GLUED TO THE SCREEN

Olympics Ceremony Where JD Vance Got Booed Drew Ratings Surge

Millions more people watched Milan’s Winter Olympics opener than the 2022 ceremony in Beijing.

The opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics, where Vice President JD Vance was seen across the world getting resoundingly booed, was also a ratings smash. According to preliminary Nielsen ratings, viewership for Friday’s opening ceremony in Milan drew more than 21 million viewers for NBCUniversal. This was an increase of about 34 percent from 2022 Beijing opening ceremony, which averaged 15.9 million viewers. The 2026 Milan opening ceremony was also a hit on streaming, with more than 3 million people watching on Peacock, the platform’s largest audience ever for a Winter Olympics opening ceremony, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The increase in viewership is likely due to the favorable time difference for a U.S. audience. The biggest viewership for an opening ceremony over the past three decades was 2002’s Winter Games in Salt Lake City, which drew more than 45 million viewers for NBC. For Milan, the network had to deny that it cut the booing aimed at Vance from its live feed to American audiences. However, the angry reaction was mentioned during Canadian broadcaster CBC’s feed, with commentator Adrienne Arsenault noting: “Those are a lot of boos for him. Whistling, jeering, some applause.”

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