TV Ratings: Big Super Bowl XLVI lets NBC dominate Sunday night
Will Patriots-Giants become the most-watched program ever? Too early to know.
Eli Manning
Credit: David J. Phillip/AP
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We won't have final numbers for Super Bowl XLVI until later in the day and the numbers in this article reflect only the primetime portion of the game (a game that didn't make it into primetime for the left side of the country), but regardless of what Fast National ratings actually mean for the Super Bowl, it can be safely said that NBC dominated Sunday night. And it can safely be said that this Super Bowl did very well for NBC.
In preliminary figures, NBC is boasting that Super Bowl XLVI had the third highest Overnight ratings for any Super Bowl, only one percent below the record. Compared to the Fast Nationals for last year's Super Bowl, NBC's numbers and FOX's numbers are basically identical.
So really, we're going to have to stay tuned for the answer to the day's biggest question: Did the game between the Giants and Patriots become the most-watched television program of all-time?
Among adults 18-49, NBC averaged a 32.0 rating for Sunday primetime, a little bit ahead of the rest of the field in the key demographic. FOX's 0.8 rating was second, followed by ABC's 0.7 and the 0.6 rating for CBS.
Overall, NBC averaged an estimated 85.35 million viewers in Sunday primetime along with a 37.0 rating/56 share. [A reminder again that those numbers should not be taken as the ratings for the Super Bowl.] CBS was second with a 2.7/4 and nearly 4.1 million viewers, followed by ABC's 1.6/2 and 2.57 million viewers. FOX averaged 1.83 million viewers and a 1.1/2 for Sunday primetime.
7 p.m. - The 7 p.m. hour, the only primetime hour to feature game action for the entire country, went to NBC with 102.425 million viewers and a 37.3 rating among adults 18-49. CBS' "Undercover Boss" repeat averaged 2.83 million viewers, beating the 2.6 million viewers for ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos." FOX's repeats of "Bob's Burgers" and "Napoleon Dynamite" averaged 1.23 million viewers and tied with ABC and CBS with a 0.5 key demo rating.
8 p.m. - The football action between New York and New England averaged 101.6 million viewers and a 37.3 rating among adults 18-49 for the 8 p.m. hour on NBC. CBS' "60 Minutes" averaged 4.01 million viewers for second, but a 0.6 key demo rating for fourth. ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos" repeat was third overall with 2.93 million viewers and tied for second with a 0.8 key demo rating. FOX's "The Simpsons" and "The Cleveland Show" repeats averaged 1.905 million viewers and a 0.8 key demo rating.
9 p.m. - The Super Bowl averaged 95.58 million viewers and a 35.8 rating among adults 18-49 for the 9 p.m. hour. CBS averaged 3.13 million viewers for a "CSI: Miami" repeat, but came in fourth with a 0.5 key demo rating. FOX's repeats of "Family Guy" and "American Dad" averaged 2.35 million viewers and a 1.0 key demo rating. ABC's repeats of "The Middle" were fourth with 1.77 million viewers and a 0.5 key demo rating.
10 p.m. - Super Bowl XLVI's postgame coverage ran until roughly 10:20 on the East Coast and was followed by "The Voice," leading to an hour that averaged 41.78 million viewers and a 17.4 rating among adults 18-49. [The "Voice"-only half-hour averaged 30.28 million viewers and a 13.3 key demo rating, but that shouldn't be taken for the actual "Voice" ratings any more than the Super Bowl ratings reflected ratings for the Super Bowl.] CBS' repeat of "NCIS" averaged 6.41 million viewers and a 1.0 key demo rating. On ABC, two repeats of "Modern Family" averaged nearly 3 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo rating.
STAY TUNED FOR ACTUAL SUPER BOWL RATINGS LATER IN THE DAY.
All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change, particularly in the case of live events.
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
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February 6, 2012 at 3:02PM EST Reply to Commentshe should be a lock