- FINALS UPDATE: The Blacklist (8.4) adjusted down another three tenths. The Super Bowl was virtually unchanged in final viewership and had a 39.1 final rating among 18-49, slightly down from last year's 39.3 and marking a third straight 18-49 decline for the Bowl.
- Would the Bowl have set a viewership record in a blowout? (Or, conversely, would it have set a viewership record if last year's game had been close?) My slightly informed guess is no. The game had a whooping 13 million more viewers in the 9:30 half-hour compared to last year's blowout (119.2 vs. 106.2) and another 5.4 million more at 9:00 (116.9 vs. 111.4). And the earliest numbers I could see suggest a pace behind 2014; the 2014 game had over three million more viewers in the 7:00 half-hour (113.1 vs. 109.7).
- TIME ZONE-ADJUSTED UPDATE: The Super Bowl set a new American viewership record with 114.4 million viewers in time zone-adjusted fast nationals. That beats last year's final by 2.2 million, and the margin may be wider after finals.
- The Blacklist had 26.5 million viewers and an 8.7 A18-49 rating, a disappointingly old-skewing outing that will (barring a significant finals uptick) beat out only 2003's Alias (8.2) and 2013's Elementary (7.8) among recent lead-outs. And both those shows started after 11:00.
- Both the game and The Blacklist may adjust up a bit more in finals; last year's Super Bowl viewership went up from 111.5 million to 112.2 million while the lead-out shows adjusted up from 11.1 / 6.7 to 11.4 / 6.9. Finals and half-hour breakdown info to come.
- More Super Bowl updates to come after time zone-adjusted numbers become available. The most reliable numbers available at the moment are the household overnights, which would seem to suggest there may not be much drama in the Bowl's pursuit of a new viewership record. The 49.7 average HH rating was up 4% vs. the huge blowout that still set a viewership record last year. The very preliminary 35.0 adults 18-49 rating edged last year's very preliminary 34.4 (which later adjusted up to 39.3).
- NBC's special The Blacklist started at a late-ish 10:38, following what seemed like a noticeably longer post-game show than usual. (I've clocked most recent ones somewhere around 25 minutes, and this one actually seemed a bit over 30.)
- NBC PR says the household numbers (13.5) were 9% above last year's New Girl, which could mean we're headed for a pretty impressive delivery since the year-ago New Girl had just 30 minutes to bleed viewers. (In other words, The Blacklist's lead over the full New Girl/Brooklyn Nine-Nine hour was surely much more substantial.)
- The very preliminary 18-49 numbers in the 10:30 half-hour were 11.2 for The Blacklist vs. last year's 7.8 for New Girl (later adjusted up to 11.4). Since the 10:30 half-hour includes eight minutes of post-game, I wouldn't expect this finals adjustment to be quite as drastic, but we'll see. More to come!
FULL TABLE:
| Info | Show | Timeslot | True | |||||||
| A18-49 | Skew | Last | LeLa | Rank | y2y | TLa | Ty2y | |||
| America's Funniest Home Videos (R) | 0.4 | 21% | -76% | -11% | 1.1 | |||||
| America's Funniest Home Videos (R) | 0.5 | 26% | -55% | -17% | 1.3 | |||||
| Shark Tank (R) | 0.5 | 32% | -50% | -9% | 1.3 | |||||
| Shark Tank (R) | 1.0 | 40% | +11% | -13% | 1.6 | |||||
| ABC: | -49% | -13% | ||||||||
| 60 Minutes (R) | 0.3 | 14% | -73% | -25% | 1.0 | |||||
| NCIS (R) | 0.3 | 14% | -80% | +0% | 1.1 | |||||
| CSI (R) | 0.4 | 17% | -68% | +0% | 1.2 | |||||
| Criminal Minds (R) | 0.7 | 21% | -46% | n/a | 1.3 | |||||
| CBS: | -67% | +16% | ||||||||
| Super Bowl | 39.1 | 43% | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1/1 | -1% | +2319% | +10100% | 20.2 |
| Super Bowl Postgame | 26.3 | 46% | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1/1 | +3% | +1095% | +3657% | 11.9 |
| The Blacklist post-SB | 8.4 | 41% | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1/1 | n/a | +236% | +740% | 2.6 |
| NBC: | +1770% | +4613% | ||||||||
| Bob's Burgers (R) | 0.3 | 40% | -25% | -99% | 1.1 | |||||
| The Simpsons (R) | 0.5 | 48% | -29% | -99% | 1.2 | |||||
| The Simpsons (R) | 0.6 | 45% | -57% | -99% | 1.4 | |||||
| Brooklyn Nine-Nine (R) | 0.3 | 38% | -75% | -99% | 1.1 | |||||
| Family Guy (R) | 0.5 | 52% | -69% | -99% | 1.4 | |||||
| Bob's Burgers (R) | 0.5 | 52% | -58% | -99% | 1.4 | |||||
| Fox: | -58% | -99% | ||||||||
| Big4: | +559% | -2% | ||||||||
KEY (click to expand)
A18-49 - Adults 18-49 rating. Percentage of US TV-owning adults 18-49 watching the program.
Skew - Percentage of adults 18-49 within the show's total viewership.
Last - A18-49 difference (percent and numerical) from the show's previous episode.
LeLa - A18-49 difference between the show's lead-in and its lead-in for the previous episode.
Rank - The A18-49 rating's rank among the show's episodes so far this season.
y2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the show's rating a year ago.
TLa - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one week ago.
Ty2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one year ago.
True - A metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in. PRELIMINARY CALCULATION. For finals, see SpotVault.
(R) - Repeat.
Much more detail on these numbers at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page.
Skew - Percentage of adults 18-49 within the show's total viewership.
Last - A18-49 difference (percent and numerical) from the show's previous episode.
LeLa - A18-49 difference between the show's lead-in and its lead-in for the previous episode.
Rank - The A18-49 rating's rank among the show's episodes so far this season.
y2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the show's rating a year ago.
TLa - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one week ago.
Ty2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one year ago.
True - A metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in. PRELIMINARY CALCULATION. For finals, see SpotVault.
(R) - Repeat.
Much more detail on these numbers at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page.
More Spotted Ratings in the Index.
