NBC's coverage of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games posted a 24.1 Nielsen rating on Atlanta television Friday night, the 15th highest among the nation's 56 major markets.

That means 24.1 percent of metro Atlanta's approximately 2.3 million TV households -- about 560,000 households -- tuned in to the opening telecast of the London Games on average.

Nationally, the telecast posted a 23.0 major-markets U.S. rating, which NBC said was the highest ever for a summer or winter Olympics opening ceremony not held in the U.S., topping the 21.5 posted by the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The highest local rating in a U.S. market Friday night was San Diego's 27.8. Atlanta's rating for the opening ceremony was sandwiched between No. 14 Los Angeles (24.2) and No. 16 Philadelphia (24.0).

Atlanta's TV ratings for the Olympic telecasts on Saturday and Sunday nights were 16.9 and 21.3, respectively. The national major-market ratings for those nights were 15.8 and 21.7, respectively.

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