The London Olympics have generated plenty of news so far, but how about this headline: Archery is the No. 1 sport so far on NBC's cable coverage of the games.
That's right, archery has become a hot Olympic sport.
In a telephone news conference from London Thursday, Alan Wurtzel, NBC's top research executive, said, “The numbers for archery have been nothing less than huge.â€
And by huge he means it has averaged 1.5 million viewers - in the daytime hours - higher than any other sport NBC has covered on its cable channels, including basketball. (To be fair, if only the games of the United States teams are measured, basketball would beat the bow-and-arrow experts.)
This result has surprised NBC's executives, though Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBC Sports, did predict archery would do well in the games.
Maybe not this well, however. Mr. Wurtzel called archery “the new curling,†citing the oddball win ter sport that developed a following in the Vancouver games two years ago.
But that was precisely because the sport is a bit bizarre to watch. Archery, on the other hand, is rather simple: contestant fires arrows at a bull's-eye, scores points for accuracy.
So what could account for the sudden surge in interest in archery? Mr. Wurtzel offered a theory: “Maybe it's the ‘Hunger Games' phenomenon.â€
It's as good a guess as any, one seemingly supported by how well NBC's archery coverage has been doing with younger female viewers, presumably the fans of the young-adult novels (and movie), whose main character, Katniss Everdeen, is an expert archer.
Mr. Lazarus did note that it's only the Olympics, which all the added attention, that could account for a flurry of interest in a sport not necessarily made for television. He said it was unlikely that other archery competitions would attract much in the way of viewers. So archery fans should enjoy the cove rage while they can get it.
Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.
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