enormous LCD screen that sprawled the field and another screen that wrapped around the stadium ceiling. 

Right now, USA is in the lead with the most medals, adding to 22. China is not far behind with 20, but has 13 gold medals while USA has only 7.  It's going to be a close match!

And who can't resist the adorable Pokemon-like mascot... things?

SEE?!