Patriots-Falcons Is Fifth-Best U.S. Audience; Lady Gaga Second Among SB Halftime Shows

Fox ended up drawing 111.3 million viewers for the Patriots' 34-28 OT win over the Falcons in Super Bowl LI, making it the least-viewed Super Bowl since '13. That game, Ravens-49ers, drew 108.4 million viewers on CBS and featured a 30-minute delay due to a power outage at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Patriots-Falcons is down from 111.9 million viewers for Broncos-Panthers last year and 114.4 million viewers for Pats-Seahawks two years ago (still the best U.S. TV audience on record). Super Bowl LI ranks as the fifth-best audience in TV history. Meanwhile, Fox Deportes drew 650,000 viewers, marking the Spanish-language network’s best audience yet for a non-soccer match (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

STILL POWERFUL: In Orlando, Hal Boedeker wrote while the audience for Patriots-Falcons "didn't set a record," it was still "phenomenal" (ORLANDOSENTINEL.com, 2/6).The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joe Flint writes the audience figure was "still a big win for Fox and the advertisers" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/7). On Long Island, Neil Best writes Super Bowl LI had a "massive television audience by any standard." But "measuring Super Bowl audiences is notoriously difficult, given how many people watch in large groups, at the homes of friends or relatives or in public gatherings" (NEWSDAY, 2/7). AD AGE's Anthony Crupi noted "results suggest that as many as 15 million viewers may have cycled out after the halftime show," which "put a bit of a ding" in the audience figure (ADAGE.com, 2/6).

CITY CENTERS: Boston’s 54.3 local rating for the game compares with a 61.0 for the market two years ago when the Patriots beat the Seahawks. Boston also drew a 56.7 local rating for Giants-Patriots in ’12 and a 55.6 for the same matchup in ’08. Atlanta drew a 57.0 local rating for the game, while host market Houston drew a 47.4. The rating in Houston is the lowest for a Super Bowl host site since Miami-Ft. Lauderdale drew a 41.9 in ’10. Last year, the S.F.-Oakland-San Jose market drew a 49.1 rating for Super Bowl 50 at Levi's Stadium (Karp). In Dallas, Barry Horn noted the local TV market "showed relatively little love for the Cowboys-less Super Bowl LI." The game drew a 47.5 local rating in Dallas-Ft. Worth, but that "ranked only 43rd among the 56 major markets across the country" (DALLASNEWS.com, 2/6). In Pittsburgh, Maria Sciullo notes an "undisclosed number of DirecTV subscribers in the Pittsburgh area missed the end of the Super Bowl Sunday night, prompting customer complaints and angry social media posts," while both the satellite provider and WPGH-Fox "placed the blame on each other." Problems began at 10:14pm as the Patriots were mounting a comeback, and the "trouble was not resolved" until after the Patriots win in OT (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 2/7).

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME: Fox drew 117.5 million viewers for Lady Gaga's halftime show from 8:15-8:30pm, marking the second-best Super Bowl halftime performance on record, behind only Katy Perry's show in '15 (120.7 million viewers). CBS last year drew 115.5 million viewers for the halftime show at Super Bowl 50 featuring Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars. Meanwhile, following the Lombardi Trophy ceremony, Fox drew 17.6 million viewers for the series premiere of "24: Legacy," marking the least-viewed show to follow a Super Bowl since '03, when ABC drew 17.4 million viewers for "Alias." CBS following Super Bowl 50 last year drew 21.1 million viewers for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," while NBC in '15 drew 25.7 million viewers for "The Blacklist." Fox in '14 aired "New Girl" following Super Bowl XLVIII, drawing 26.3 million viewers (Karp).

AMERICA ONLINE: Fox Sports generated a unique audience for its Super Bowl LI stream of 4.42 million, up 12% from last year’s 3.96 million. That is a record for what was the sixth live stream of the Super Bowl, and the unique audience is more than twice the first such stream in ’12. The non-authenticated stream had a seven-minute outage early in the fourth quarter due to technical issues with Fox and its partner BAMTech, though the exact cause was still being investigated (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer). Meanwhile, data from Twitter shows there were 5.6 billion views of Super Bowl LI tweets (on and off Twitter) based on 27.6 million tweets sent during the live pregame, game and postgame on Sunday. Data from Facebook also shows that 64 million people had 240 million interactions on the platform related to the Super Bowl. Over 90% of those Facebook Super Bowl interactions were on mobile devices. There were 262 million viewers of Super Bowl-related videos on Facebook. Lady Gaga wrapping up her halftime show was the most "loved" moment of the Super Bowl on the platform, while Audi's "Daughter" was the most-discussed TV commercial of the game. Another 44 million people had 150 million interactions on Instagram related to the Super Bowl (Karp). REUTERS' Cadell & Richwine noted the Super Bowl for the first time streamed live on Sina Weibo in China, with data from the site showing just over three million people watched. Other viewers watched on Chinese platforms like Tencent and LeSports (REUTERS, 2/5).

THE KING OF THE NORTH! The GLOBE & MAIL's Susan Krashinsky Robertson notes Super Bowl LI drew a combined 4.47 million viewers across CTV, CTV Two and TSN on Sunday, down 39% from 7.32 million when the game aired solely on CTV in Canada last year. Sunday's telecast came during the first year of a new Canadian regulatory decision where the "usual system of subbing in the Canadian broadcast -- and Canadian ads -- over top of the signal on U.S. channels was banned during the Super Bowl" (GLOBE & MAIL, 2/7). In Toronto, John Kryk notes for decades, the "standard practice, however unpopular, had been for Canadian TV rights-holders of big sports events -- such as The Masters, and U.S. college football bowl games -- to sub in their own domestic commercials." While the "shoddy editing and endless domestic-network promos generally drive Canadian viewers nuts," it was "how the Canadian networks recoup their rights fees." Bell Media and the NFL are "fighting the CRTC’s ruling in court." Bell VP/Communications Scott Henderson in an email wrote that Sunday's Super Bowl audience figure was as "poor as the company had feared" (TORONTO SUN, 2/7).