Super Bowl Draws in Record Viewers

Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; The Baltimore Ravens celebrate winning Super Bowl XLVII against the San Francisco 49ers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Crystal LoGiudice-USA TODAY Sports

We’ve all grown accustomed to the television spectacle the NFL’s Super Bowl has become. What other program on TV do people literally watch just for the commercials? Every other show in America viewers go to the restroom during commercials or fast forward through them on their DVR, but not during the Super Bowl.

In fact, a percentage of Americans arguably only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. And those that aren’t there for the commercials or the game are their for the half time show.

This year we saw Beyonce perform and bring her former Destiny’s Child friends on stage with her. But the Super Bowl half time show always lands huge stars.

And The Nielson Company says that this year’s Super Bowl was the most watched television show in U.S. history with 164.1 million viewers. The previous high was 162.9 million from Super Bowl XLV which saw the Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The last 5 Super Bowl’s have all eclipsed the 150 million mark, and now 22 of the most watched television shows, in terms of total audience, in the United States are Super Bowls.

Now Super Bowl XLVII averaged 108.4 million viewers, which is third best all time.

We can only imagine how expensive ad time will be during next year’s Super Bowl, $4.5 million for 30 seconds?