Super Bowl Viewership Lowest In A Decade, Down 7% From '17

NBC averaged 103.4 million viewers for Super Bowl LII on Sunday from 6:31-10:25pm ET, marking both the 10th best audience for any program in U.S. TV history and the least-watched Super Bowl since ’09. The Eagles-Patriots game now ranks just behind the ’83 “M.A.S.H.” finale on CBS (106 million viewers) among all-time U.S. shows. Every Super Bowl since ’10 has averaged over 100 million viewers, with the high coming in ’15 for Patriors-Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX (114.4 million). Eagles-Pats is down 7% from Pats-Falcons last year on Fox. Sunday night’s telecast peaked at 112.3 million viewers from 10:00-10:15pm during the fourth quarter. Using a total audience delivery -- which totals the game delivery across NBC, NBCSports.com, NBC Sports app, NBC.com TV Everywhere, Universo, En Vivo app, NFL.com, NFL Mobile app on Verizon, Yahoo Sports app and go90 -- Eagles-Pats delivered 106 million viewers. That figure also will go up by a few million more viewers once out-of-home measurement is added later this week. For streaming of Super Bowl LII, there was an average minute audience of 2.02 million viewers across all platforms. That figure marks the most live-streamed Super Bowl on record and the most-streamed single game ever for NBC Sports Digital. The halftime show starring Justin Timberlake from 8:15-8:30pm averaged 106.6 million viewers on NBC (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

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IS THIS A PROBLEM? In L.A., Stephen Battaglio wrote while the Super Bowl viewership drop is "not as steep" as the regular season, it is "likely to cause some concern for the league and its television partners." The drop "does not affect NBC financially in the short term as the advertisers who spent an average of $5 million for a 30-second commercial are not guaranteed a minimum audience." However, it "could be detrimental to CBS when it sells ads for next year's game" (LATIMES.com, 2/5). The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Joe Flint writes the “decline in viewership for the Super Bowl is in line” with declines the NFL saw during the regular season. However, “other big events have also seen their audience shrink” recently, including a 24% drop for CBS’ Grammy Awards telecast and a 5% drop for NBC’s Golden Globes telecast (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/6). 

LOOKING FOR THE WHY: ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said of lower NFL ratings, “To a lesser degree, it's the concussion issue and people getting hurt and folks watching football that just have a hard time stomaching that. I have spoken to a lot of women who really have that problem. ... But the biggest issue to me is the Colin Kaepernick situation. … Big business is most interested in mass appeal and in order to have mass appeal in the United States of America, you have to acquiesce at least to some degree to the wishes and desires of white America. If you have turned them off in any way, you usually are going to feel it in your pocket." ESPN’s Max Kellerman said, “I would guess that the decline in ratings has to do primarily with the fact that people watch less TV now than they used to. There's cord cutting, there's the internet, social media, etc. Almost every show on the dial is down because there are more forms of entertainment and there are more ways to consume media.” ESPN’s Will Cain said, “Politics is affecting it. I don't care if it's left or right, I think people want sports free from politics in general. I think it's casting a depressing shadow over something that they see as entertainment” (“First Take,” ESPN, 2/6).

AROUND THE GAME: In Orlando, Hal Boedeker noted the post-Super Bowl program on NBC -- an episode of “This is Us” -- marked the net’s "most-watched scripted show in more than 13 years" and the "most-watched drama on any network" since '08, when “House” aired after Super Bowl XLII on Fox. “This Is Us” was also the "most-watched show after the Super Bowl since 'The Voice' followed the big game six years ago on NBC." A Super Bowl edition of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” averaged 8.4 million viewers, up from the show's average of 5.8 million this season to date. It was Fallon’s "fourth most-watched 'Tonight Show' ever (ORLANDOSENTINEL.com, 2/5). DEADLINE.com's Erik Pederson noted Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl XIV on Sunday "arrived with a tweaked format and fetched record demo ratings" among adults 25-54. The net said that the first airing of Puppy Bowl XIV from 3:00-5:00pm topped the previous record in the demo set in '10 by 17%. The telecast also ranks as Animal Planet's "third-highest-rated program ever among 25-54" (DEADLINE.com, 2/5).

MARKET WATCH: The local rating in Atlanta for Super Bowl LII (47.1) was "predictably well below" last year, when Pats-Falcons drew a 57.0 local rating. Atlanta ranked No. 29 this year among all markets. Two years ago, the Atlanta market drew a 51.1 rating Broncos-Panthers, and in '15, Pats-Seahawks drew a 52.1 rating in the market (AJC.com, 2/5). Pittsburgh was the nation's top local market a year ago (at a 57.9), "but was fifth this time" (POST-GAZETTE.com, 2/5). Local ratings in Nashville were the "lowest in 12 years." The market drew a 46.2 local rating for Eagles-Pats, marking the "least-watched Super Bowl locally" since Steelers-Seahawks in '06 drew a 45.0 rating (TENNESSEAN.com, 2/5). The Dallas-Ft. Worth market finished 46th among all markets with a 43.4 local rating -- down from a 47.5 last year (DALLASNEWS.com, 2/5).

CRIS CROSSED: In N.Y., Mark Sanchez notes NBC's Cris Collinsworth during the broadcast of Super Bowl LII "introduced himself as Public Enemy No. 1 in Philadelphia" when he "reacted with incredulity to a pair of Eagles touchdowns remaining touchdowns in the season of the overturned catch" (N.Y. POST, 2/6). In Pennsylvania, Katherine Reinhard notes fans over and over "marveled over what many perceived as his 'bias' for the Patriots" and they "took to Twitter to vent their frustrations" (Allentown MORNING CALL, 2/6).

PROMOTING THE GAMES: In N.Y., Kevin Draper notes the importance of Super Bowl LII to NBC "went beyond ratings and any revenue it took directly from ad sales." The Pyeongchang Games begin this week and NBC is the "first network to broadcast the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics in the same year since CBS did so" in '92. The Super Bowl was a "giant platform to promote the Games" and NBC used the captive audience to "try to excite people about some of the athletes and events they will see over the next three weeks." The Super Bowl pregame show also "featured almost as much talk about the Olympics as it did for football" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/6). In Charlotte, Scott Fowler writes, "I like an occasional dose of the Winter Olympics, but NBC’s incessant promotions made me feel like I’m already tired of them" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 2/6).

NORM OF THE NORTH: In Toronto, John Kryk notes Super Bowl TV viewership in Canada for the second straight year was "down millions" from the record high of 7.32 million in '16. Eagles-Pats averaged 4.45 million Canadian viewers across CTV, CTV Two and TSN2. That is down 39% from 7.32 million viewers two years ago and down slightly (0.4%) from last year’s 4.47 million. One reason for the drop was that for the second straight year, a Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission decision "allowed domestic cable and satellite providers to not substitute the base U.S. network feed and its American commercials with the Bell Media feed, which aired substitute Canadian commercials on CTV, CTV Two and TSN2" (TORONTO SUN, 2/6).