Early Super Bowl Ratings Hint at Blockbuster Numbers for FOX

Filed under: Packers, Steelers, AFC North, NFC North, Super Bowl, Sports Business and Media

FOX wasted no time Monday laying the groundwork to declare Sunday's Super Bowl telecast the most-watched in American television history by releasing ratings from the nation's 55 largest markets.

The network announced that the Green Bay-Pittsburgh contest garnered a 47.9 rating and 71 share of the audience, according to Nielsen figures. That's a three percent rise from last year's 46.4/68 for New Orleans-Indianapolis, which aired on CBS.

FOX reports that the rating tied with Super Bowl XXI between the New York Giants and Denver as the highest among the metered markets, while the 71 share matches the highest for a Super Bowl in 29 years..

Let's pause for a bit of housekeeping: The rating measures the percentage of households around the country watching a show, while the share is the percentage of television sets that are on at a given time that are tuned to a program. In effect, 47.9 percent of every house in the nation's largest cities watched the game, while 71 percent of all the television sets in the country were watching some part or all of the game.

National ratings and the audience size are expected to be released later Monday. Given that last year's game became the first Super Bowl to top 100 million viewers at 106 million, Sunday's Super Bowl telecast may become the most-watched program in American television history, though the rating will likely not top the final episode of "M*A*S*H," which posted a 60.2/77 in 1983.

The ratings in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee topped out at 59.7, which trails only Chicago's 63.0 rating for Super Bowl XX as the largest for participating markets.

Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/07/early-super-bowl-ratings-hint-at-blockbuster-numbers-for-fox/

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