Ranking the biggest moments of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics
In the final episode of Milano Magic on site in Italy, Christine Brennan and Brian Boitano rank their favorite moments from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
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NBC appears to have struck gold with its coverage of this year’s Winter Olympics.
The network announced in a Feb. 23 press release that it averaged 23.5 million viewers over the two-plus weeks of the tournament across all platforms. Final figures are not yet available, but if these numbers hold, Milan-Cortina will become the most-watched Winter Games since Sochi in 2014, and will represent a 96% increase in viewership from 2022.
NBCUniversal’s numbers come from Nielsen Big Data+ Panel reach metrics through Feb. 19 and preliminary Nielsen and Adobe Analytics over the final three days of the contest. Final data will be available later this week.
“The Milan-Cortina Olympics proves once again that American spectators will flock to America in droves over 17 days to experience this unique global event,” NBC Olympic Chairman Gary Zenkel said in a statement. “These Winter Games were spectacularly staged across Northern Italy, produced and distributed by a team of 2,700 people, and reached a blockbuster US audience of over 50 million viewers each day, continuing the media domination we experienced at the Paris Olympics less than two years ago.
According to the network, the opening ceremony itself on February 2 attracted the most attention in 12 years. All 15 competition days were watched by more than 20 million viewers, with the live U.S. daytime broadcast “Milan Prime” and primetime broadcast “Milan Prime Time” totaling 3.3 million viewers across Peacock and NBCU Digital platforms in total viewership (TAD) – a metric used to measure total viewership across all platforms.
Front Office Sports believes multiple factors are likely responsible for the dramatic jump in viewership: the favorable six-hour time difference between the U.S. East Coast and Italy (nine hours from the West Coast) compared to China and Russia, sophisticated programming strategy, strong storytelling-driven production, and Team USA’s historically successful performance.
Milwaukee was the market with the highest viewership share during the Olympics. Minneapolis, Fort Myers (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Dayton (Ohio) round out the top five.
“We can’t wait for the Olympic Games to return to the United States with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles,” NBC said in a release. “We’re excited to host five Olympic Games over the next 10 years as the home of American media.”
