Olympics performance improves

Carly Patterson’s gold medal performance in the women’s gymnastics all-around finals in Athens propelled NBC’s coverage to its best numbers yet for the 2004 Olympics.

Thursday night’s telecast, which also included swimmer Aaron Piersol’s controversial gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke, attracted an average audience of 30.9 million, according to data released Friday by Nielsen Media Research. That’s a 34% boost from the 23 million who tuned in for the same night of the 2000 Sydney Games -- which also featured the women’s all-around finals.

After a slow start the first two nights, NBC’s Olympics coverage has consistently improved on its performance four years ago.

NBC’s audience grew steadily through the night, from an average of 21.4 million who tuned in from 8 to 9 p.m. to 37.4 million who were watching from 10 to 11 p.m. The nearest competitor was a repeat of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” at 9 p.m. on CBS, which attracted an average of 11.4 million viewers.