UPDATE: Preliminary overnight rating reports show Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIX will be the most-watched TV show in U.S. and Canadian history.
Marc Berman over at TV Media Insights reports it scored an overnight record 49.7 rating/72 share in households. No surprise, really, given the tight, back-and-forth score and dramatic ending. Thanks to a last minute goal line interception that will be second-guessed for years, the New England Patriots prevailed over the Seattle Seahawks 28 – 24.
The game averaged 8.2 million viewers on CTV plus another million on DRS for a record Canadian overnight estimated audience of 9.2 million, according to CTV. The previous high was the 8.18M combined total for the 2012 Super Bowl, also a nail-biter.
Besides the tight score, a snowstorm that walloped much of southern Ontario kept even those who might have gone out in front of their TV sets.
The dramatic ending did not sway CTV from flipping as soon as it could away from the post-game coverage and into its second season premiere of Masterchef Canada. Sportsfans were told to flip to TSN if they wanted more coverage as the cooking competition took over the CTV slot around ten past 10 p.m. (where it drew an estimated 1.35 million viewers). Many of us headed instead to the local NBC affiliate feed–something the CRTC is suggesting all of Canada will be able to do during the entire game starting in 2017.
If you stuck with NBC even further, you saw their post-Super Bowl offering–the return of The Blacklist. The episode began cleverly with a fake news report of a terrorist attack and then dramatic, movie-like scenes of terror on the high seas. The episode was very cleverly crafted to keep as many football fans as possible hooked. It worked Stateside as The Blacklist pulled a 13.5 rating/24 share, according to Berman, making it the top-rated post-Super Bowl entertainment telecast in three years. In Canada Blacklist opened to 929,000 on Global.
advertisement
Katy Perry’s trippy half time show was also a grabber. Giant fake lions and dancing blue penguins had folks watering down the punch all up and down North America. There was more fireworks detonated during her last number than there will be at Seattle coach Pete Carroll’s retirement party.
Al Michaels called his usual stellar game, especially during that unbelievable bobbled sideline catch made by Seattle receiver Jermaine Kearse. The player was on his back at the five yard line. Michaels coined it the “Did-that-just happen” catch. Kudos, too, to sideline reporters Michele Tafoya and Carolyn Manno. The women were the ones who had to step up and ask the toughest questions of the night, especially Tafoya with Pat’s owner Robert Kraft (who ignored her inference that “deflate-gate” might eventually taint the win) and Manno’s direct post mortum with Carroll outside the Seahawks’ silent locker room. Hats off to Carroll, too, for man-ing up and taking the heat on that call, but, geez, what were they thinking?
2 Comments
I had to work last night. I’m a home healthcare worker and of the 19 households I visited yesterday evening, not a single person was watching the Superbowl. In most of the homes, it was curling that was on the tv. And on Facebook, the only friends I had who commented on the Superbowl were in Toronto. I just find it so strange how fanship in the country varies so much. As a comparison, I remember how popular Canadian Idol was in the country, except for in Toronto.
Living in the Toronto area for most of my life, it’s difficult to not notice that there is somewhat of an urban/rural separation in the popularity of certain types of entertainment. You have to get as far away as Mullet-ville (Oshawa) to start finding a lot of people who pay attention to stuff like country music, the CFL, junior hockey, Nascar, etc.