The TV Zone

The initial read on the audience of Super B looks promising - but no record breaker.

It averaged about 78.9 million viewers - let's just round that off to 79 million - which is not a formal number, BTW, but probably close to the final one, due out in a little bit.

In the so-called overnights in major cities, it got a 42 rating, per NBC. That's still two points behind last year's truly classic 'Bowl telecast... And as you can see below, New York didn't even make the top 20. That doesn't mean we slept through this game, just that there was less interest than elsewhere...

But 42 is still pretty darned good considering you had a pair of teams without major MAJOR market appeal.

Here are the figures that NBC just sent out (and as you know, a rating is a percentage of all TV households...)

But first, here's the Fox interpretation: "NBC’s Super Bowl 43 (Steelers vs. Cardinals) combined with Post-Game coverage and a special episode of The Office to deliver a 29.9/61 from 7-11p, down slightly from FOX’s Super Bowl night last year (Giant vs. Patriots followed by a special House), which delivered a 31.4/62 in the Fast Nationals before rising to a 34.8/68 in the Finals."

LAST FOUR SUPER BOWL OVERNIGHT RATINGS:

Super Bowl XLIII 42.1/65
Super Bowl XLII 44.7/66
Super Bowl XLI 42.1/62
Super Bowl XL 42.2/62

TOP 25 MARKETS FOR SUPER BOWL XLIII:

1. Pittsburgh 53.6/79
2. Norfolk 52.6/72
3. Jacksonville 50.6/71
4. Buffalo 50.4/68
5. Richmond 49.3/67
6. Tampa 49.2/70
7. Ft. Myers 48.1/68
8. Cleveland 47.7/69
9. Phoenix 47.5/80
10. Indianapolis 47.4/65
11. Nashville 47.2/66
12. Washington D.C. 46.7/70
13. Columbus 46.5/67
14. Orlando 46.4/66
15. Memphis 46.3/63
16. Philadelphia 46.2/65
17. New Orleans 45.7/63
18. Knoxville 45.2/58
19. Baltimore 45.0/63
T20. Denver 44.7/76
T20. Las Vegas 44.7/68