SUPER BOWLS FINAL RATINGS HIT A 46.1 WITH 68 SHARE

     Final national ratings released this morning from Nielsen
Sports Marketing Service note that Super Bowl XXX finished with a
46.1 rating and a 68 share, making it the highest watched Super
Bowl since Super Bowl XX in January '86 which gained a 48.3/70.
Super Bowl XXX now ranks as the 9th highest-rated Super Bowl in
history (THE DAILY).  NBC announced the game was the "most-
watched television program ever," attracting a record 138,488,000
viewers (NBC).
     WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS:  NBC Sports President
Dick Ebersol said the rating was "the marriage of good fortune, a
good game and having the draw of the Cowboys."  NBC's pregame
rating of a 17.2 was 2% higher than ABC's 16.9 of last year.
Ebersol also said the hour-long episode of "Friends" played "a
big part in our humongous postgame rating."  NBC's postgame of
35.0 was the highest since '86 (Rudy Martzke, USA TODAY, 1/30).
About 61.3 million total households tuned into the game, the
highest number in history (Michael Starr, N.Y. POST, 1/30).