With Michael Phelps finally out of the pool, NBC’s Olympics viewership declined from Saturday’s record levels, but the network still remained ahead of Athens 2004.

Sunday night’s primetime telecast averaged 26.8 million total viewers from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m., according to Nielsen, up 3 percent from the same night in Athens, which averaged 26 million.

That was down 14 percent from the 31.1 million the network averaged Saturday night, when Phelps earned his eighth and final gold medal of the Beijing Games. The swimmer has been the biggest draw of these Games, boosting NBC to its best Saturday audience in 18 years with his historic feat.

The network still managed to squeeze in some Phelps material Sunday, including an extended interview with Bob Costas. But the falloff was exactly what most had been predicting with Phelps’ competition now done.

NBC averaged a 15.8 household rating and 28 share, equaling the same night in Athens four years ago.

The network was still ahead of the numbers it has guaranteed advertisers but was 8 percent off the 10-day average for the Olympics, a 17.2/30. It’s the best opening average for a non-U.S. Games since Barcelona 1992’s 18.6/35.

Through 10 days, the Games have averaged 29.8 million total viewers, 14 percent better than 26.2 million for Athens.

But keeping viewers’ interest with Phelps finished and just one night of competitive gymnastics left could prove a challenge for NBC, as the U.S. track and field athletes have not delivered the impressive performances that kept viewers tuning in to swimming and gymnastics in week one.

While the U.S. collected more than a dozen gold medals in those two sports during week one, its first track and field gold did not come until last night’s men’s 400-meter hurdles, the fourth night of track and field competition.

The U.S. was shut out of the medals entirely in the women’s 100 dash, and only grabbed a bronze in the men’s race, courtesy of Walter Dix.

NBC’s biggest hope may be that Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, who shattered the world record in the 100 Saturday night, delivers a similarly dominant performance in the 200, which could turn him into the Games’ third breakout star, behind Phelps and gold medal-winning gymnast Nastia Liukin.

Still, through 10 days, Beijing remains on track to break the record for cumulative Olympic viewership. More than 196 million viewers have tuned in for some portion of the Games on NBC or its sister cable networks, making it the fourth-most-watched in history already, behind Atlanta (1996), Lillehammer (1994) and Athens (2004).

Beijing is tracking 11 million more than Athens at the same time four years ago and 3 million more than Atlanta, which set the record at 209 million.