You make it sound like NBC is some sort of obscure specialist service, but it turns out that they're actually a mainstream national broadcaster, available not just over the air but also on just about every satellite, cable, and streaming provider in the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC

Not only that, but they're the official Olympic broadcaster in the USA! Around 22m watched it on their broadcast services, and a further 3m on streaming.

In reality, an overwhelming majority of Americans watching the opening ceremony were doing so via NBC.

NBC alone had over 20 million opening ceremony viewers this year (TV + Peacock streams)[0]. TV is a huge huge part of US culture. See also the Super Bowl, which just happened today.

So maybe not most, but a lot.

[0] https://www.cbs19news.com/entertainment/olympics-opening-cer...

You're surprised sports in America has high viewership? Yes, the #1 reason people still have cables these days is for athletics.

You obviously don’t understand the role of sports in American culture. Or how the major television networks operate.

Sports events sure, opening ceremony? They are just going to get highlights on YouTube mostly.

This is making a remarkable assumption about a vast population. I know everybody in my family watched the opening ceremony on TV. Are you just making guesses?

According to the weekend ratings, 21.4 million Americans watched the opening ceremony on NBC directly.

Dude just about all Americans watch the Olympics on normal network TV, in this case NBC. What are you talking about?

Over the air? I was surprised to find out stations still broadcast over the air.

Just because it’s network television doesn’t mean it’s over the air. Cable television also carries the networks.

Who under 40 or 50 has cable anymore?

Under 40, about 25%. Overall, about half of Americans still have cable television, we’re talking hundreds of millions of people.