Dancing sharks, the husband of a supermodel and the drama of great football drew historic television ratings for Super Bowl XLIX, ratings company Nielsen said on Monday, in what is probably another record-setting year for the NFL.
The 28-24 contest between the victorious New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, broadcast by NBC, had a 49.7 rating in the US’s largest markets, Nielsen said, meaning slightly fewer than half of the country’s televisions were tuned to the game. The rating, along with a 72% share, is the highest in the championship game’s history.
The total number of viewers – 114.4 million – surpassed the 111.5 million people who watched last year’s game, a 43-8 drubbing of the Denver Broncos by the Seahawks. That game drew ratings of 47.6 and a 70% share.
The annual saturnalia of the Super Bowl, which in recent years has featured thrilling finishes, colorful halftime shows and crowdsourced commercials, has become a steady record-breaker for television ratings, setting new standards in four of the last five years. Before 2010, the record for TV viewership in the US was held by the 1983 finale of the Korean war comedy MASH.
