The 2012 Olympics continued to outpace the 2008 Beijing games and gave NBC an overwhelming victory Thursday night, while CBS's "Big Brother" and ABC's "Wipeout" suffered from the competition of the London games, according to preliminary numbers.
NBC took first place in the advertiser-friendly 18-49 demographic and total viewers with its Olympics coverage, averaging an 11.2 rating/32 share in the demo and 35.7 million total viewers.
Thursday night's games showed an 8 percent boost in the demo compared to the equivalent night of the 2008 Olympics. That's about on par with how the London games have fared against the Beijing games — so far, the 2012 Olympics are up 7 percent in the demo and 14 percent in total viewers versus the 2008 games.
CBS drew second place in ratings and total viewers with a 1.4/4 and 4.8 million. The network aired repeats throughout the night except for "Big Brother" at 8 p.m., which slipped 14 percent in the demo to tie a season low of 1.9/5 and drew 5.5 million total viewers — the second-highest total viewership of the night.
Univision grabbed third place in ratings and total viewers with a 1.3/4 and 3.5 million.
ABC came in fourth in ratings and total viewers with a 1.0/3 and 3.1 million. Like CBS, the network opted mostly for repeats, the exception being "Wipeout" at 9 p.m., which dropped 41 percent to a series low of 1.3/4 and attracted 3.8 million total viewers.
Fox, which aired reruns, came in fifth in ratings and total viewers with a 0.6/2 and 1.6 million.
