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Super Bowl Ratings: 89.2 Mil Tune In

Feb 2, 2009  •  Post A Comment

Sunday night’s telecast of Super Bowl XLIII, in which the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals, was watched by 89.2 million viewers from 7-10 p.m. EST.
For updated viewership info, click here.
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In prime time among households, the game averaged a 39.0 rating/59 share from 7-10 p.m. and a 37.9/57 from 7-10:30 p.m, according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research numbers. In the overnight metered markets, the game drew a 42.1/65, coming in 6% below last year’s record-breaking telecast.
Last night’s match-up between the Steelers and the Cardinals also averaged a 33.3 rating/66 share among viewers 18-49 from 7-10 p.m.
From 7-10:30 p.m., the Super Bowl averaged a 32.3/64 in the demographic and 85.9 million viewers. This second set of numbers takes into consideration the final half hour of the telecast, after the game had ended.
Due to the nature of live programming, final numbers may change once time-zone adjusted information is released later today.
Last year’s Super Bowl was the most watched ever, with 97.5 million viewers. It ranked as the second most-watched telecast ever, coming in behind the series finale of “M*A*S*H,” which drew 106 million.
(Editor: Baumann)
(Updated: 3:30 p.m.)

4 Comments

  1. If NBC hadn’t lost audio so often maybe more people would have stayed with the program. NBC also offered too much B-class programming…cooking tips, meek appearnaces by actors shamlessly plugging their mediocre shows and movies. The network clearly was way too much into self promotion. SB Sunday is about FOOTBALL! Not meager promo’s for weak programming.
    Look at what FOX did last year and then COPY IT!!

  2. Yeah, because red carpet entrances of non-sports celebrities hosted by Ryan Seacrest, countless promos for American Idol and Terminator, and appearances from stars of their programming just scream football. Fox did the same thing NBC this year, except having a live interview with the leader of the free world. The NFL runs the show, no the networks.

  3. Seriously, wtf did FOX do last year? Same garbage, which is the same shite we’ll get from CBS next year.

  4. NBC’s self promotion felt more prominent than last year’s FOX presentation. Probably because of the economy, everyone jumped on the “it cost too much to put a commercial on, so all we can do is self promote our network.” And it was a horrible crop of commercials this year. It’s a giant audience and the network has to please everybody to hold the interest. It’s not all about the game, which by the way was fantastic. And Bruce Springsteen did the best ever halftime show.

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