Super Bowl Ratings Slip To 8-Year Low As Eagles Score Historic Win
As emotional as NBC’s This Is Us was last night, it couldn’t lay a historical glove on the relentless drama of Super Bow LII, as the Philadelphia Eagles beat the skeptics and the New England Patriots to win their first Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Scoring a 41-33 victory over odds-on favorite Tom Brady and crew, the City of Brotherly Love’s win Sunday also prevented the defending champion Patriots from claiming a sixth Super Bowl to match the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most wins ever.
However, for the NFL and broadcasters pummeled with double-digit ratings drops this season, the number that really matters right now is the 47.4/70 in metered market ratings that yesterday’s Super Bowl delivered. Dipping by a slight 3% from the earliest numbers of last year’s Patriots’ 34-28 comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons, Sunday’s game is looking to be the eighth highest-rated Super Bowl ever. With more streaming options than ever this year, last night’s game is up 9% in metered market results compared with when the Patriots and Eagles last clashed in the NFL title game, at Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005.
However, Sunday’s Super Bowl also saw a decline of 5% in metered market results from the last time NBC had the big game on February 1, 2015, when the Patriots faced off against then-champs the Seattle Seahawks. Overall, last night’s game peaked in the high-stakes fourth quarter with a 52.2/74.
All in all, Super Bowl LII is currently the lowest rated since Super Bowl XLIV in 2010, when the New Orleans Saints thrashed the Indianapolis Colts on CBS. That first Super Bowl appearance and win for the Saints garnered a 46.4 in metered market ratings.
Even before the results were in for last night’s game, another voice was added to the chorus of praise for the Eagles. While Donald Trump passed on the traditional Presidential sit-down with the Super Bowl-broadcasting network Sunday, Tom Brady’s pal did take to social media for a few words after all the hoopla had left the field at Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium:
Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles on a great Super Bowl victory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2018
Also drawing compliments from POTUS when the Patriots won, last year’s Super Bowl on Fox ended up with a final viewership of 111.3 million and a 37.1 rating among adults 18-49. The Patriots’ winning Super Bowl XLIX of 2015 currently holds the title of most watched ever with 114.4 million viewers tuning in on NBC. That game delivered a 39.1 rating among the key demo.
Focusing in a bit more on where things could end up this year, the 201o Super Bowl drew a total TV crowd of 106.4 million and a rating of 38.6.
Starting at 10:45 PM ET, the postgame “Super Bowl Sunday” episode of This Is Us captured a 16.2 in metered market results, according to Nielsen. The 32nd episode in the run of the Dan Fogelman-created series and the highest-rated episode so far of the ratings hit, last night’s NFL-connected offering was up just more than 51% from Fox’s 11 PM ET-starting premiere of 24: Legacy after Super Bowl LI.
Even though it faced counterprogramming of sorts from Netflix’s suddenly announced release of The Cloverfield Paradox, Sunday’s This Is Us was the highest-rated post-Super Bowl offering since NBC aired The Voice at 10:15 PM ET in 2012. Last night’s fiery episode of the Emmy-winning series was also up 21% in metered market numbers from NBC’s The Blacklist in 2015, the network’s most recent post-Super Bowl presentation. That 10:38 PM ET start of the second-season episode of the James Spader-led series eventually pulled in an 8.4 rating among the 18-49s and 25.72 million viewers.
In This Is Us to This Is Us comparisons, last night’s airing certainly had Super Bowl bounce, with an 80% uptick over the series’ past metered market high of its Season 1 finale on March 14 last year.
NBC continued the Super Bowl celebrations with a 12:24 AM ET debuting The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon early this morning. Coming from the Minnesota city and featuring the cast of This Is Us plus Dwayne Johnson, the late-nighter grabbed a 5.7 in metered markets, up 4% from the last post-Super Bowl Tonight Show in 2015. It is now the third highest-rated episode of the Fallon era, topped only by two post-Winter Olympic episodes from the ex-Saturday Night Live cast member’s debut week in 2014.
We’ll update with more Super Bowl and This Is Us numbers plus the ratings for the Justin Timberlake halftime show as we get them later today. Until then, put last night’s game in further perspective by checking out the Top 5 Super Bowl metered market ratings ever:
1) 2015: 49.7 – Super Bowl XLIX: New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks (NBC)
2) 2016: 49.0 – Super Bowl 50: Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers (CBS)
3) 2017: 48.8 – Super Bowl LI: New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons (Fox)
4) 2013: 48.1 – Super Bowl XLVII: Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers (CBS)
5) 2011: 47.9 – Super Bowl XLV: Green Bay Packers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Fox)
RelatedJustin Timberlake’s Botched Super Bowl Halftime Show Return Not Princely – Review
Here are the Top 10 metered markets for the game:
1) Buffalo, 56.4/78
2) Philadelphia, 56.2/81
3) Boston, 55.9/81
4) Minneapolis-St. Paul, 54.9/82
5) Pittsburgh, 54.9/73
6) Norfolk, 53.9/73
7) New Orleans, 53.0/72
8) Providence, 52.5/77
9) Milwaukee, 52.3/73
10) Tie: Seattle, 52.2/79 Kansas City, 52.2/73
Related stories
YouTube Super Bowl Ad Views Up 16%, With Amazon Alexa Most Watched
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
