Super Bowl draws record 97.5 million viewers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A record 97.5 million Americans tuned in to Sunday’s upset victory by the New York Giants over the New England Patriots, marking the biggest TV audience in Super Bowl history and the second most-watched U.S. telecast ever.
The number of viewers watching the National Football League championship game was surpassed only by the 106 million who saw the series finale of “M*A*S*H” in February 1983, according to data issued on Monday by Nielsen Media Research.
Even before kick-off, experts forecast blockbuster ratings for a Super Bowl matchup featuring two teams from big media markets, with one of the teams, New England, entering the game undefeated.
The game itself assured the sky-high ratings, as the Giants won 17-14 on a touchdown in the final seconds to produce one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.
“Fox could not have asked for a better game,” said Brad Adgate, director of research at Horizon Media. “You don’t need writers for that sort of drama.”
Sunday’s audience was up nearly 5 percent from a year ago, when CBS carried the NFL championship. Previously, the most watched Super Bowl on record was the 1996 contest between Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, which drew 94.1 million viewers.
For advertisers who paid an average of $2.7 million for a 30-second spot, up from $2.6 million a year ago, the hefty ratings came at the right time.
The Super Bowl, always critical for advertisers, took on added significance this year. A strike by Hollywood writers has disrupted much of the prime-time TV schedule, cutting down viewership. And those watching TV are skipping commercials with greater frequency thanks to digital video recorders like TiVo.
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