Getty ImagesThe Super Bowl continues to generate massive TV numbers. However, this year’s ratings weren’t as massive as last year’s.
Via SportsBusiness Daily, Super Bowl LI racked up an overnight rating of 48.8. That’s down a hair from last year’s 49.0 rating generated by Super Bowl 50.
New England’s Super Bowl XLIX win over Seattle saw a 49.7 rating, with the incremental amount likely fueled by the intense early days of the #DeflateGate scandal.
A ratings point equals a percentage of all televisions in America; thus, 48.8 percent of all American TVs were tuned to Sunday’s game.
Which raises an obvious question: What the hell were the other 50.2 percent of all American TVs tuned to? While plenty of people don’t watch football specifically or sports generally, the Super Bowl draws in a broad swath of the population.
Even then, the NFL still has a long way to go to achieve full saturation of the American market.
There are too many ways now to watch the games other than TV. Ratings are eroding across the board for pretty much everything except streaming and pay services.
I wonder when the ratings are measured. At the start of the game or throughout?
I for one watched the entire game. But I can see how some viewers who aren’t die hard football fans turned it off at some point when the Falcons were up 28-3.
Also, have to consider how many people are at parties and 1. Left their tv tuned into something else. 2. They were DVRing something else which counts as a rating.
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” Which raises an obvious question: What the hell were the other 50.2 percent of all American TVs tuned to? ”
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2 Broke Girls
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Falcons aren’t a national team.
Difference between watching Cam Newton vs Matt Ryan. Ryan will never move the needle.
Are the Patriots the greatest pro sports dynasty ever?
Without a doubt. 🙂
16 years and counting with no end in sight….
The posts on some of the earlier articles are mind boggling. Some idiot actually had the audacity to t post stating Brady cheated on his first wife. He’s only been married once.
If Falcons fans wanted to be negative I would understand, but they appear to be too classy. For posters of some of the other team, not so much.
Falcons fans – it hurts, I know. Been there, felt that 4 times.
Be proud of your team. They are good and will be a force next year, for sure.
Hollywood Reporter said Super Bowl 51 was the 2nd most watched all time
During the pregame I played a game between FOX and NFLN. If they brought up deflate gate or anything political I flipped to the other network.
It’s not that I have thin skin. It’s not the time or place or format for either topic. I think I ended up slipping about 3 or 4 times each.
thats what Shanahan deserves for the worst second half play calling in super bowl history . . . he certainly blew that game . . . 49ers fans should be very scared after what they say yesterday . . . yikes!!
Hopefully the ratings were helped by all the Atlanta bars staying open late to celebrate.
I switched to Netflix at halftime, thinking the game was over.
“Which raises an obvious question: What the hell were the other 50.2 percent of all American TVs tuned to?”
Kitten Bowl?
People are tired of fixed outcomes.
Remember, the ratings are solely based on participant households and can be skewed vs what the actual public watched. Also, how many of the ratings households had a member at someone else’s house watching the game while the other member at home not watching football. Add that to the people that watch the game streaming or just on highlight services and you really can’t get a realistic and dependable number of how many people actually watched it.
Watched very little of the pregame show because it was terrible. Didn’t watch the half time show but enjoyed the game.
Puppy Bowl…I had the over at 105.
I wonder how many people tuned out at 28 -3
” Which raises an obvious question: What the hell were the other 50.2 percent of all American TVs tuned to? ”
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I can tell you what I was doing. Don’t like or dislike either team and live in Houston so didn’t want to be out drinking with all the cops and drunks out. Stayed home playing xbox on big screen and streaming game on laptop until late in the second half and then was focused back on the game.
I prepared to be saturated with football stuff all day long but frankly, I was disappointed. I don’t care much for talk shows made up of has-been football players or wanna-be sportscasters. I was expecting “The Road to the Superbowl” with both teams’ highlights from the season but little of that. I did watch the entire Superbowl and it was great.
Did anyone consider the ratings were down because there wasn’t a team west of the Mississippi playing?
the NFL is as fake as pro wrestling. you’d have to be a fool to give them your money. the pats dynasty is built on lies, cheating, and favoritism. that’s why ratings are down.
If the Niners were in at we would have shattered the records…………..again
easy – lots of us, myself included, watched the game streamed online.
As long as you have the cheater commissioner ratings will continue to nosedive. Even a great game can’t save the ratings.
ctiggs says:
Feb 6, 2017 3:28 PM
If the Niners were in at we would have shattered the records…………..again
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Too bad they suck.
Peyton beats Brady … again.
I guarantee the 1st half and final 10 minutes were record highs. The low viewership is an average of the entire broadcast where clearly millions turned off the game which was “decided” by halftime. Heck even Trump turned off at that point …
“Difference between watching Cam Newton vs Matt Ryan. Ryan will never move the needle.”
Yeah but he wasn’t moving the needle or anything else but nachos and beer in the post season this year was he?
Lolz that was low hanging fruit but I couldn’t resist
“thats what Shanahan deserves for the worst second half play calling in super bowl history . . .”
Can’t say I was very impressed with Josh McDaniel’s offensive plan in the first half either. If the Pats had lost he’d be getting bashed instead of little Shanny
Watched it at a friends house. I went for the food and beer. It was amazing, the first time any team has come back from more than 10 points down. the first super bowl that went into over time. And don’t forget now Rodger Goodell has to hand the MVP trophy to Tom Brady. It is just unbelievable. It really Is!
That’s hard to believe
Yeah, I don’t believe that. It was easily the greatest super bowl in NFL history. It was the first super bowl game ever to feature overtime and a 25 point comeback. I think the ratings only seemed so low in the first half because a lot of people thought the game was over at half-time.
I watched the game, but literally stream everything else. The next time I’ll tune into live television is the NFL draft, unless I decide to just follow on Twitter.
Advertisements have become invasive and disruptive to programming. The tipping point has been reached. I’m at a point where I sometimes prefer to follow live games on nfl.com with adblocker engaged.
Here we go again,fans don’t care about ratings. You either watch or you don’t. You didn’t watch,you missed probably the greatest game ever played.
Mysterious P.I. calls… Oversight of holding or facemask non-calls… and the sudden Refs helping New England win all the time. Of course ratings are down.
watched the entire game, and half time show…..didnt plan to as was still very steamed over last years PC/political SB…was kinda forced into a SB party this year…. BUT, i must say lady gaga did a great job by by displaying a lot of talent,gave a lot of effort,and showed a lot of maturity by staying away from all the overt PC stuff….if the NFL wants to recapture its dwindling fan base , focus on the game and ditch the PC….good job lady gaga and crew by staying focused on the show!!……..