ROYAL RATINGS for London Olympics Opening Ceremony!!

No doubt Nielsen’s ratings system is shot-to-heck after Friday night’s RECORD-BREAKING Olympics opening ceremony in London.

40.7 MILLION VIEWERS tuned in to watch director Danny Boyle, save the Queen… and Olympic pride!

The opening ceremony DID NOT disappoint… THE BRITS BROUGHT IT! The London ceremony featured only England’s finest — from James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) escorting the REAL Queen to the ceremony… to Sir Paul McCartney to… Mr. Bean… Huh? Yep! And, as it turns out, the biggest spike in tweets came during Mr. Bean’s (Rowan Atkinson) appearance. An estimated 5 million comments about the opening ceremony were made on social media, according to Bluefin Labs research company; 58% from women and 42% from men.

Although, some people here in the U.S. were annoyed that NBC held off on airing the ceremony until prime time, it seems like the suspense paid off since it was the MOST-WATCHED Summer Games opening EVER.

1. London – 2012 40.7 Million NBC
2. Atlanta – 1996 39.8 Million NBC
3. Beijing – 2008 34.9 Million NBC
4. Sydney – 2000 27.3 Million NBC
5. Athens – 2004 25.4 Million NBC