Fox's coverage of the Green Bay Packers' 31-25 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV tied the highest metered market rating in the history of the NFL's championship game.
Super Bowl XLV earned a 47.9 rating to match CBS's mark with Super Bowl XXI in 1987 when the New York Giants beat the Denver Broncos for pro football's title. The Feb. 6 telecast tackled a 71 share in metered markets, the best since the 1982 game.
Perhaps more importantly, Fox's 47.9 rating/71 share was 3% higher than the 46.4/68 posted a year ago by CBS with its telecast of Super Bowl XLIV, which delivered the largest audience in U.S. TV history with almost 106.5 million viewers, via a 45.0 rating/68 share.
National ratings and audience figures for Super Bowl XLV are expected this afternoon.
The ratings battle between Pittsburgh and Milwaukee was a push, as both cities delivered a 59.7 overnight, the second-highest rating in a single market in Super Bowl history, trailing only Chicago's 63.0 rating in Super Bowl XX. Host city Dallas posted a 53.7/80, the second-highest rating ever for a host city whose own team was not playing in the game. Only Jacksonville's 58.9/77 rating in 2005 was higher for a host city, but Dallas delivered 700,000 more homes to last night's rating than Miami did last year with Super Bowl XLIV. Two other host cities have rated higher than Dallas, but they featured a local team in the Big Game: San Francisco in 1985, Los Angeles in 1980, both recorded a 55.0 overnight.
