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Ratings: Super Bowl XLII Scores a Record Audience
The Giants weren't the only ones marking milestones at Sunday's Super Bowl XLII. The game made history as the highest rated Super Bowl ever, averaging 97.5 million viewers, according to Fox. A total of 148.3 million people watched the game for all or part of it.
Viewership was up across multiple demos, with a ratings boost of seven percent among adults ages 18-49 over last year's game.
Not only did the event best its own record, which was set at the 1996 Dallas-Pittsburgh game with an audience of 94.08 million, but it also scored as the second most-watched television broadcast in the country's history, after M*A*S*H's 1983 finale, which tallied 106 million. The game's audience size came close to that, though, when it peaked from 9:30-10pm ET with 105.7 million viewers.
House followed up the game with its own record of 29 million viewers, which was its highest rating ever across all demographics. The ep was also the highest rated scripted series for Fox viewers ages 18-49 since an The X-Files telecast in 1997.
Related:
• News: New York Giants Upset Patriots to Win Super Bowl XLII
• Watch and discuss Paula Abdul's pre-game performance
• We list the Super Bowl telecast's highs and lows
• Which Ads Scored, and Which Snored?
• Cheers & Jeers tackles Ryan Seacrest's pre-game show
• Matt Roush reviews the game and the ads
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Feb 4, 2008 2:27 PM
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Awesome! It feels somewhat strange to be part of television history. Go House!
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Feb 4, 2008 2:44 PM
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Watched other programs...House is a bore.
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Feb 4, 2008 2:55 PM
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No, House was excellent as usual.
It was the Super Bowl I skipped... thank god for the Puppy Bowl!!
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Feb 4, 2008 3:19 PM
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Matt, that X-Files episode you referred to was a particularly stand-out episode titled "Leonard Betts." And it aired... (pauses for dramatic effect) after the Super Bowl! That's kind of important!
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Feb 4, 2008 5:26 PM
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Watched other programs...House is a bore.
I agree. I think it was mostly because I was thinking about how awesome this episode would have been if the writers weren't on strike...
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Feb 4, 2008 6:50 PM
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But this episode was written when the writer's weren't on strike. So... huh?
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Feb 4, 2008 7:30 PM
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As the U.S. population grows day by day, it's really a wonder just how many people watched the end of MASH in 1983 as opposed to this year's Superbowl. That 106 million figure is all the more impressive as there are a lot more people alive today than there were then.
Too bad they don't use actual audience totals (ticket sales) to report how many people see a film as opposed to the ever increasing ticket prices. A $20 million dollar opening week take doesn't quite sound the same as a little over 2 million people went out and saw the film at 8 bucks a pop.
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Feb 4, 2008 11:00 PM
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As the U.S. population grows day by day, it's really a wonder just how many people watched the end of MASH in 1983 as opposed to this year's Superbowl. That 106 million figure is all the more impressive as there are a lot more people alive today than there were then.
Why is it more impressive? True there are 10's of millions more people now their were then. However, the increase in the number of TV channels and therefore viewer choices dwarfs population grow in terms of percentage change. That doesn't even touch on the internet and other competing entertainment choices that weren't available back then. I think that makes the super bowl numbers far more impressive in comparison.
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Feb 5, 2008 12:15 PM
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They do lists for total revenue and revenue adjusted for inflation. You just have to look for them.
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Feb 5, 2008 12:15 PM
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