It was only the second Super Bowl to be decided in overtime in the last 58 years, and the first to feature the biggest recording artist on the planet getting in on the postgame celebration. As such, there’s little wonder that CBS’ broadcast of Sunday night’s 49ers-Chiefs thriller set a new ratings record. Well, sort of.
According to Nielsen, Kansas City’s 25-22 triumph averaged 123.4 million viewers, topping Fox’s short-lived record of 115.1 million set one year ago, and earning bragging rights as the most-watched TV program in history. And while every ratings result is effectively hung with an asterisk in the out-of-home era—officially untallied before fall 2020, OOH enhances vanilla TV deliveries by way of the tens of millions of once-overlooked impressions that get served up at Super Bowl parties, bars and restaurants—the new way of counting the house in no way invalidates CBS’ accomplishment.
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Of that garish total, 120 million tuned into the game via the flagship CBS broadcast network. The Nielsen data is based on fast-national deliveries; as such, there should be very little adjustment to the totals when the final live-same-day data is released tomorrow.
As was the case with Chiefs’ 2023 win over the Eagles, Patrick Mahomes last night proved that he’s absolutely lethal when playing from behind. Last year, the QB threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and then gimped his way to a 26-yard gain that set up the game-winning field goal. This time around, Mahomes needed a full extra period to get the job done, sewing up his third NFL title (and MVP nod) with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with a pitch-and-catch to receiver Mecole Hardman in the near corner of the endzone.
In keeping with head coach Andy Reid’s unassuming gastronomic enthusiasms, the name of the play that broke the Niners’ backs was “Corn Dog.”
As much as Mahomes’ unreasonable excellence is a bummer for Bills, Bengals and Ravens…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cbs-hits-super-bowl-record-031316738.html
Author : Sportico
Publish date : 2024-02-13 03:13:16
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