Super Bowl Broadcast Sets Record with 111.3 Million Viewers
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Ezra Shaw/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — For the third consecutive year, the Super Bowl has set a record for the biggest-ever audience for a U.S. television program.
NBC’s broadcast of the New York Giants’ last-minute win over the New England Patriots averaged 111.3 million viewers, according to Deadline.com. It’s a slightly higher total than the 111 million who tuned in to last year’s Super Bowl game on Fox between the victorious Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
There are only two other broadcasts in U.S. television history that reached at least 100 million viewers. The 2010 Super Bowl between the champion New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts drew 106.5 million viewers, and the 1983 series finale of M*A*S*H was seen by 106 million people.
Madonna’s performance at Sunday’s game set a record for the most-watched Super Bowl halftime entertainment show, drawing 114 million viewers.
The second season premiere of NBC’s The Voice clearly benefited from having the Super Bowl as its lead-in. The singing competition attracted 37.6 million viewers and earned the highest rating in the advertiser-friendly 18-to-49-year-old demographic of any entertainment telecast in six years.
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