From the Bloomberg article:

“ The Summer Olympics ratings slip, the first since 2000, raises fresh doubts about what used to be a sure thing: live sports would be a huge and growing draw no matter what.”

Except a lot of what we saw in prime time WASN’T live. It was recorded and packaged and shaped to tell a specific narrative, not cover a live sporting event. The Olympics have become reality TV, with hero and villain edits and actual events being shaped into what makes a better story, not what actually happened.