Super Bowl is most-watched program in 10 years

from the hollywood reporter

Super Bowl draws 90.7 million viewers
By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK -- Super Bowl XL came up big for ABC, scoring an average 90.7
million viewers -- not only the most-watched Super Bowl in 10 years
but also the most-watched TV program since 1996.

SpencerDogg...

I will be surprised if the figures aren't revised. How can it beat last
year with 2 big market teams like Philly and New England. Or 2002 St Louis
and New England. The numbers don't make sense.

The Pittsburgh Steelers' 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks
delivered a 41.6 household rating/62 share, according to data released
Monday by Nielsen Media Research. That was up slightly from last
year's 41.1/62 for the battle of two bigger-market teams, the
Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots.

Last year's Eagles-Patriots game drew 86.1 million viewers to Fox.

Milhouse Van Houten...

Quite confusing, since last year the game did a 43.4/63, which apparently
translates into 86.1 million viewers, while 41.6/62 translates into 90.7
million. And I also would have expected other Superbowls from the 10-year

Ian J. Ball...

This is why "ratings points" *SUCK*.

The difference is probably that more viewers *per household* watched
this Superbowl, though fewer households overall watched. That's how
you'd get more Total Viewers with few ratings points.

Obveeus...

So, the people watching the Superbowl this year were friendlier...thus, they
didn't have to watch alone.

Default User...

Sheer speculation, but there may have been more average attendees at
parties due to some people having HD this year for the Bowl.

period to have scored even higher (this game wasn't a very good one), but
apparently not.

Ian J. Ball...

Certainly the officiating *wasn't*!!

Obveeus...

The officiating didn't change the outcome of the game. A touchdown is a
touchdown, a penalty is a penalty. The calls weren't bad, just hard for you
to stomach.

As for the game...it wasn't a 'thing of beauty', but people watching have no
way to know in advance if there will be 500 yard passing days for each team,
scores in the 50s for each team, and all that other stuff that is fun to
watch; so the viewers are there regardless of the outcome. At least with
this game, the outcome was close enough that the voters stayed there until
the end instead of turning off the TV after the halftime show due to a
boring blowout.

David B...

The officiating sucked harder than NBC's ratings this season.

And ABC's post-game programming, a special episode of "Grey's
Anatomy," was able to hold onto more of its audience than Fox's shows
last year. Nielsen said "Grey's Anatomy" averaged 38.1 million viewers
and a 34.6 rating between 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.

That made "Grey's" the most-watched (and best rated in adults 18-49)
entertainment program following a Super Bowl since the premiere of
"Survivor II" on CBS in 2001. It also attracted the most viewers of an
entertainment program to broadcast TV since the finale of "Friends,"
and ABC's best in 12 years.

By comparison, Fox's post-Super Bowl programming didn't fare as well
when it began at 10:45 p.m. "The Simpsons" averaged 23.1 million
viewers and, a half hour later, the premiere of "American Dad" kept
only 15.1 million.

Among metered markets, it's not surprising that Pittsburgh and Seattle
were standouts. Pittsburgh, which took home its first Super Bowl
championship since the 1970s, averaged a 57.1/83. Seattle, whose team
made its first Super Bowl appearance, did even better: 55/83.

mike9986...

Maybe I'm looking at the numbers wrong, but it looks like their shares
were equal, and Pittsburgh had the edge in ratings points (57.1 to 55).
So how did Seattle do better?

The game was popular in the markets of last year's Super Bowl teams,
Boston (40.1/59) and Philadelphia (48.8/67). It was slightly less
popular in New York (37.0/53) and Los Angeles (34.2/61).