The Olympics closing ceremony took place on Saturday, February 24 2018. The event was broadcasted on Sunday, February 25 at 8:00PM on NBC. Some of the program was shortened in order to fit the two-and-a-half-hour time slot. Some of the highlights of the night included a sports recap in the beginning of the show, a montage of medal ceremonies, Jessie Diggins carrying the flag, a 13 year old guitarist, Korean pop superstars, a look forward to the 2022 games in Beijing, and a performance by Martin Garrix. The major issues surrounding the closing ceremonies were the loss in overall ratings and the time change causing a tape delay and shortened content.
Programming
Prior to the closing ceremony, NBC put on an “Olympic Gold” special, which brought in a rating/share of 1.6/7 and 8.35 million viewers. NBC’s new show A.P. Bio followed the closing ceremonies at 10:30pm. It put up a promising 1.1/5 rating and had an impressive 4.69 million viewers. The Olympics definitely helped A.P. Bio, so it will be interesting to see if the show will hold on its own.
Ratings
The closing ceremonies brought in a 2.4/9 rating and 14.87 million broadcast only viewers according to Variety. This is significantly less than the opening ceremonies, which brought in 17.2 million viewers. It is expected for a closing ceremony to have a smaller viewership than the opening ceremony, but overall the Pyeongchang winter Olympics lost viewership by 7% compared to Sochi in 2014. Specifically, Sochi beat Pyeongchang closing ceremony viewership by .4 million. Since viewing habits have changed over the past four years, this is not considered a huge loss. According to the Chicago Tribune, On NBC alone, the Olympic coverage averaged 19.8 million viewers across broadcast and digital platforms, while the combined average for ABC, CBS, and Fox was 9.8 million. That is an 82% advantage, up from a 43% advantage in Sochi and an 8% advantage in Vancouver. These numbers are very pleasing to NBC.
Competition
Competing shows throughout the night did not come close to beating the Olympics in ratings. “Big Brother: Celebrity Edition” on CBS received a 1.4/5 and 5.18 million viewers. “The Bachelor: The Women Tell All” on ABC received a 1.1/4 and 4.19 million viewers. “The Simpsons” on Fox received a 0.7/3 and 1.81 million viewers. “Ghosted” on Fox received a 0.5/2 rating and 1.21 million viewers. “Family Guy” on Fox received a 0.5/2 rating and 1.31 million viewers. “La to Vegas” on Fox received a 0.4/1 and 1.1 million viewers. “Shark Tank” on ABC received a 0.8 and 3.12 million viewers. “NCIS: Los Angeles” on CBS received a 0.4/2 and 3.42 million viewers.
Promotions
Promotions for the closing ceremonies revolved strictly around promoting NBC only content. The network promoted shows across all categories such as news, entertainment, and even special events. To begin, NBC News teased an Ivanka trump interview regarding the Olympics, and said that more would be shown on NBC Today the following morning. There were promotions for the Olympic Channel, The Voice, Good Girls, AP Bio, Chicago Med, and the special event Jesus Christ Superstar. Interestingly, the network showed three spots promoting the NBC Snapchat account. This shows that NBC was conscious to hit traffic in all areas.
Advertisers/Sponsors
Immediately following content before cutting to commercial break, NBC highlighted its main sponsors. Some of these companies included McDonalds, Intel, Toyota, and Google. These companies paid more money for these sponsorships because they attract more attention than a regular commercial. The commercials that aired during the event were consistent with NBC’s and the Olympic committee’s values. The network showed commercials that appealed to the 18-49 demographic because that is the program’s most successful target. The network chose commercials that were family oriented and appealed to everyone. The companies with the most spots were Toyota, Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, Samsung Galaxy X9, Coca Cola, and Hershey’s. Visa used its two spots to cross market with NBC, using the Olympians as the stars of the commercial. There were three local commercials during the program. Two were for Adirondack furniture in Syracuse, and the other was for Laserview of CNY. According to the Chicago Tribune, NBC made a profit off this Olympics with $920 million in national sales. Sochi only brought in $800 million.