Despite the same two teams and same old result, NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl XXVIII set a record for TV viewership, according to Nielsen national ratings released Monday.
Sunday’s telecast had a 45.4 rating with a 66 share, up slightly from last year’s 45.1/66. Figuring each ratings point is now worth 942,000 homes, compared with 931,000 homes last year, NBC estimates 134,844,000 people watched part or all of the game. Shares are a percentage of sets in use.
Last year’s telecast, also on NBC, set the previous viewership mark with an estimated 133 million. The highest-rated Super Bowl was CBS’ 1982 telecast of the 49ers’ 26-21 victory over the Bengals (49.1).
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Among the top 10 most-viewed shows, only the 1983 M+A+S+H closing episode isn’t a Super Bowl. That show is fifth on the list.
In Chicago, the telecast on WMAQ-Ch. 5 had a 43.5 overnight average rating with a 65 share. A local Nielsen ratings point represents 31,000 homes. The second hour of “Super Bowl Live” did a 21.3/40, while the postgame show slipped to a 26.2/38.