Team USA's gold medal win at the Paris 2024 Olympics coincided with NBCU's viewership surge, averaging 30.6 million viewers. Smith School marketing professor Bobby Zhou attributes this to Paris's allure, favorable time zones, and the Olympics' unifying effect.

On-site spectators will be missing Friday as athletes parade in Beijing for the XXIV Olympic Winter Games opening ceremonies. There will be pandemic-inspired protocols in place, extending through the competitions – similar to the ones adopted at the most recent Summer Games in Tokyo. And there's a diplomatic boycott in place as well, with the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia opting not to send government officials to the Games, in a show of protest against human rights violations in China. (Athletes from those countries will still compete.)