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.
