Men’s sports received more coverage than women’s sports during NBC’s primetime Paris Summer Olympic broadcast on Sunday, August 4, 2024.

Five men’s events had at least one minute of broadcast coverage.

Men’s track and field had just over 57 minutes due to the semifinals of the 1500 meter and both the semis and final for the 100 meter, which was won by American Noah Lyles.

Men’s swimming had just under 31 minutes with coverage of the 1500-meter freestyle final won by Team USA’s Bobby Finke in world record time and the 4×100 medley relay, where the U.S. won silver behind China’s gold.

Men’s gymnastics had just under 16 minutes with coverage of the vault final.

Men’s golf had more than 3 and a half minutes with American Scottie Scheffler winning gold.

Men’s tennis had just over 1 minute with coverage of Serbia’s Novak Djokovic winning gold.

Five women’s events had at least one minute of broadcast coverage.

Women’s gymnastics had just under 24 minutes for coverage of the uneven bars final where Team USA’s Suni Lee won bronze

Women’s swimming had more than 16 and a half minutes due to coverage of the 50 meter freestyle final, where Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström won gold and American Gretchen Walsh missed the podium by 0.01 second, and the 4×100 medley relay, where the U.S. won gold.

Women’s track and field had just under 12 minutes due to coverage of the 800 meter semifinals and the high jump final won by Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the first individual gold for Ukraine at the Paris Games.

Women’s basketball was shown for just over 3 and a half minutes due to Steve Kornacki crunching some numbers about Team USA’s streaks with the number of gold medals they’ve won and the number of consecutive Olympic matches won.

Women’s cycling had more than 2 minutes due to American Kristen Faulkner winning the road race.

One mixed sex event was covered for more than one minute:

Equestrian had just over 3 minutes due to Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart attending the dressage event, complete with showing some of the competitors.

Overall, coverage of men’s events accounted for 63.65% of NBC’s primetime Olympic broadcast. Women’s events received 34.20% of NBC’s coverage. Mixed sex events (e.g., equestrian) received 2.15% of NBC’s coverage.

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When mixed sex events are excluded, men’s events received 65.05% of NBC’s primetime broadcast coverage compared to 34.95% for women’s events.

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Regular updates about NBC’s coverage of men’s and women’s sports on its primetime broadcast will be posted throughout the 2024 Paris Summer Games on FiveRingTV.com. Additional updates will also be posted on the @FiveRingTV X feed. A mid-Olympic report, with complete sport-by-sport coverage breakdowns, will also be issued.

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Method: The percentage of primetime devoted to men’s, women’s and mixed sex sports is calculated by a single researcher, utilizing a stopwatch and DVR or DVD time codes, measuring (to the millisecond) the total amount of time devoted to each event. Any time spent at the actual athletic site, on a profile about an athlete, promos about a specific athlete or sport, and host commentary about a specific sport or athlete is recorded. Split screens combining commercials and live coverage are included in the calculations, but commercial breaks are not included. The NBC broadcast network East Coast feed is used for the calculations. Olympic coverage on cable networks and live streaming are not included. Network overruns beyond 11:00pm up to the break for local news are included within the calculations.

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