The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were a huge hit in the United States for NBC, officially being declared the most watched event in American television history. NBC's coverage of the 16-day run of the event reached 214 million viewers, topping the 209 viewers who tuned in for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

The network also stepped up its coverage of the Olympic events, broadcasting a record 3,600 hours of coverage across its various multimedia outlets, including mobile and online. NBC paid $894 million for the exclusive rights to cover the Olympics this year, and have more than made their money back. NBC is estimated to have taken in an estimated $1 billion in advertising revenue from the Games.

The top five most viewed events in US television history have all been Olympics. After #1 Beijing and #2 Atlanta comes the Lillehammer winter games of 1994 (204 million), the 2004 summer Olympics in Athens (203 million), and the 1998 Seoul summer games (194 million).

The average audience during NBC's primetime coverage of the Beijing Games was 27.7 million, up 11% on Athens just four years ago. The highly publicized opening ceremonies and the fact that this was China's first time hosting the Olympics undoubtedly contributed to the ratings success.