Let’s be honest, the Winter Olympics have never been a huge hit with viewers. It’s overall a much smaller affair than the Summer Olympics. There are fewer events and fewer countries participating. Unless there is a star attracting attention to a particular sport, there isn’t much of an attraction. And that’s when the games are being hosted by a good country.
This year, controversy has surrounded the IOC’s decision to let China once again host the Olympic games. This comes just two years after China was responsible for letting loose a deadly virus that crippled the world. And let’s not forget how (before the pandemic) China was getting bad press for its oppression of Hong Kong. Or their ongoing human rights violations against the Ughyr minority group.
We shouldn’t be surprised, then, to learn the ratings for this farce are the lowest ever.
According to NBC Sports, the Opening Ceremony drew just 16 million viewers, which includes people watching on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. Per Axios, the 16 million total viewers for Friday’s main event puts this years’ Opening Ceremony 43% down from the Opening Ceremony at the 2018 Winter Games…
“That’s down about 43% from the 23.8 million people who watched the opening ceremony for the last winter Games in Pyeongchang in 2018.” […]
Per FiveThirtyEight, “40 percent in the Morning Consult poll said they don’t plan to watch the Olympics this year because they are opposed to China hosting the Games, and 31 percent cited it as a ‘major’ reason.” [Source: Daily Wire]
Can’t there really be an Olympics if nobody watches? It was bad enough last year to see empty stadiums during the Summer Olympics. Now, after two years, we’re still putting up with this nonsense? The NFL has packed stadiums and nobody’s dropping dead. Yet the IOC has to pretend like they’re being “safe” by denying families and fans from attending.
That’s enough to dampen interest in the games. But really, Americans are tuning out because they aren’t interested in supporting communist China and their genocidal ways. The fact that American athletes are being warned not to say anything about the injustices going on in that country makes it even worse. Even Nancy Pelosi—a woman who encouraged riots in the U.S. over injustice in 2020—warned Americans not to make a peep because of what China would do them.
Who would want to support an event like that?
This comes after previously low ratings from the Summer Olympics of 2021. Those games were also marred by COVID stupidity and an overall lack of interest. For a while now, the Olympics have struggled to attract interest, thanks to the politicization of the IOC and the difficulty of watching the games (which are fragmented across numerous NBC streaming apps).
In the end, viewers are just sick of the hypocrisy. The Olympics are about athletes from all over the world joining together for good-spirited competition. But how can you have that in a country with actual concentration camps—where you can’t speak up out of fear of being tortured?
Author: Bo Dogan
