THE United States men’s basketball team are already proving to be a big hit with viewers at the Paris Olympics.

Despite that, the second game for the US – with NBA superstars like LeBron James in action – will not be shown on NBC’s main channel.

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The first game for the US – against Serbia on Sunday – was a big hit, averaging 10.9 million viewers.

That was a larger audience than the 9.3 million who watched their gold medal game at the Tokyo Olympics.

Comparisons with previous Games are not always easy or appropriate, given the time differences at play, along with the different viewing platforms on offer.

However, Austin Karp from the Sports Business Journal did make some interesting comparisons in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

Starting the word “Wow”, Karp pointed out the game had more viewers than a number of big television events of recent months.

More tuned in to the US v Serbia game than watched Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks and the final round of April’s beloved golf major, the Masters at Augusta.

It also attracted a bigger audience than the Golden Globes and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Despite that success for NBC, the second United States against South Sudan on Wednesday is scheduled to be on USA Network and not the main channel.

That is bound to impact the numbers tuning in for that game, although they could well still be healthy.

Overall, it’s been a strong start to the Olympics for NBC.

That will be especially welcome given the timezone issues of a European Games.

It suggests some momentum has returned to the Games, and those tuning in to watch.

NBC reported some lacklustre viewing figures during the two Games that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022.

Their coverage on Sunday, across NBC, cable platforms, and Peacock, posted a Total Audience Delivery average of 41.5 million viewers.

That continued the strong momentum from Friday’s opening ceremony and the first full day of competition on Saturday.

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A return to atmospheric arenas with crowds has to be a factor in the resurgence of television audiences at this Games.

There have also been a number of stories and events with strong American interest so far.

That continued on Tuesday when the US women’s gymnastics team, inspired by the great Simone Biles, won gold.

It was a fifth Olympics gold for Biles, her first since the 2016 Rio Games.

The track and field program, which starts on Friday, tends to see the Games step up another gear too.