Super Bowl XLVII Tackles 108.4M Viewers

After the NFL championship game rang up record audiences for three consecutive years, Super Bowl XLVII wound up as the third-most-watched programming in U.S. TV history.

CBS averaged 108.4 million viewers with its coverage of the Baltimore Ravens’ exciting 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers, according to Nielsen fast national data, which excluded the 34-minute period when a power outage at the Superdome in New Orleans interrupted play and the telecast (6:32-8:41 and 9:11-10:47 p.m., ET). The battle of the Harbaugh brothers trailed the record 111.3 million average audience for Super Bowl XVLI, the Giants’ 21-17 win over the New England Patriots, and the 111.0 million who watched the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

The Ravens-49ers contest averaged a 46.3 rating/69 share, a delivery that made the NFL championship game on Feb.3, the second-highest-rated Super Bowl in 27 years behind the 47.0 rating/71 share for last year’s Giants-Pats game and the 48.3 rating/70 share for Chicago-New England on Jan. 26, 1986. 

Sunday's game marked the first time since Super Bowl XXXIX -- New England-Philadelphia on Feb. 6, 2005 -- that pro football's title game didn't grow its audience from the previous championship contest.

Super Bowl XLVII did set a record as 164.1 million watched all or at a minimum six minutes of CBS's telecast, surpassing the 162.9 million who checked out at least part of the Packers-Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. Baltimore-San Francisco was up 3% from the 159.2 million for New York-New England in Super Bowl XLVI.