Super Bowl breaks US TV audience record

• Source: Global Times
• [00:19 February 10 2010]
• Comments

The 44th Super Bowl marked a first, and not just for the victorious New Orleans Saints – the broadcast of the American football classic took in over 106 million viewers, an all-time US record.

Audience ratings agency Nielsen estimates that the game between the Saints and the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night, which aired on CBS, drew 106.5 million television spectators, breaking a broadcast record that stood for more than a quarter century.

Super Bowl viewership topped by a nose the 105.97 million people who tuned in to watch the final episode of the TV series Mash February 29, 1983, which also aired on CBS.

With its 31-17 victory, New Orleans claimed its first NFL championship in the franchise's 43-year history.

Several of the most widely watched broadcasts in US history have been Super Bowls. The previous Super Bowl audience record was 98.7 million viewers, for last year's game in which the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals.

Agencies