Olympic ratings have been off the charts

When the Olympics started I asked the Bookwormroom readers how interested they were and the answers were lukewarm at best.  Yet, the television ratings for the Olympics have been extremely strong.   For example, at 10:00 on Thursday night, the Olympic ratings were over 10 times those for the next highest show — 43.2 million viewers to 3.8 million. To what do you attribute such widespread interest?  And to what do you attribute the contrast between the high general interest and the low interest of commenters here?