Super Bowl LI Sets New Records Beyond Brady, Patriots' Astounding Comeback

The New England Patriots’ dramatic overtime win against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, which was aired on Fox (Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ: FOXA)) Sunday night, recorded 48.8/72 metered market household rating/share, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Nielson said Super Bowl LI holds the third-highest metered market rating in the game’s history.

Following are other findings of Nielson related to the Sunday’s game:

• “The game is up +3.0 percent over the last Super Bowl on FOX, the 2014 matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos (48.8 vs. 47.6).”
• “Super Bowl LI powered FOX to an easy win across all networks in prime time Sunday night, and the 48.8 rating projects to rank as FOX’s highest-rated primetime telecast of the broadcast season.”
• “Sunday night’s game opened with a 43.5/69 household rating/share at kickoff and peaked at a 52.1/74 from 10–10:30 p.m. ET as the game went into overtime for the first time in Super Bowl history and James White crossed the goal line to hand the Patriots the franchise’s fifth Lombardi Trophy.”
• “Pittsburgh led all local markets with a 57.9/78 household rating/share, followed by: Buffalo (57.2/78); Atlanta (57.0/82); Norfolk (55.9/75); Richmond (55.7/73); Milwaukee (54.8/75); Providence (54.6/78); Boston (54.3/81); Indianapolis (54.1/75); and Minneapolis (54.0/78) and Hartford (54.0/72).”

Meanwhile, a report from Sports Media Watch citing Fox executive Michael Mulvihill said the Patriots’ Super Bowl win over the Falcons scored a 54.3 rating in Boston. However, the 54.3 is the lowest for a Patriots Super Bowl in Boston since their 2004 win over the Panthers (52.2).

Further, Mulvihill tweeted that Super Bowl LI generated 25.94 billion minutes of viewing on FOX, the most of any Super Bowl ever.

172 million Americans watched any part of SB51, the largest total audience of any program in history. 2/

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) February 6, 2017

From kickoff to final play, an *average* of 111.3 million watched on FOX at any given time. 5th largest audience ever by that measure. 3/

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) February 6, 2017

SB51 generated 25.9 billion minutes viewed. 111.3m viewers times 233 minutes of game. That is also a new Super Bowl record. 5/

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) February 6, 2017

On the other hand, a tweet from Austin Karp of SportsBusiness Daily said 111.3 million people viewed Patriots-Falcons game on Sunday, and that was lowest Super Bowl audience since Ravens-49ers in 2013.

111.3 million viewers for Patriots-Falcons last night = lowest Super Bowl audience since Ravens-49ers in 2013

— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 6, 2017

The highlight of the game was the performance of Lady Gaga in the half-time show. Gaga performed a variety of her hits, including "Born This Way" and "Bad Romance." Gaga was backed by 300 Intel drones that shone like stars in the night sky.

Image Credit: By Andrew Campbell (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons