NEW YORK (AP) — Look online, and it seems everyone has a complaint about NBC's Olympics coverage. Look at the ratings — the report card that really matters to NBC — and the London games are a smash hit.

The Nielsen company said 36 million people watched Sunday night's coverage, a bigger audience for the second night of a non-U.S. summer Olympics competition since TV began covering them in 1960. Counting the opening ceremonies on Friday, an average of 35.8 million people have tuned in for the three nights, well above the 30.6 million who watched the first three nights in Beijing in 2008 and considerably more than the 24 million who saw the first three nights of the Athens games of 2004.

This is the opposite of most TV programs, where declining ratings are the rule rather than the exception. But it reflects how broadcast television has become a destination for big events and how social media is driving viewership.