Proving once again that football defies the atomization of the video program marketplace, NBC's presentation of Super Bowl XLIX Sunday was the most watched TV show of all time.
According to national estimates released by Nielsen Monday, the telecast averaged 114.4 million viewers. That beat 2013's record-setting viewer average by 2.2 million viewers.
Usage peaked at 120.8 million viewers between 9:45-10:00 p.m., the period during which New England quarterback Tom Brady was engineering a successful comeback from Seattle's 10-point lead.
The big game also averaged a 47.5 audience rating, making it the highest rated Super Bowl since 1986, the year Mike Ditka's legendary Chicago Bears defense creamed the Steve Grogin-led Patriots.
This is a notable achievement in the multiscreen world, with NBC's live stream of the game averaging 800,000 viewers per minute and 1.3 million concurrent users, according to Adobe Analytics.
Meanwhile, NBC's post-game presentation of The Blacklist averaged 26.5 million viewers, the best performance for a scripted entertainment show since the finale of Friends in 2004.
For more:
- read this Los Angeles Times story
- read this Variety story
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