Super Bowl's Lack of Scoring Leads To Smallest Game Audience In 11 Years

The Patriots' win over the Rams in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday earned 98.2 million viewers on CBS (6:32-10:05pm ET), marking the least-watched Super Bowl since Giants-Patriots drew 97.4 million in '08. The Steelers-Cardinals matchup in '09 (98.7 million) was the last Super Bowl to not cross the 100 million mark. Sunday's game, the lowest-scoring affair in Super Bowl history, is down from 103.4 million viewers for last year's Eagles-Patriots game. Sunday drew a total audience delivery of 100.7 million viewers across all of CBS' platforms, which included the TV network, CBS Interactive, NFL digital properties, Verizon Media mobile properties and ESPN Deportes (Josh Carpenter, THE DAILY).

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A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS: In L.A., Stephen Battaglio writes though the "tactical contest might have been compelling to serious football watchers, casual fans tend to enjoy higher-scoring shootouts and likely saw Sunday’s game as a snooze-fest." Regular-season ratings for the NFL grew by 5% this past season with "higher scoring and aggressive offensive play cited most as the reasons." A "widely panned halftime concert featuring Maroon 5 also did not help" on Sunday (L.A. TIMES, 2/5). ESPN's Max Kellerman noted it was a "low-scoring game, and on top of that, not a very good one." He said, "If that score would have been 40-something to 30-something, it would have done just fine” ("First Take," ESPN, 2/5). ESPN's Mike Golic Jr. noted the Super Bowl did not feature the "kind of football that has lent itself to good ratings in the last few years, so people tuned out.” ESPN’s Mike Golic: “I wonder if people didn't turn it from Patriots fatigue, saying, ‘I'm just kind of tired of it.’ There’s tuning into the game and turning it off in the second quarter because you’re not entertained. And there are those who never turned on the game at all” (“Golic & Wingo,” ESPN Radio, 2/5).

FINDING SOME SOFT SPOTS: In N.Y., Kevin Draper writes in New Orleans, a sense of "righteous indignation from fans whose hometown Saints were the victims of poor refereeing contributed to the audience collapse." New Orleans was the lowest-rated of the 56 markets, and though the city "isn’t one of the country’s largest television markets, it is one of the most fervent for football, typically rating among the highest in the country for the proportion of households watching the Super Bowl." Fans in K.C., whose Chiefs lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship, were also "turned off, though not nearly to the same extent." Super Bowl ratings in K.C. were down 11% compared to last year (N.Y. TIMES, 2/5). Meanwhile, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith noted the L.A. market had a "lower rating for Super Bowl viewership than the rest of the country as a whole." Smith: "People in L.A. don't care enough. ... They don't have a strong fan base" (“First Take,” ESPN, 2/5).

STILL THE BIGGEST SHOW ON TV: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Benjamin Mullin writes despite its smaller overall size, the audience for the Super Bowl still "dwarfs those of other televised events." Although much of TV viewing has "shifted online, Sunday night’s game did appear to steal some market share from newer streaming services." Netflix tweeted that the Super Bowl was "kind of a big deal," saying its U.S. viewership was down 32% compared with a typical Sunday (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/5). In DC, Hamza Shaban notes Sunday’s game was still one of the "top 12 most-watched Super Bowls" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/5).

HATS OFF: CBS acting CEO Joe Ianniello applauded employees for the net's coverage of Sunday's Super Bowl, which he called a "huge success." Ianniello: "Very few media companies have the ability to pull together an audience of 100 million viewers with a single program like we did. ... CBS’ production was first class, both in front of and behind the camera." He added, "On Super Bowl Sunday, all parts of CBS came together in spectacular fashion. It was another great example of the strength of CBS and the quality of the people who work here" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 2/4).

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: SI.com's Jimmy Traina wrote during his call of Sunday's game, CBS' Tony Romo "didn't seem even the slightest bit nervous or over-the-top because it was 'the Super Bowl.'" He called the game "like any other game from the 17-week regular season." But while Patriots coach Bill Belichick "deserves praise for stopping the high-powered Rams offense," Jim Nantz and Romo were "not critical enough of [Rams QB] Jared Goff, who was awful." The bottom line is that the game was "painful to watch, but would've been even more unbearable if Romo wasn't in the booth having a good time." Traina gave the broadcast a B+ grade (SI.com, 2/4). In L.A., Tom Hoffarth writes after the game was over, it appeared CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson was about to be "swallowed alive by the mass of media, players and security, as she angled" for an interview with Tom Brady. It is still "not clear whether it was worth the cringe-worthy time, effort or personal sacrifice in the pursuit of an innocuous soundbite." Hoffarth: "No network needs to send a reporter into a mass of pushing-and-shoving humanity like that" (L.A. TIMES, 2/5).