The Milan Cortina Olympics averaged 23.5 million viewers in the United States, making it the most-watched Winter Games since 2014 with a 96% larger audience than the Beijing Games four years ago.

The days of “plausibly live” Olympics coverage on NBC are coming to an end.

Fans of swimming, gymnastics and track & field can rejoice.

One of Molly Solomon’s favorite memories from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics was watching Lindsey Vonn before she skied.

Pressure is building on Japanese organizers and the IOC to explain exactly how they plan to hold the Tokyo Olympics in the midst of a pandemic. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)U.S. viewers will get to watch the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics live. Since Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of New York, interested U.S. residents will be watching the July 23 ceremonies on NBC at 7 a.m. EDT, 4 a.m. EDT in Los Angeles. Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, said the global significance of gathering in Tokyo during the pandemic, as well as changing viewing habits, were the main factors in deciding to air the opening live in the morning for the first time. Solomon said the past nine months since the Tokyo Games were postponed have been spent refining coverage plans, including reducing how many people will be taken to Japan.

NBC which has the U.S. media rights through the 2032 Summer Games had already done most of its features and taped promos before the International Olympic Committee postponed the Games in March. Other issues include how many people NBC will send to Tokyo. ABC aired 63 hours from the Sarajevo Winter Games and 180 from the Los Angeles Summer Games, which were both records at the time. NBC's coverage from Tokyo will be over 7,000 hours and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games an additional 2,500. While ABC used only one channel for its coverage, NBC will again air across many channels along with online streaming.