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Super Bowl Viewership Drops To Multi-Decade Low For NFL; Most Streamed Game Ever
https://deadline.com ^ | February 9, 2021 5:43am | By Dominic Patten

Posted on 02/09/2021 8:59:31 AM PST by Red Badger

There was a lot of history at Super Bowl LV on Sunday. Unfortunately, not all of it looks good when it comes to how many people actually watched – and we’re not just talking about Nielsen’s unprecedented delay in getting the actual data out.

In figures released Tuesday morning by CBS Sports, the big game had a total audience of 96.4 million viewers on CBS and a bundle of platforms and outlets, according to Nielsen. Confirming suspicions that many had even going into the matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs, that is the least-watched Super Bowl in recent history.

With around 91.6 million viewers on CBS alone, the 2021 Super Bowl is still the most watched show of the past year. However, taking an 8% stumble from what Fox had on its broadcast network last year, the 55th Super Bowl distinctly had the smallest network audience since the very different TV era of 2006.

What is also true is that the total numbers, from CBS, CBS Sports and NFL digital properties, Buccaneers and Chiefs mobile properties, Verizon Media mobile properties and ESPN Deportes television and digital properties, are the lowest since 2007. They are down around 5% from what last year’s Chiefs win over the San Francisco 49ers pulled in.

That Super Bowl LIV figure was a culmination of Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox, NFL and Verizon’s digital properties. The cumulative 2020 end result was a touch ahead of the 100.7 million who watched the 2019 Super Bowl across a pantheon of CBS and NFL properties and platforms.

The bruising viewership aside, there were some other pretty major historical aspects to Sunday’s gridiron face-off.

On the digital curve, Super Bowl LV was the most live-streamed in history, averaging 5.7 million viewers per minute, up 69% from 2020’s pervious high.

Now as the Buccaneers and Raymond James Stadium will brag for years, Sunday was also the first time the NFL’s big game was won by a team playing on their home turf.

Add to the procession of honors, in his first year in the Sunshine State metropolis, this victory was quarterback Tom Brady’s 10th Super Bowl and his seventh win, two new records. GOAT Brady also shattered his own record as the oldest Super Bowl-winning QB at the AARP-looming age of 43. Brady is the first QB to win the Super Bowl in three different decades and the first player to clench multiple titles after the ripe old age of 40.

The Buccaneers’ assistant defensive line coach Lori Locust and assistant strength and conditioning coach Maral Javadifar became the first female coaches to win a Super Bowl.

Also in the mix, February 7’s primetime game on CBS had the first halftime show headlined by a Canadian, with The Weeknd taking center stage – though we don’t have any figures yet for how many people actually watched his performance. Staying in the music realm, Super Bowl LV was the first time a “common ground”-seeking Bruce Springsteen appeared in a Super Bowl ad too. Sunday’s extravaganza was also the first Super Bowl to have a poet literally read a pre-game composition, as the amazing Amanda Gorman did Sunday.

In terms of the history books, the 31-9 blowout by the Buccaneers over last year’s champs wasn’t the most lopsided win ever; that still goes to the 49ers’ 55-10 thrashing of the Denver Broncos in 1990. However, it sure felt like it at times Sunday, even to some of the commentators who are hired to toss hyperboles around freely.

Back to the harsh viewership, the historical reality is no big surprise when you look at the big picture for the big game. Despite technical and cultural efforts to make the Covid-19 restrictions of Sunday’s game a non-event, the action on the field was just not the kind of drama that sports analysts and CBS programmers were anticipating. Which, with two less than top market teams participating, likely saw a lot of viewers clicking elsewhere on the first Sunday of February as the outcome became obvious long before the game was over.

Additionally, despite the best efforts of the Roger Goodell-led league to pump up the process and relatively empty stadiums, the NFL had a 10% drop in ratings on average this season after two years of increases – a fall that can’t help but hit the Super Bowl itself and dim enthusiasm as teams and supporters quarreled over safety protocols, cultural and racial justice, and a schedule that sometimes went off the rails due to positive coronavirus test results.

In other figures from Sunday, the 10:39 PM ET postgame premiere of the new version of The Equalizer starring Queen Latifah snagged an audience of 20.4 million. The drama was solidly the top-viewed series start of the current TV season and, with a 5.1 among adults 18-49, the highest-rated entertainment show since the Oscars in February 2020. Still, The Equalizer was down 14% from what The Masked Singer‘s Season 3 opener scored in its post-game start last year on Fox.

Moving deeper into the night, the 12:14 a.m. ET airing of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert snared 4.8 million viewers. The special, which had Robert Downey Jr and Metallica as guests, as the late-nighter’s best viewership and demo rating (1.1) since its last post-Super Bowl showing in 2019.

Furthermore, because who doesn’t love more stats, check out the Top 5 most watched Super Bowls here:

1. 2015: 114.4 million – Super Bowl XLIX: New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks (NBC)

2. 2014: 112.2 million – Super Bowl XLVIII: Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos (Fox)

3. 2016: 111.9 million – Super Bowl 50: Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers (CBS)

4. 2012: 111.35 million – Super Bowl XLVI: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots (NBC)

5. 2017: 111.32 million – Super Bowl LI: New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons (Fox)


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Sports; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: 4ththread; football; nfl; search; superbowl
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To: Grampa Dave

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/how-to-fight-spotify-streaming-fraud-850990/


21 posted on 02/09/2021 9:25:43 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Call on Joe Biden to follow Donald Trump's example and donate his annual salary to charity. )
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To: Red Badger

Not believing the numbers


22 posted on 02/09/2021 9:30:36 AM PST by petitfour (APPEAL TO HEAVEN)
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To: ctdonath2; Red Badger
"Of course it’s “most streamed game ever” "

I watched it by mail.

23 posted on 02/09/2021 9:32:19 AM PST by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
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To: V_TWIN

I call it the KKK Halftime Show.....................


24 posted on 02/09/2021 9:34:15 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: V_TWIN

I watched the WokeBowl. Superbowl ads used to be fun and interesting, now they're unwatchable. Apparently half the US population are trim, well spoken, successful black women.

25 posted on 02/09/2021 9:43:28 AM PST by CtBigPat (The period of Crisis is ending. Now comes Normalization.)
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To: Red Badger
I think:

1. It didn't help that the game was uncompetitive by the end of the first half.
2. Nielsen has serious trouble getting numbers from streaming services and from community viewing.

26 posted on 02/09/2021 9:45:05 AM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
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To: Red Badger
I and the Wife watched just to see if the kneeling thing would happen. We also wanted to see Brady beat the crap out of the snot-nose kid. What a wipe out - should have bet the spread because I was thinking something like that would occur.

The commercials were not up to par and controversial. The half-time show was ... what was it? They had some young black singer that the over 40 audience wouldn't know. Besides the over the top lighting display behind him, he had all those mannequins prancing around like it meant something. We laugh all the way through it. It was a mess.

27 posted on 02/09/2021 9:53:53 AM PST by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamo nauseated. Also LGBTQxyz nauseated )
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To: A Navy Vet

I had no idea who he was........................


28 posted on 02/09/2021 10:02:29 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

I’m about ready to give up on network television altogether. I enjoyed watching the show Prodigal Son with my wife, up until now. Every single episode thus far I have been lectured about “systemic racism.”

Too bad. It was a good show.

Wrecked already.


29 posted on 02/09/2021 10:12:50 AM PST by cld51860 (Volo pro veritas)
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To: cld51860

Why now I pretty much watch foreign shows.

Stumbled on a cool Russian detective show called “Second Sight” on You Tube, it has English subtitles. I enjoy these shows better than any crap Hollywood comes up with.


30 posted on 02/09/2021 10:14:32 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

My fourteen year old son sometimes gives me a bad time for watching old movies and tv shows. I told him exactly why I do. They truly are escapism these days.


31 posted on 02/09/2021 10:18:58 AM PST by cld51860 (Volo pro veritas)
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To: Red Badger

Didn’t watch it, Didn’t miss it.
The NFL is mostly an afterthought now to me, and I was a big fan for a long time up until a few years.


32 posted on 02/09/2021 10:31:36 AM PST by Newtoidaho (All I ask of living is to have no chains on me.)
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To: Red Badger

The total viewership might move up a couple of points were Nielsen able to tally totals from the streaming bootleg sports sites.


33 posted on 02/09/2021 10:38:46 AM PST by Rebelbase (COVID misanthrope)
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To: dfwgator
it has English subtitles

Tough thing about watching those is you can't phone surf while watching. Eyes down to the phone and whoops, missed the text. Watched one recently in French called "Bright Eyed Revenge.

34 posted on 02/09/2021 10:45:36 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: Red Badger

If they would only shame and insult the white audience more, oh and have more gold grill rapping trash for the half time show.


35 posted on 02/09/2021 10:47:45 AM PST by The MAGA-Deplorian (Sarcasm. It's my only natural defense against stupidity!)
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To: cld51860

Can’t relate to commercials on MSM anymore. Glad there is a mute button. There are some sick commercials on the tube.


36 posted on 02/09/2021 10:52:25 AM PST by FreedBird (T)
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To: CtBigPat
"Superbowl ads used to be fun and interesting, now they're unwatchable"

Bob Uecker approves your post!

From the front row, of course.

37 posted on 02/09/2021 11:01:33 AM PST by Zack Attack
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To: Red Badger

I was actually surprised when someone tokd me the SB was on. Didn’t care then, still dont.


38 posted on 02/09/2021 11:01:56 AM PST by Afterguard (Deplorable me! )
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To: Red Badger
Brady also shattered his own record as the oldest Super Bowl-winning QB at the AARP-looming age of 43. Brady is the first QB to win the Super Bowl in three different decades and the first player to clench multiple titles after the ripe old age of 40.

Since no one puts a hand on Brady he could easily play for years. It's not a 'rough and tumble' game if you NEVER get taken down...

39 posted on 02/09/2021 11:02:04 AM PST by GOPJ (If democrat thugs are gonna kill me - I'm gonna try to have it done before "the showers"...)
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To: Red Badger

Did America win?


40 posted on 02/09/2021 11:02:52 AM PST by Leep (Save America. Lock down Joe Biden!)
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