update: now confirmed. And this explanation via an AP story is…something (emphasis mine):
Nielsen explained the discrepancy of more than 3 million viewers by saying a more complete check of their records revealed additional viewership on some digital tier networks. The company hadn’t been aware that they were showing the game.
we hear from a reliable source or two that after additional counting Sunday night’s Super Bowl featuring an awesome contest where the Pittsburgh Steelers ultimately defeated the Arizona Cardinals is now the most-watched Super Bowl ever, eclipsing even last year’s game which averaged 97.448 million, with a 98.7 million average.
Previously it had been reported that Sunday night’s game averaged 95.4 million, which would’ve made it the second most-watched Super Bowl of all time.
We still haven’t seen the data, but if true, we will see it in any number of ways including an “Super Bowl XLIII Second Most Watched Super Bowl Ever” press release from NBC.
Here is the updated press release via NBC (nice headline!):
MOST VIEWED TV PROGRAM IN HISTORY: SUPER BOWL XLIII ON NBC
151.6 Million Total Viewers
& 98.7 Million Average Viewers Watch Super Bowl XLIII
TAMPA – Feb. 3, 2009 – Super Bowl XLIII is now the most viewed television program in U.S. history with a total audience of 151.6 million viewers, according to official national ratings data released today by Nielsen Media Research.
“It’s always incredibly satisfying to amass large audiences, but this television record simply reaffirms the power of the Super Bowl and the National Football League,” said Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics. “Everyone associated with the NFL should feel a great sense of pride in this accomplishment and in providing a day of enjoyment to American families – especially those who are struggling in these difficult times.”
MOST VIEWED TELEVISION PROGRAMS IN HISTORY (total viewers):
1. Super Bowl XLIII 151.6 million NBC 2009
2. Super Bowl XLII 148.3 million Fox 2008
3. Super Bowl XXVIII 144.4 million CBS 2004
The total audience of 151.6 million viewers tops the previous Super Bowl record audience of 148.3 million viewers by 3.3 million viewers (Super Bowl XLII, Giants-Patriots, Note: total audience measures viewership for all or part of a broadcast).
MOST-WATCHED SUPER BOWLS (average viewers):
1. Super Bowl XLIII 98.7 million NBC 2009
2. Super Bowl XLII 97.5 million Fox 2008
3. Super Bowl XXX 94.1 million NBC 1996
4. Super Bowl XLI 93.2 million CBS 2007
5. Super Bowl XXVII 91.0 million NBC 1993
The average viewership of 98.7 million is tops in Super Bowl history, beating last year’s game by 1.2 million viewers (97.5 million). NBC now owns two of the top three and three of the top five most watched Super Bowls of all-time, with Super Bowl XXX third on the list with 94.1 million viewers and Super Bowl XXVII fifth with 91.0 million viewers. (Note: P2+ measures average viewership per minute). * The M*A*S*H finale in 1983 averaged 106 million viewers and total audience figures for the program are estimated to be 122 million viewers.
If that’s the case, The Office nubers should go up as well.
TomSD, I doubt it, I bet that number keeps dropping.
-rolls eyes-
what exactly does “additional counting” mean?? They missed something the first time or were missing data? Don’t really matter to me if it was most watched or 2nd most, but it seems a little shady that they all of a sudden found 3 million extra viewers between yesterday and today.
wasnt yesterday just the overnite estimated #’s…why is it suprpising that they would change ?
They must have used the same vote counters that Minnesota used in the Franken-Coleman recount by counting some people twice.
In any event, it was the best Super Bowl that I can remember. Both teams fought to the bitter end with twists and turns and spectacular plays. I still cant believe Harrison didnt get the MVP award for that record breaking 100 yard interception runback ending just as the clock hit zero. That guy was robbed. Holmes catch was a close 2nd.
I guess I’m surprised it would increase, typically for live events the overnights tend to be overstated, not understated, or at least that’s what I’ve noticed. So I would have expected the 95.4 million to be the highest it could achieve when the final results came in. But apparently the overnights can underestimate the final number by a bit too.
I think it’s the 3D effect on the ratings. Without the glasses, they’re flat, blurry and 95 million.
Put the 3D glasses on and they jump right out at you and bam! 98.7 million.
(also rolling his eyes)…Come – ON – NBC really is a peacock -
I say we wait and SEE the numbers – like a peacock – I think their just showing off the last bit of fame until the olympics…NBC – THE NEW CW!
Hey – where’s Mon results…are they in—really wanting to see how 24 did against competition.????????????????????????????????????
so the largest audience in tv history was subjected to nbc’s onslaught of Heroes promos and there was no ratings improvement whatsoever. wow. shut it down.
I see – their counting all the 2 year olds—-please!!!!!!!???
STEELER NATION
Let NBC have its fun, because everyone knows outside of sports the rest of what it airs is marginal at best and the ratings show it.
NBC’s new slogan “At Least Our Ratings are Better than the CW when football isnt on !!”
theoretically this is good news for CBS who has the game next year because it will sell based on these ratings. but because of the economy, perhaps not. NBC has been pretty open about being lucky it had sold 85% of the spots well in advance and it did not reportedly get the $3 million bounty per 30 seconds for the few final spots it sold at the end.
Odd, why would a game with one team from an uncelebrated sports market and Pittsburgh outdraw an undefeated New England, and huge market New York? Last year had bigger teams, and a better story.
Maybe more viewers stuck around for halftime? NBC’s marketing was better? Any insights?
Also, re: Super Bowl spots, I read anecdotal reports of advertisers who’d have bailed after buying if not already contractually obligated. Although no names were named, so that must be taken with a grain of salt.
dave, I attribute the Super Bowl viewer jump to NBC vs. Fox. Until last season, Fox’s Super Bowls were always lower rated than other recent ones from competing networks. And although it was in 1998, NBC’s last Super Bowl was much higher rated than other recent ones from competing networks.
Dave, I agree last year had a better story (18-0!) and bigger markets, but Pittsburgh is a huge draw and seems a better draw Super Bowl wise sometimes better even than the New York Giants. there is a huge national following for the Steelers, but I still agree with Bill’s conclusion in terms of NBC outperforming FOX.
pit is a small market but has a huge national following.
why so many changes? yesterday it was 2nd most watched superbowl, now, the most watched?
more for Julia than anyone but this is from Hibberd who is just now posting about this, his site seems taxed so here is the pertinent text:
Ratings often change for a live event’s national rating. But NBC special ordered overnight nationals yesterday from Nielsen that should have, in theory, matched the official Sunday numbers that typically come out on Tuesdays.
“Nielsen agrees that there was a problem that caused an enormous disparity in the preliminary and final numbers,” said Alan Wurtzel, president of research, NBC Universal. “They are looking into the problem. But the final report card is accurate: This Super Bowl is the most-watched program in television history.”
his site seems back up now. It’s worth reading what he has to say about NBC stretching the truth with its most-watched ever claim.
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/02/nbc-claims-super-bowl-is-the-mostwatched-tv-event-ever.html
Pittsburgh is a top 15 market.
Interesting. I still don’t buy NBC being too pissed about this, even if they did special order the numbers. I mean, they got to claim a game which no one was predicting would have big numbers was the second most watched game ever. And now they get to claim #1. All the outlets that ran yesterday’s numbers will run the updated ones as well.
And, yeah, I caught that little lie of theirs. Very clever. What it really shows is that M*A*S*H was a show that most people purposely tuned into and watched all of.
Julia, see the updated text of the Nielsen explanation via AP above. If I worked at NBC, I’d be upset with Nielsen. Since I don’t, it’s instead very interesting!
Nick, Pittsburgh #23 according to Nielsen estimates for this season. But that’s just the Pittsburgh DMA.
http://tvbythenumbers.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/2008_09_dma_ranks.pdf
the record will just get broken again next year in SB XLIV when the Cowboys are in.
When will we get the final national average Nielsen rating (not number of viewers)?
i think the final is 42.0 with a 64 share.
Rob, indeed, but we have it covered here:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/category/ratings/nielsen-weekly-top-broadcast-tv-show-ratings
Cool. You can update your historical chart now:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/18/historical-super-bowl-tv-ratings/11044
“some digital tier networks” that Nielsen did not know were showing the game?!? With all due respect, when Nielsen knew how big this event typically rates, they should have scoured every guide for every tier of every cable and satellite provider *before* game time. They should have been prepared to monitor every channel that was airing the Super Bowl. I don’t care if the game was on pay channels, sports premium channels, or the Hallmark Channel – Nielsen should have made themselves aware of the broadcast in advance!
*the above comment was not made by an NBC exec who paid money for this data, but it could have been*
they should have scoured every guide for every tier of every cable and satellite provider *before* game time.
I don’t think that’s how it works. I think Nielsen uses an audio identification process, so if there was a different audio on some obscure networks, that may have caused the mistake.
Rob, not near my data, but Pittsburgh’s viewing audience is 2.5M people which puts it in the top 15.
Hmm, I need to backtrack a little… apparently, that is how it works for the preliminary overnights. At least that’s how Variety quotes Nielsen: “As is standard procedure, yesterday’s early ‘fast national number’ was based on anticipated station coverage. The national overnight data released this morning was generated after we verified the stations carrying the game and are a more accurate reflection of the viewers.”
sooo, they just discovered 3million+ viewers 24 hours later to add to the final count?
am i the only one who finds that just a little shady? great game, though.
Did they explain what the digital tier networks were, and how they were showing the Super Bowl? Is it as simple an explanation as counting various NBC HD channels? Or is it something more involved?