Americans are historically uninterested in watching the Olympics this year

Perhaps it's all the talk about the Zika virus or maybe it's all the hubbub over the U.S. presidential election, but not many Americans are planning on making the effort to watch the Olympics this year. In what marks a first in Gallup's 16 years of polling on the topic, Americans are almost "evenly split" over whether or not they'll tune in for the Olympics, Gallup reported.

Forty-eight percent of Americans said they're planning to tune in a "great deal" or a "fair amount," while 51 percent said they're going to tune in "not much" or "none at all." That's a steep drop-off from viewership for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, when 59 percent of people planned to tune in, compared to just 41 percent of uninterested viewers.

"The Olympic Games have been a rallying cry for nations since ancient times, and certainly since the modern Olympics resumed in 1896," Gallup said. "Yet with concerns about the Zika virus keeping many American athletes at home, on top of allegations of drug use among participants and recent reports of unsafe conditions in the Olympic Village, Americans seem to have lost interest."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up