Record Super Bowl audiences on CTV and CBS
February 7, 2010 · 33 Comments
The Super Bowl drew the largest U.S. audience in the history of American television, CBS reports. The CBS telecast of the New Orleans Saints’ 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts had a viewership of 106.5 million, topping the previous record of 106 million for the finale of M*A*S*H in 1983.
CBS earned a “fast national rating” (which is a more comprehensive measurement than the overnight ratings) of 45.0 (percentage of U.S. households tuned in, bettering last year’s rating of 42.0 by 7 per cent (Pittsburgh-Arizona).
In Canada, the telecast on CTV drew 6.o25 million viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl ever in Canada. French language RDS had an audience of 650,000 for a total Canadian viewership of 6.7 million.
CTV also announced Monday that it has extended its NFL rights agreement four more years.
Sunday’s review of the CBS Super Bowl telecast:
CBS’s Super Bowl coverage was much like the game itself: Well played, occasionally exciting and, except for an interception, largely error free.
The telecast may have focused too much on Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, but he really was the story going into the game and for most of it, despite throwing an interception late and losing to the New Orleans Saints.
The production: CBS’s 50 cameras were used effectively for the most part. Nothing was missed, although the overhead Cablecam was over-used. It helped the telecast that CBS posts the time clock on the screen, allowing the viewer to see how close to the edge Manning was operating with the no-huddle offense. In the fourth quarter, CBS’s replay cameras gave us a good look at the disputed two point conversation that was given to the Saints in a review. The fast SuperVision cameras didn’t bring anything exceptional to the telecast.
Announcer Jim Nantz: He delivered a solid, unobtrusive play by play that never got in the way of the action on the field. His call is clear and straight-forward. He was criticized, correctly, for doing a commercial earlier in the season with Manning. It left the impression that he’s a pal of Manning and may favour him in the game telecasts. Several times he referred to Manning as “Peyton,” although he never called Saints quarterback Drew Brees “Drew.” But Manning ranks among the few athletes whose first name is enough, like Kobe, A-Rod or LeBron.
Nantz described most of the big moments well and with few words. When the Saints succeeded in their on-side kick, he said simply and accurately, “What a fearless way to start the second half.”
Phil Simms: He doesn’t criticize and rarely expresses an opinion, which makes his game analysis somewhat soft and uninteresting. When Colts receiver Pierre Garcon dropped a perfectly thrown ball in the second quarter, Simms didn’t attempt to discuss why or say something like, “You’ve got make those catches in the big games.” Nantz stepped in to say the dropped ball was a “momentum changer, perhaps.”
Still, Simms’s strength is his analysis. He noted the Colts defense hadn’t faced a passing offense like the Saints’ for several weeks – the Jets and Ravens in the post-season didn’t pass much. He also got it right late in the first half when he predicted that New Orleans would go for the touchdown with fourth and one at the Saints one yard line. In advance of the Saints being stopped, he stated that going for the TD was the wrong decision, that they should kick the field goal.
Studio analysts: Loud, irritating and often stupid.
Halftime show: No, you weren’t watching Saturday night entertainment at the home, but the Who is looking a little old. Still, Roger Daltrey’s voice is holding up pretty well. (He’s 65.) The show, featuring a medley of hits, wasn’t in the same league as Bruce Springteen and the E Street Band a year ago, but the Boss delivered the best the Super Bowl halftime entertainment ever.
The Burke story
It’s worth wondering what U.S. television will do with the death of Toronto Maple Leaf general manager Brian Burke’s son, Brendan, particularly during the Winter Olympics, when Burke will be front and centre as manager of the U.S. men’s hockey team.
Who knows how mawkish this story might get. We saw a bit of it Sunday in Toronto where The Toronto Star headline read, “Leafs win one for Brendan,” and the headline on The Globe and Mail online edition read, “Leafs win one for Brian Burke.”
The Star, by the way, posted the following when the news of Brendan’s death in an automobile accident broke: “Brendan Burke – the gay son of Leaf general manager Brian Burke – has been killed in a car accident in Indiana.” It was eventually changed to: “Brendan Burke – the youngest son of Leaf general manager Brian Burke – has been killed in a car accident in Indiana.”
Unfortunately, this story is red meat for a tabloid producer. Just imagine the maudlin pieces that could surface during the Olympics: Burke wants to win one for son. Brian perseveres despite family grief . The tragic story of Brendan and Brian, the son comes out at Thanksgiving, Brian supports him and then this.
Let’s hope the Olympic networks show restraint.
- Couldn’t agree more with Hockey Night In Canada’s Don Cherry: Steve Stamkos deserves a spot on the Canadian Olympic team. Grapes pointed out that over the past 82 games, Alex Ovechkin leads in the NHL with 54 goals, followed by Sidney Crosby with 49. And in third place? Stamkos, with 47 goals. Canada, which always seems to struggle offensively in high level international events, could use his goal scoring.
- Hockey Night’s Mike Milbury had it right to rap Atlanta Trasher general manager Don Waddell for his handling of the Ilya Kovalchuk deal. How can you not allow an interested team access to Kovalchuk to see if he’ll sign long term? If an understanding had been reached, his value would have gone up.
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Yes, Nantz got it right in predicting the Saints would go for it. Saying it was a mistake and they should take the field goal? Not so much. Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com (whose background was in sports analysis before he entered the world of politics) has a nice article on expected returns associated with the two options and taking the FG only makes sense if you think you've got a less than ~20% chance of scoring a TD from a yard and a half out.
The article is here: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/02/go-for-it-...
I'm betting if Simms had said, "You’ve got make those catches in the big games,” you and Z, as you like to call him, would be saying Simms was stating the obvious and talking too much.
I felt sorry for the Who when they could not quite hit the harmonies, but for a bunch of old guys, I thought they did alright. Ringo's boy looked like Keith Moon!
Re: The Burke story "…. Let’s hope the Olympic networks show restraint." did you actually write that with a straight face?
NBC might, if only because they might forget about hockey.
CTV is already in hyper-gear, as displayed yesterday during SB-XLIV. Can't wait to see what they do over the next 3 weeks (ugh).
C'mon William,
Everybody knows the best halftimes how was Prince!
Great story as always Bill…man I miss the Globe…anyway… Prince was the best..he did it in the rain no less. Am I the only one that thought the Obama thing was not needed…..I am on my fifth beer and I am hearing about a guy losing his home and a cab driver that was scared of the economy….I tuned in to get away from that stuff..and then Katie Couric asks Brees if "he saved New ORleans or did New Orleans save you?". what a waste! Curious to know what you thought Bill
Respectfully, the Springsteen halftime show runs a distant second to the U2 post-9/11 halftime show.
And The Who was just sad. Pretty lights, though.
The Best half-time show belonged to Michael Jackson. Jumped out onto the stage through a floor grate, then just stood there with his shades on. A huge stadium, a big game, and pure silence until he took off his sunglasses.
My son & I are already covering our ears everytime we here the CTV olympic "anthem". Just one bar & we run for the remote to mute it. Talk about over saturation of an event that everyone knows is coming.
I really do hope that none of the networks exploit Brendan Burke's death but that might be asking too much. I thought that Hockey Night in Canada the other night was bordering on exploitation.
Very true, almost 15 of the 30 minutes pre-game show was dedicated to the death of a GM's son (albeit connected to the Leafs which is the only thing HNIC cares about) . They didn't even give Boom Boom Geofrion 5 minutes on the night he died and had his jersey retired to give all their attention to Tie Domi's 1000th game. Now that is sickening!
Milbury, that knucklehead! I always want to throw a shoe at the TV every time I see him there [in the US on NESN and NBC, also on the NHL Network's re-transmission of Hockey Night in Canada] He was bum as a player [especially with that little shoe-bashing incident at Madison Sq. Garden] and as a general manager [almost killed the NY Islanders franchise]. What's so special about Milbury, the rat?
Thank God for my DVR. I was able to pause during the commercials so I would miss out on the annoying Olympic anthem.
And I read elsewhere that last night's Super Bowl edged out the final episode of M*A*S*H as the most watched television event in U.S. history.
So did more people in Canada watch the Superbowl than watched the Grey Cup? How did that compare?
Check that – just looked it up.
Grey Cup on TSN : 5.1 million people
Superbowl on CTV: 6.025 million people.
Even with the fact that one is on CTV and the other TSN, that's a bigger gap than I expected. I'm pretty impressed with those Superbowl numbers.
and 16M plus Canadians watched at least part of it. 2.3M more than the Grey Cup. Hockey is number one in Canada for sure though I'm very sure Football is #2. And judging by the way the NFL playoffs beat out the CFL playoff numbers..and how TSN was able to get a lot more numbers on MNF vs Friday night football..I think it's fair to say the US variety trumps here? Is that fair? I mean, there isn't even a Canadian team involved (no home/away markets)
JGH.
Total combine viewers for Grey Cup 6.1 million.
Total combined viewers for Super Bowl. 6.7 million.
Total reach of TSN and RDS combined- 9 million homes.
Total reach of CTV- 14 million homes.
CTV reaches 5 million more households then TSN and RDS combined.
GREy Cup went up against American football.
CFL fans watched the Super Bowl.
For the whole year CFL easily had the higher ratings.
Next TV deal CFL will be back on a national carrier. Not a cable channel.
wrong… as usual.
Ok – apples to apples – Monday Night Football on TSN beats Friday Night Football on TSN hands down. Please explain? (oh, and I"m sure there were a ton of Grey Cup fans who wanted to watch the game, but couldn't because they didn't have TSN…they could watch the game if they wanted, and you know it.)javascript:%20postComment(1);
show proof please.
Recent neilsen poll said 51% of americans watch the super bowl because of the ads. I don't believe there would be any other tv program would have the majority saying the ads are better than the show.
So, boffo ratings but don't notch up to all as a football love fest. For a large chunk of the audience, the super bowl is an entertainment spectacle – and not because of the action on the field.
For the Grey Cup, you can say it is like a typical program – the majority of the 6.1m watched it for the football.
So Canadians watch it for……the ads? No, we all know that we get the same crappy commercials played over and over….so I guess you can say Canadians watch it for the football?
It's worth noting that the CFL doesn't have anything *approaching* the hype machine surrounding it that the NFL does. If you watch only American television stations (and I know many people who do), you were aware that there was a big sporting event happening on Sunday, and that if you didn't tune in, a pop culture event would be passing you by. Those same people could well have been completely unaware of the Grey Cup when it happened back in November.
There's a celebrity/Entertainment Tonight quality to the Super Bowl that the Grey Cup clearly doesn't have, and there are people who watch it simply for that.
Well it's also worth noting that the Grey Cup game ALWAYS includes two markets that vastly increase it's ratings – that being the home and away. The NFL game includes neither. That makes a big difference.
I'm not looking to rip the CFL at all. I think it's a good game and I enjoy it. However, once the NFL starts, my focus is there. I simply like the game better, I think it's a much better quality game.
CTV hyped the Grey Cup for weeks across all it's platforms as well. You couldn't watch TV in November and not see the Brian Williams in McMahon Stadium promo.
Canadians watch the stuper bowl for the gambling pure and simple. People at the bar that I watched it, were more interested in how many yards each quarterback had etc., even to who won the coin toss!!!!! As far as the game itself, they couldn't care less.
LOL, sure.
What a brilliant comment…by the way, the same thing happens at every Grey Cup party…it's part of the fun.
So true, too many Canadians for me to be comfortable get too much info off American tv and websites. They tend to have a warped sense of the Cdn landscape and fall way too easily for commercial fests like the Super Bowl.
Yes, what are they doing? Crazy to think that they might enjoy a better athletes playing a better game. Terrible.
Really, have you ever watched a CFL game! Get some of those 400lb linemen in the NFL on a CFL field and the 20 sec. time clock, there would more cardiac arrest on the field than you could ever imagine
LOL ..moron.