• by Wayne Friedman , February 16, 2010

The Vancouver Winter Olympics on NBC continues to post big results among U.S. viewers on Monday.

On the heels of some 28.6 million average viewers on the weekend -- 25% more than the last Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy -- Monday's coverage continued its big numbers, posting a Nielsen preliminary 25.5 million viewer average and 7.2 rating/18 share among 18-49 viewers.

The 28.6 million average viewers for the opening weekend of the Vancouver Games are the most for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics since the 1994 Lillehammer Games, which landed at 39.9 million.

Although Vancouver's numbers are higher than the previous games, analysts says this is somewhat expected, given the usual benefit of more live events airing in North American time zones.

"I'm not overwhelmingly surprised by it," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate media director of Horizon Media, whose clients include NBC Universal. "The numbers are pretty strong, considering they are not in the U.S. They are stronger than the last two Olympics held outside the U.S.: Torino and Nagano, Japan."

On the digital front, NBC has already seen rocketing results from NBC's Olympics Web site, NBCOlympics.com. Over the weekend, it averaged 4.2 million unique users -- 250% higher than the opening weekend in Torino in 2006, which was at 1.02 million.

NBC's Olympics dominated the airwaves again on Monday. Most other network programming ran for cover with reruns, with a few exceptions. ABC's "The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love" was a winner here, not hurt by the games and down just 2% from a week before, earning a strong 4.1/10. Still another big show with original episodes, Fox's "24," sank 16% to a 2.7/6.

The CW also stayed with originals: "One Tree Hill" went down a bit among 18-49 viewers, to a 0.9/2 versus a 1.1/2 from the week before. "Life Unexpected" stayed at a 0.9/2.

Among 18-49 viewers, NBC earned a 7.2/18. ABC registered less than half of NBC's numbers, with a 3.2/8. CBS earned a 2.6/8; Fox took a 2.5/6; Univision had a 1.5/4; and CW finished with a 0.9/2.