London 2012 Most Viewed Olympic Summer Games

     Complaining about Olympic coverage has been going on as long as they've been televised. In 2000 critics ripped NBC for what they deemed excessive use of tape delays.  Dick Ebersol, the then chairman of NBC Sports, complained that much of the moaning was coming from jealous journalists, "editors have a hard time getting used to the dominance of television in the Olympics," Ebersol said.  "Ratings are terrific by almost any objective measure," said Andrew Billings, a professor and sports broadcasting expert at the University of Alabama.  The first weekend of London 2012 Olympics averaged 35.8 million total viewers in prime time, according  to Nielsen, a media ratings company.  That is the best first weekend for any Olympics in history.  See also, http://www.nytimes.com/.