Whether it's for the commercials or the game -- and the last few years, the games have been pretty compelling -- the Super Bowl has set new viewership records for four straight years, including yesterday's game.
↵↵Fox Sports, patting itself on the back for something that would have happened regardless of what TV network the game was on, reports today that yesterday's Packers 31-25 win over the Steelers was the most-watched program in the history of television:
↵↵FOX Sports’ broadcast of Super Bowl XLV averaged 111 million viewers and is the most-watched television program in U.S. history, obliterating the prior record of 106.5 set last year during Super Bowl XLIV by 4.5 million viewers and the 106.0 million for the series finale of M*A*S*H, which held the viewership record from 1983 to 2010.↵↵
The article goes on to say that the game had a 46.0 rating (percentage of total US households) and 69 share (percentage of TVs in use), which tied the 1996 Super Bowl for the highest rating since the Bears/Patriots Super Bowl XX played in January, 1986. Also:
↵↵Both Pittsburgh (59.7/87) and Milwaukee (59.7/85) tied for the second-highest single-market rating in Super Bowl history. The rating trails only Chicago’s 63.0 rating in Super Bowl XX. Chicago posted a 51.4/73, which beat the rating for the Bears in Super Bowl XLI (50.2) and is the markets best-ever for a non-Bears Super Bowl.↵↵
Sigh. If only the Bears had actually been in yesterday's game, it might have broken all kinds of records for viewership. Wait till next year.