How much do we love the Olympics?

If national TV ratings were a competition, WPTV Channel 5 would have been tied for silver during Friday night’s Opening Ceremony, when about 214,000 area households tuned in to watch Danny Boyle’s lovingly eccentric tribute to British history.

The West Palm Beach NBC station tied with WRC in Washington, D.C. with a 26.8 rating, according to Bernadette O’Grady, WPTV’s programming director. That’s 4 percent higher than the station’s rating for 2008’s Opening Ceremony in Beijing.

“It’s hot here so people are inside watching TV,” said O’Grady. “Besides, the Olympics are really a great reality show.”

The national ratings winner Friday night was KNSD in San Diego.

On Saturday night, Channel 5’s ratings fell to 138,000 households during prime time Olympics coverage, then rose to 181,000 on Sunday night.

In 2008, WPTV ranked No. 1 in the nation for daytime Olympics viewing and No. 11 during prime time.

Ratings are based on market size. While a 26.8 rating equates to 214,000 households in West Palm Beach, which is the nation’s 38th market, the same rating accounts for about 632,000 households in the D.C. market, the country’s 8th largest.

Confusion over which NBC station was airing a particular sport generated a few calls and emails, said O’Grady, but she’d heard no complaints so far about pre-empted programming.

NBC’s Olympics schedule can be found at nbcolympics.com, where viewers can also watch live streaming of Olympics competition.