Super Bowl 44 Rating Sets Record: Most-Watched Show in TV History
1-liner, NFL, Television February 9th. 2010, 10:45amSuper Bowl Ratings: The Super Bowl between Indy and New Orleans – not exactly primo TV markets – was the most-watched show in TV history, knocking the M*A*S*H series finale from the top spot. (Fun fact: Never seen more than eight seconds of M*A*S*H. Still, the number of people who watched that episode in 1983 is staggering for a number of factors.) An estimated 106.5 million people watched the Saints beat the Colts (last year’s number for Pittsburgh-Arizona: 99 million). The NFL has done a tremendous job creating hype for this game – it is now an ‘event’ with two weeks of build-up and endless hype about the commercials. The snowstorm in the northeast helped. Next year, the game goes to FOX. [Wash Post]
61 Responses to “Super Bowl 44 Rating Sets Record: Most-Watched Show in TV History”
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Easily the worst of the stations for broadcasting football. Yuck.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:49 AM
Can we throw the game to NBC “just because”? No more Joe Buck please. He might be a great guy and all but his pompous voice ruins games for me.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:49 AM
God help us all.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:51 AM
I can guaran-fucking-tee, that whoever has anything to say about it, conspiracy or not, Dallas gets to the Superbowl next year. I am all but sure. I need to go make a wager.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:51 AM
ruined the helmet catch
/bill simmons’d
February 9th, 2010 at 10:51 AM
Life before the internet was very, very boring.
fixed
February 9th, 2010 at 10:53 AM
/Fixed
February 9th, 2010 at 10:53 AM
it could have happened when the giants made the superbowl but it didnt
February 9th, 2010 at 10:56 AM
off topic because i don’t care about ratings and this question has really bugged me. i need a college basketball team. I went to a division I AA school whose basketball team won’t make the tournament in the forseeable future. I’ve liked UNC since i was young, i’m not too old. i’m talking abotu the vince carter, ed cota, joey forte, eric montross teams. It just seems a little ridiculous for me to be a fan. i don’t even really get excited for them to win national championships. i mean i root for them but whatever i’m not crushed if they lose. anyway i’m from the philly area but have no ties with nova. I am a man without a country. I wonder if i can claim nova. i’ve been rooting for them.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:56 AM
Easily the worst of the stations for broadcasting anything
fixed
Oh come on. If I need to see people racing animals or midgets proposing or people in general doing the worst kinds of behavior (and this was pre-Jersey Shore), Fox is the place to go.
All the while Fox News rails against the indecency in Hollywood. Hmmm…
And while as a Saints fan I’m ecstatic about it, I doubt the teams making the Super Bowl matter when it comes to the ratings. It’s an event. It’s a party. It’s something everyone has to partake in — even if you hate football or sports in general.
/Just keep repeating that when the wife/gf/partner makes you wear a tux for her Oscars party.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:58 AM
it’s the fucking super bowl, man…markets don’t matter. it could be green bay vs. buffalo and people would still watch in droves.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:59 AM
people have oscars parties where the guests where tuxes? good christ.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:59 AM
@REAAAZY: why do you need a CBB team? Do what I do — root for your bracket?
/rooting for bracket in silence of course…cause no one wants to be the a-hole that won’t shut up about it.
//dick joke
February 9th, 2010 at 11:00 AM
REAAAZY – Go with both if you want. It’s not like you went to a big school and now you’re just a front runner. If you want to get behind one school completely, get behind Nova. Between the two, they’re the underdog (traditionally), you live in the area (or you’re from there) and if they win the championship you can hold it over people that you’ve always been there, instead of with the 5 million Tar Heal fans that pop up everytime they’re on a run.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:01 AM
people have oscar parties? good christ.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:02 AM
the only team that wouldnt draw is the browns. they could be playing a Tom brady led offense/Ray lewis defense and people wouldnt want to watch that shitty team.
/welcome back spence
February 9th, 2010 at 11:02 AM
root for ohio state and the villain.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:03 AM
fuck tom brady.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:04 AM
It helped that everyone was stuck inside.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:04 AM
It’s been an “event” for at least 25-30 years.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:06 AM
yeah i feel like a dick being a unc fan, no offense to them. it just feels like being a USC fan in football and being from the east coast with no ties or something. I kind of fell into it because i have friends that are maryland and duke fans and i wanted to talk shit. i feel like i should still claim UNC for the rest of this year as it is a down year and i don’t want to be a bandwagon jumper. i should have gave them up for adoption after the national championship
February 9th, 2010 at 11:06 AM
Everyone lives in the northeast? I wondered where all my neighbors went…
February 9th, 2010 at 11:06 AM
+1
February 9th, 2010 at 11:07 AM
so more people stayed home and watched the game.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:08 AM
people have oscars parties where the guests where tuxes? good christ.
people have oscar parties? good christ.
Oscars: the Ladies’ Super Bowl (all the talk is about the red carpet, the dresses, who’s dating who, who’s cheating on whom, who looks like a total slut, etc).
/don’t ask how I know this
February 9th, 2010 at 11:08 AM
true. at least during nfl games, fox doesn’t give us 80,000 crowd shots.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:09 AM
If this was “Jets-Vikes”, everyone would be saying “of course, everyone wanted to see Favre’s last SB/random NY team in big game”. But since it’s just “Saints/Colts”, everyone was stuck inside and HAD to watch it.
’tis bullshit.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:09 AM
this makes me even feel worse about my friend. his wife had him pulling weeds after we discussed for several weeks about watching the game together
February 9th, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Someone doesn’t have NFL network.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:10 AM
you would
February 9th, 2010 at 11:10 AM
i can’t root for the bucks, sorry spence. psu football fan. i am a big fan of both the villian’s game (who isn’t?) and mark titus (who isn’t).
February 9th, 2010 at 11:12 AM
pretty much. chicks go crazy over that shit.
/would much rather watch nascar than oscars.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:12 AM
this is why i just don’t believe roger goodell when he says the owners aren’t making money.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:12 AM
no YOU would.
/see what i did there?
February 9th, 2010 at 11:13 AM
bob papa is wwwwaaayyy better than joe buck.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:13 AM
frankly i think its surprising that only about a 1/3 of the country watched. what the hell is everyone else doing?
February 9th, 2010 at 11:14 AM
gossip girl!
February 9th, 2010 at 11:15 AM
not every single person turned on their tv. theres large groups of people watching the game together
February 9th, 2010 at 11:15 AM
Well, coop is making out with dudes, so that explains his absense.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:15 AM
MASH was great for the first couple of years but Alan Alda fucking ruined it when he took over creative control. After that it was nothing but preachy bullshit.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:15 AM
needs a /coop
February 9th, 2010 at 11:16 AM
This is true. Plus, you’ve got to factor in the masses gathering at bars, not just at house parties.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:17 AM
….and 90210 reruns!
/TBL’d
February 9th, 2010 at 11:18 AM
that’s ok, i don’t root for them either.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:19 AM
This is not the website to mention this, but there are a lot of people who don’t care about football. Just a few years ago, my in-laws got invited to a party that started the exact same time as the SuperBowl. My father-in-law was floored, and they didn’t go.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:19 AM
bingo. first couple of years was gold, jerry, gold!
col. blake, trapper john, frank burns, klinger, damn that was some funny shit.
after the first three years, it really slipped and got worse/preachy as with each season.
one of my favorite lines:
maj. frank burns: one more week in charge of this unit and i would have had you out of that dress.”
cpl. klinger: “i’m not that easy!”
February 9th, 2010 at 11:21 AM
uuummm…
super bowl party perhaps?
February 9th, 2010 at 11:23 AM
No, these were the types of people who live in NYC, go to museums on a weekly basis, and couldn’t even tell you the name of a single NY sports team.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:26 AM
i got the st louis saints this weekend
February 9th, 2010 at 11:26 AM
that’s a pretty sad way to live St. Bear. Let’s pity those types of people.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:28 AM
I’m just saying, that there’s a lot of those kinds of people out there, and to get 1 out of 3 people in the country watching the game is extremely impressive.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:28 AM
i do. you gotta be some type of competitive person to like sports, engage in sports. i cant talk to people who think the saints are from st louis. fuck em
February 9th, 2010 at 11:29 AM
st. bear i’m proud of your family for their decisions.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:29 AM
i’d throw myself into a bonfire if i had to live like that.
i remember when i was a kid, maybe second grade, my aunt was truly appalled at how i was turning into a sports nut and, when not playing sports, wouldn’t read anything but baseball or american history books.
so my aunt and her uncle tried to “culture me.” they dragged me to some museum to look at paintings of some famous painter — i couldn’t tell you who.
i was never so fucking bored in my life. to this day, unless it’s a history museum, just the thought of looking at paintings makes me break out in hives.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:29 AM
one of my favorite lines:
My favorite line:
Hawkeye: “Frank’s gone, he took his gun and his toothbrush”.
B.J.(shaking his head) “Hmm, shooting his mouth off again.”
February 9th, 2010 at 11:31 AM
Impressive numbers for a game that had little buzz.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:35 AM
Sometimes when someone says something to me I had forgotten, I say “AHHH, BACH!”
February 9th, 2010 at 11:37 AM
ouch.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:38 AM
Ha! Well played.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:38 AM
We call that the Upper West Side.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:09 PM
I hate to go Mike Greeberg here but what the fuck were the other 200 mil people in this country watching/doing?