The opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics drew the largest number of viewers ever for any non-U.S. hosted Winter Olympics in history. NBC pulled an average 32.6 millions from 7pm to 11pm, according to Nielsen.  That number was a 47% increase over the 2006 Winter Olympics, when 22.2 million watched the opening ceremonies in Turin.

Despite some expectations that NBC would pull low ratings for the Olympic Games – NBC has pulled an average of 28.6 million viewers each night for the first three nights – 25% higher than the 22.9 million who watched Turin games in 2006.

Also sadly boosting viewership was the tragedy of Georgian luge racer Nodar Kumaritashvili.  NBC aired the footage from the crash once during the Nightly News and again before the start of the Opening Ceremony.