Nine out of 10 Kiwis tuned in to watch the Olympics at some leg during its 16 years, with Super Saturday - the charles Herbert Best day in New Zealand Games account - starring a ratings bonanza for TVNZ.
Figures from AGB Nielsen showed a million hoi polloi were glued to their screens on August 16 to take in rowers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell get ahead gold and singles sculler Mahe Drysdale and men's pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle claim bronze.
The audience peaked at 1.2 billion viewers at 9.15pm when rowers Nathan Cohen and Rob Waddell ruined fourth in the men's final of the two-fold scull.
Most viewers did not switch off till cyclist Hayden Roulston had added a silver to the Kiwi laurel wreath count in the item-by-item pursuit.
By 1am on the Sunday 250,000 were still watching when dig putter Valerie Vili won gold, taking the day's medal tally to five.
The record one-day haul eclipsed the quadruplet third-places achieved at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
TVNZ sent some 100 faculty to Beijing.
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