Fox' Super Bowl XLII Second-Most Watched Broadcast In American TV History

Fox' broadcast of Super Bowl XLII Sunday earned a final Nielsen rating of 43.1/65, up 1.2% from CBS' coverage of the Colts-Bears Super Bowl XLI last year. The game also averaged 48,655,000 HHs and 97.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl of all time and the second-most watched broadcast in American TV history behind 106 million viewers for the final episode of "M*A*S*H" in '83. The game's previous record was 94.08 million viewers for Super Bowl XXX in '96 featuring Cowboys-Steelers. Super Bowl XLII’s total audience of 148.3 million viewers is also a record, surpassing the previous high of 144.4 million viewers for Super Bowl XXXVIII in ’04 featuring Patriots-Panthers. Fox earned a 43.2/65 Nielsen rating, making it the highest-rated Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXIV in ‘00. The game’s audience peaked between 9:30-10:00pm ET at 105.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, Fox’ pregame show averaged a 10.8/22 from 2:00-6:31pm ET, up 6% over last year’s 10.2/20 for CBS’ pregame show last year and 7% better than Fox’ pregame before Super Bowl XXXIX in ’05. For the week, Fox averaged a 12.9/28 among adults 18-49, making this the highest-rated week in Fox’ history and the highest-rated on any net since NBC aired the '96 Atlanta Olympics (THE DAILY). The 97.5 million viewers for the game “exceeds by nearly 14 million the average of 83.7 million for the Giants’ three previous Super Bowls” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/5). Following the game, Fox' “House” averaged 29 million viewers and a 12.8 rating in viewers 18-49, making it the net’s highest-rated scripted show since “The X-Files” episode that followed Fox’ Packers-Patriots Super Bowl XXXI telecast in ’97. “House” was also up 11% in viewers and 29% in 18-49 compared with last year’s “Criminal Minds” that aired on CBS (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 2/5). See the Back of the Book section for Nielsen metered-market ratings for Super Bowl XLII.  

Murdoch Says Super Bowl Sunday "Biggest Day" In News Corp. History

RATINGS HIT: News Corp. Chair & CEO Rupert Murdoch said during the company’s quarterly earnings call that Sunday was "the biggest day in our company’s history” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 2/5). Fox Sports President Ed Goren said with the ratings and advertisers reportedly paying around $2.7M for a 30-second spot, the "sports television marketplace is hot right now” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/5).  Sports Business Group President David Carter said, “All the elements were there. The more fragmented television has become, the more the remaining big events that combine sports and entertainment and drama have really driven interest.” Robert Seidman, whose Web site, TVbythenumbers.com, analyzes Nielsen ratings, said, “This matchup was special, in terms of history. The game went down to the wire, and the game still only did [5-6%] better than last year” (ESPN.com, 2/5). In Chicago, Ed Sherman writes it “might take a Super Bowl between the Manning brothers guiding undefeated teams to break” the mark set by "M*A*S*H" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/5).

HOW OTHERS FARED: In N.Y., Benjamin Toff reports ABC, CBS and NBC Sunday “struggled to attract even meager audiences during prime time.” CBS “fared best, finishing a very distant runner-up” thanks in part to “60 Minutes,” which drew 5 million viewers at 8:00pm ET. ABC, which finished the night in third, bettered CBS in adults 18-49, getting a boost later in the night from “Meet the Fockers,” which averaged 4.1 million viewers from 9:00-11:00pm. NBC finished fourth overall with four repeats of “The Biggest Loser,” which averaged 2.3 million viewers (N.Y. TIMES, 2/5).

CANADA: A combined Super Bowl XLII audience of 5.07 million viewers on CTV and French-language network RDS surpassed the previous record of 4.98 million in ’06 on Global and RDS for Super Bowl XL featuring Steelers-Seahawks. Giants-Patriots became the No. 1 show of the year in Canada on CTV with an average audience of 4.16 million viewers, up 24% over last year’s broadcast on Global. An additional 905,000 watched the French-language broadcast on RDS, up 13% from last year (CTV). CTV’s pregame show between 2:00-6:30pm drew 556,000 viewers (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 2/5).

SCREEN SHOT: A BOSTON HERALD editorial on the game’s ratings states, “There might have been more viewers had the greedheads of the NFL not launched their jihad against anyone -- other than sports bars -- trying to show the game on a screen larger than 55 inches. Yes, the NFL TV police issued warnings to a couple of local movie theaters that wanted to offer the game and a bag of popcorn. But even worse some churches and homeless shelters that wanted to gather their flocks around a big screen TV -- without benefit of booze -- were issued warnings too” (BOSTON HERALD, 2/5).

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Smith Says Philadelphia Inquirer "Forced" Him Out

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith "shot back" on Friday at the Philadelphia Inquirer after being fired for "job abandonment,'' according to Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute. After having been publicly silent about the publication since being stripped of his column in August and "reassigned to the reporters ranks, an assignment he never accepted,  Smith, in a statement through his Florida-based attorney Willie Gary, said, "What they have done to me is malicious, intentional and vindictive." Smith: "I have never abandoned a job in my whole life. I wasn't raised that way. The Inquirer forced me out and smeared my name and credibility." Inquirer Editor William Marimow, who was read Smith's statement over the phone, said, "I haven't made any comments, and I'm not going to now" (MAYNARDIJE.org, 2/1).

PASQUARELLI: ESPN's Len Pasquarelli had quintuple bypass surgery on Sunday. Pasquarelli took part in Pro Football HOF voting on Saturday before checking into a hospital (SI.com, 2/4).

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Bloggers discuss the advertising efforts of companies who paid a reported $2.7-3M for a 30-second Super Bowl spot.

Gawker Posted by: Ryan Tate

“Despite the Times' prediction of "gentle and sweet" Super Bowl ads this year, the spots had plenty of gross-out visuals, violence and racial humor.”

Bloggy Business Today Posted by:

“But at least the commercials were good. Did you see the Pepsi commercial in sign language? Pretty cool, right? In fact, in recent years many viewers look forward more to the ultra-creative 30-second spots more than the big game itself.”

SpringsTV Talk Posted by: AndyW

“I should stop to ponder whether "funny" is the thing a commercial should be going for, but really, I'm viewing this as entertainment, not marketing and I don't think it's possible to do a decent drama in 30 seconds. I think the Tide to Go ad was probably the most effective sales pitch.”

StarTribune.com Posted by: Dave MN

“I actually enjoyed the talking baby commercials. I know that makes me a bad person. I usually hate those commercials (ex: Quizno’s poorly conceived, but the e-trade ones were well done.”

Retail Wire Posted by:

“Okay, it's one person's opinion, but the vast majority of commercials (not counting those for upcoming movies) run during the Super Bowl yesterday ranged from just awful to mediocre with few exceptions.”

BUILDING THE BUZZ: Sports Media Challenge's Buzz Manager analyzed the online buzz surrounding Super Bowl XLII advertisements. Bloggers who felt the majority of the spots were good or effective were tallied as positive, making up 26.32% of the buzz. Bloggers who were disappointed by the ads this year were counted as negative, representing 52.63% of posts. Click here for more information. See www.sportsbusinessdaily.com for more details.

• The topic ranked 9 of 10, indicating a topic of high interest among sports bloggers.
• Positive sentiment came from bloggers who felt the ads actually lived up to the hype that surrounds Super Bowl commercials.
• Negative sentiment stemmed from bloggers who felt the ads couldn’t compare to the classic commercials of past Super Bowls. The fans thought the ads weren’t only below par, but in cases such as the Salesgenie.com Panda they were offensive.

Do you have a blog post that our readers would find interesting? Please forward your submission to bloghound@sportsbusinessdaily.com.

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In Toronto, William Houston reports recent developments with Toronto-based Score Media, "rumoured to be on the [sale] block for years," have TV watchers "wondering if ownership of the all-sports cable channel is slashing costs in preparation for a sale." Score is "eliminating bureau reporters," and "additional cost-cutting measures have included the replacement of programming with simulcasts of content on the Score's Hardcore channel on Sirius Satellite Radio" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 2/5).

Chicago Radio Station To Experiment With  Coverage Of White Sox Spring Training Games

NEW PITCH: In Chicago, Ed Sherman reported that announcers Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton on WSCR-AM "will have a traditional call for five games'' at White Sox spring training,  while the station plans to do four "interactive games." In the interactive games, after three innings of play-by-play, WSCR-AM's Chris Rongey will join Farmer and Singleton to "conduct a talk show during the game." The three will take calls from viewers and "feature guests from the games" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/4).

BRAVES: For the '08 MLB season, FSN South will televise 25 Braves games and SportSouth will carry 81. The networks also will team to televise seven spring training games (FSN South). Meanwhile, Peachtree TV plans to air 45 regular-season Braves games (Turner).

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