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SECOND UPDATE 12:15 PM: Last night’s Super Bowl XLV now stands as the most watched program in TV history with an audience of 111 million viewers, topping last year’s Super Bowl (106.5 million) and the series finale of M*A*S*H in 1983 (106 million). This is the fourth consecutive Super Bowl to set a viewership record for the NFL showcase and helped Fox become the first network ever to exceed 100 million viewers (100.9 million) for a night of primetime.
UPDATE 10:30 AM: According to the just released time-adjusted fast nationals for Fox’s telecast of Glee after the Super Bowl last night, the 
musical dramedy averaged an 11.1 rating among adults 18-49 and 26.8 million viewers. That was well below the 38.7 million viewers who tuned in for the premiere of Undercover Boss on CBS after the Super Bowl last year but higher than the 22.9 million viewers for NBC’s The Office 2 years ago. (In 18-49, Glee‘s rating was only a tenth higher than Office‘s 11.0) It was the best performance for a scripted series after the big game since House on Fox in 2009 (29 million viewers.) Overall, it was the third largest audience for a post-Super Bowl scripted series in the past 12 years behind ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (37.9 million in 2006) and House. But topping the list are the two unscripted series that aired after the Super Bowl during that period, CBS’ Survivor (45.4 million in 2001) and Undercover Boss last year. They both did better than any scripted shows, proving reality fare better suited to follow the big game. Needless to say this was Glee‘s highest-rated telecast ever. The broadcast competition lay low with repeats, no one cracking the 1 demo rating mark.
PREVIOUS 8 AM: The red-hot NFL season on TV had its big culmination last night when Super Bowl XLV on Fox earned a 47.9 rating/71 share, tying it with Super Bowl XXI in 1987 as the highest-rated ever in the metered markets. It was up 3% from the the 46.4/68 for last year’s Super Bowl posted on CBS. That game ended up averaging 106 million viewers and a 38.6 rating in adults 18-49, so this year’s Supre Bowl is on track to eclipse those staggering numbers. Because of the increased fragmentation on TV today, the 71 share actually matches the highest for a Super Bowl since 1982.
Fox’s pre-game show, which included Bill O’Reilly’s interview with President Barack Obama, averaged a 12.2/24, up 13% from last year’s 10.8/21 and the best overnight rating for a Super Bowl pre-game show in eight years. The four-and-a-half-hour pre-game show started off with a 4.5/10 from 2-2:30 PM, rising steadily to a 33.7/56 from 6-6:30 PM.
As for Fox’s post-game attraction, a special episode of Glee, it was down from what CBS’ Undercover Boss scored after the big game last year. From 10:30-11:30 PM, Fox’s average was 16.5/28 (Glee aired from 10:39-11:44 PM). Last year, Undercover Boss averaged a 22.5/36 metered market rating and drew 38.7 million viewers, the most for a post-Super Bowl program in almost a decade. (Since Survivor in 2001). Reality shows clearly work better behind the big game.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Goes to show that two small market teams can command large numbers and it proves that both teams are National and World Wide teams.
As far as the numbers for Glee go, I thought it was a mistake to put Glee on after the superbowl. Those are two different demographics. Football = straight men
Glee = teenage girls and gay men
I don’t see the overlap there…especially when the Superbowl featured two teams known to play old school smack mouth football.
how can you attribute Glee’s massive success to only teenage girls and gay men? LOL! I sat on a sectional of men & women yesterday for the game (a rowdy typical hetero group for sure. i think
and most were fans of Glee. Go figure! lol!
So that the ratings were not up in your face doesn’t mean that maybe Glee won over some new post game “hetero” fans. 
It’s not a bad idea putting a big hit after a big hit. it’s taking a chance. We all need to take more chances. Sometimes it pays off now and sometimes it pays off down the road. As long as we are dealing in high quality we can’t go wrong.
T
Bravo! I get tired of people trivializing the success of Glee to women and gay men.
Who else watches it?
It isn’t trivial if THAT is who watches your program.
Sure, I bet there’s a heterosexual male here and there who watches it, but is that the primary audience for Glee? NO! It’s teenage girls/young women and gay men. And you know what? There isn’t anything wrong with that! It’s perfectly fine! Glee does great with that audience watching it, and I’m sure it will continue to! But don’t go telling me that straight guys watch Glee. They DO NOT. The massive ratings drop off from the Super Bowl to the Glee episode ought to be proof of that.
“As long as we are dealing in high quality”
Glee is far from high quality, especially last night.
I never saw the overlap there either. I can only guess the went we Glee because it’s their biggest hit right now, and given they didn’t see too many other options.
I don’t think that teen girls and gay men are the only Glee fans, but even so it was a good marketing move on their part to expand their audience, especially having Lea Michele perform during the Super Bowl and including the Thriller performance in that episode. I’m not a fan of the show so I didn’t watch it but I know quite a few straight guys that like Glee, I also know my teenage sister HATES it lol.
BTW I am Gay and a massive football fan, and I thought the game was awesome and Glee sucked, so maybe there is an in between
Wh. Wh. Whaat???!!!! Are you mad????!!!!
Funny you mention “worldwide”. This may have been the most watched TV show in American history, but the World Cup final blows this out of the water. The 2010 Final between Spain and Netherlands drew an estimated 700 million viewers.
I’m sure they mean all watching the same program and channel, not the event that got the most coverage. I’d imagine that worldwide coverage of many Olympic events could surpass the Super Bowl as well.
“Last night’s Super Bowl XLV now stands as the most watched program in TV history with an audience of 111 million viewers’
I DON’T THINK SO…..MAYBE IN US HISTORY BUT NOT ANYWHERE ELSE. I KNOW THE US THINKS THERE’S NOBODY ELSE OUT THERE BUT HAVE A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS FROM THE 2006 FIFA WORLD CUP IN GERMANY:
Most-watched match: Italy v France final, total cumulative audience of 715.1 million viewers
THE SUPERBOWL WASN’T EVEN CLOSE.
Who really thought that “Glee” was the best match for the Super Bowl audience?
The same person that picked “The Black-Eyed Peas” for the halftime.
“Reality shows clearly work better behind the big game.”
Not sure it’s that simple. ‘Glee’ is already a well-known, established show with plenty of fans and haters. ‘Undercover Boss’ made its debut after the Super Bowl, so the curiosity factor was higher.
Yeah, I thought that comment from Andrea was suspect, too.
Glee is becoming something of a spectacle and moving away from its basic (and appealing) premise: providing a voice for outsiders in high school. But, the theatrics are wearing thin, and the characters becoming caricatures. All that said, I expected Glee to do bigger numbers than it did last night.
Loved the game. Great teams fought with guts & glory. Lost 5 bucks on my hardened black n gold warriors but they fought with honor.
I personally liked the half time show. Thought it kicked ass. Respect to Black Eyed Peas for actually singing. Ok some will argue Fergie was a touch off key… but hey… that’s LIVE show biz! They are committed and talented as all hell.
Disappointed I missed our beloved president facing Mr. O’reilly. He is always calm cool and collected and delivers great words of inspiration. I will search it out online.
Yesterday also marked the President Ronald Reagans centenial birthday. I was inspired by the celebrations all day.
You see so much more when you look up.
Tim
Exactly what I was going to say. A 16.5 rating is actually the second highest rating for a post-Superbowl show from 2000-2010 (excluding reality shows) besting previous efforts from Criminal Minds, House, The Office, Simpsons, Malcolm In The Middle and The Practice. Not a bad showing from Glee.
Does someone even care about the real Super Bowl? The one where football teams are playing? Because that Super Bowl thing has grow up from football. No one even knows who played and who won. It’s this Super Bowl thing is only about cool ADs and new movie teasers.
And I really don’t understand why so many people watches american Football. It’s just boring. I tried couple of times to watch it but it only looks cool when in brief news report they show how they score. When you watch a whole match it’s impossible. They run 5 meters then stop for 2 minutes. Then again run 5 meters then stop for 2 minutes… It’s just impossible to watch.
Yeah, ok Shy…put down the crack pipe. Are you saying European “football” (soccer) is better? The sport where you are lucky to see 2 goals a game, where players fall and dive when someone gets near them (rolling on the floor crying until they either get or don’t get a penalty called, and then get up as if nothing happened), where only the ref knows when the game will end? Yeah, good sport that is – loser!
So Shy is a loser simply because he doesn’t like American Football? That’s a pretty closed-minded thing to say… Not everyone has to like it.
I’m actually “she” and I don’t smoke crack pipe
Real Football (and not soccer. In the whole wide world it’s called football. From Argentina to Nigeria to Italy to Russia to China… And only somehow in USA it’s called that awful name soccer) is more interesting simply because from first to last minute it has tension, speed and pressure…
No offense. I know all about those divings and rollings. It’s fun actually. But I really wanted to like American Football. I sit and watched it. But those stops every 30-40 seconds killed me. And they literally run 5 meters and stop. Then again and again. And then they turn to another side and run like that to that direction. I got so bored in 20 minutes that I turned off. I can’t understand how so many people can watch this live and not be bored.
Happy now? Got that nonsense out of your system? Seriously, if you have such a problem with football (and yes, in the U.S. it’s called football – THAT IS ITS NAME HERE, GET USED TO IT) then don’t watch! Football doesn’t need a global audience to be successful and it never has!
As for soccer (which is a term the English came up with, not us, so go whine to them if you have such a damn problem with it), we feel the same way about it that you feel about football. Most Americans try to watch a soccer game and fall asleep. Watching men running around in tight shorts dancing around a large field with a small ball isn’t exactly exciting – in fact, it’s damn near mind-numbing. I and everyone else in the U.S. can’t understand how so many people around the world can watch soccer live and not be bored. But if you enjoy it, more power to you. Still, you come here, to a website that primarily caters to people working in and around Hollywood, a place located IN THE UNITED STATES, where the most popular sport is football, and your only contribution is to complain that we like it instead of your boring sport? Sounds to me like you’re nothing more than a troll.
Of course ‘European Football’ is better. That’s why the rest of the world watched and plays it and doesn’t watch Aemrican Football, except maybe the superbowl because of all the absurd fanfare.
Just because a whole lot of people like one thing more than another group doesn’t make it better. For instance, I think football (our football) is a grand sport, while I think soccer is something that falls into the realm of massively boring. The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with me. That doesn’t make my football better than your soccer, though. To each his own, right?
I think American Football would just take more watching to understand it better. Learning the game and learning to love the players. For the same reason a lot of Americans don’t watch soccer/futbol. We get a little more into during the olympics but besides that we have no one to really root for. American football has all the same things as soccer-tension, speed, and pressure. They arn’t constantly playing but we love it.
“Glee coming up next” graphic bug over the post game might of helped a bit. But Glee ain’t for everyone.
Not to mention the love it or hate it feeling for the series.
I think those who were excited for the shows return stuck around and no amount of cheerleader opening kept the football demo from staying for a fine episode that highlighted teen bullying.
Many regualr glee watchers were sent to bed after the game… every one I know taped (DVR’ed) it and the kids, middle and high school alike, get to watch it after school or after dinner tonight…. demographics, folks.
Yes airing Glee is very unconventional. However they didn’t really have much else to air, unless they wanted to preview Chicago Code which I think would have been a mistake. House and Bones are doing fine on their own and are pretty ancient. Fox wasn’t going to waste the slot on Lie To Me, Human Target or Fringe which have all given many chances over the years.
Glee is already the hottest thing on TV right now. Even if the Super Bowl only gives 5 million more viewers watching on a weekly basis that will be HUGE for the already wildly successful show.
GLEE was an odd choice to follow the Superbowl. Though it’s numbers weren’t huge, it may have accomplished what it set out to do which was attract people that wouldn’t normally tune in. Because the game ended so late on the east coast and also fairly late in the midwest, the teen-age/pre-teen crowd that watches GLEE were probably in bed, getting ready to go to bed, or preparing for school the next day. GLEE could easily be DVRed.
But if GLEE’s Tuesday night ratings are up, then Fox accomplished what it set out to do.
Did Fox really think the football crowd would stick around for Glee? They should have had House on.
GLee is ……well too gay for Superbowl watchers.
What an idiotic statement! Besides, Bill Maher said it best, “This year the Superbowl will be followed by a brand new episode of Glee. Boy, this is just what America needs, another over the top, homoerotic spectacle…And then GLEE!”
And thus, the purpose for the theme of the actual episode. Jean, YOU in particualr should have watched it. Would have likely prevented this ridiculous comment of yours.
Also keep in mind that Grey’s (with a fairly similar demo to Glee) did well after the Superbowl a couple years ago and that CBS went to Undercover Boss more quickly after the game than Fox did for Glee.
Grey’s Anatomy Post Super Bowl episode featured a bomb plot and hospital drama. It did not offer any of the soapy stuff it’s known for. A show about doctors at a hospital operating on a man with a bomb in his chest is more accessible to people than a show about kids who sing in auto tuned voices.
I didn’t understand putting Glee after the game. It is already a fairly popular show with a large audience that I think is fair to say beat expectations when the show started. I don’t get why you wouldn’t use the slot to introduce a new show like Chicago Code which could really feed off the SB audience.
FOX should have pulled an ABC move when they scheduled “The Wonder Years” after the game and put their only promising comedy on after, “Raising Hope”. Either that or Chicago Code, not Glee.
Glee has become unwatchable this season. It was a spectacle the first season, they mixed it up and added to that for the second season, but they have nowhere for it to go now. Unless they bring in some ‘freshman’ talent, these high school shows wane. While the already well-over-18 cast ages (and gets famous/involved in other projects) they become less and less like high school students. Jane Lynch (love her, but…) is now a caricature of her character – which is to say, that’s how the entire show has turned.
The irony is that the storylines and cover tunes are as shallow and trendy (or popular) as what the show purports as “trendy is a bad thing – being accepted for being different is the best! Let’s sing and dance to a trendy song, and copy the video choreography while we’re at it! And poor lip-syncing is cool!” Please…
who else though it was funny to see the shots of GWBush in the box the same weekend he couldn’t fly to Switzerland because they might arrest him, and, would there have been those cutaways on CBS?
lol, i’d forgotten about that.
Glee after the Superbowl was a dumb move. I don’t know who is to blame. Didn’t GM sponsor the episode? The big name sponsor has plenty of clout.
Human Target should have gotten the spot. It needs a ratings boost. Even know it’s not the greatest show on tv. It would have done well after the big game.
It comes down to numbers: Human Target would NOT have rated better than Glee, in total viewer or key demos.
Imagine how much higher it would have been if Americas TRUE National team, my Philadelphia Eagles, were in it! It would be thru the roof, esp Jerry Jones Cowbabys stadiums!
Keep living in that fantasy world, my friend.
As a Welshman, Superbowl is the most amazing spectacle staged with great professionalism, excitement and enthusiasm. But it’s a 60 minute game that takes 3 hours!
“Soccer” used to be a great game but now it is all about marketing, hype, fan hatred, and overpaid petulant prima dona players. The way they behave on the pitch is appalling, dissing the referee in a vile and disgusting way – seemingly with impunity.
Now if you want to watch real men playing a real tough game – with minimal padding and no. headgear…… watch RUGBY! Great respect for eveyone involved and real bonhomie amongst fans (no segregation as they MUST do in Soccer!). Oh yes, we didn’t get Glee in the UK!
What’s this “real men” BS? What are you, 12?
I think airing glee made sense. Not only was it a great platform to bring on board potential new viewers who wouldn’t typically watch, but it was also a way to get glee’s demographic watching the superbowl to boost demographics. I know many glee fans that watched the game (who normally wouldn’t) to watch the show; and many non glee fans who watched the show afterwards due to enticing during the game previews. I mean, they chose to tie in a football themed story into the episode (moreso than usual)-clearly they were trying to lure in another audience beyond their bread and butter demographics.
I’m one of those GLEE fans that tuned in AFTER the game to watch the episode because I HATE football.
You say you have friends who normally wouldn’t watch football that watched the ENTIRE Super Bowl just to see a 30 min. episode of Glee, which started AFTERward? Why don’t I believe you??
Obviously the world cup will have more but it is spotty at best to predict worldwide audiences, which is why they did not in this case. These numbers are just american
After the game was done I left the room. Only people watching it, were the girls.
I’ve tried to like Glee. I thought the first season was enjoyable but as soon as the second season starts, the show has become nearly unwatchable.
I stopped watching the season opener before the halfway mark. I did watch the Rocky Horror episode and then last night’s show. The Rocky Horror episode was good but last night’s was nearly intolerable. How do football players have time to put on a halftime show when they should be preparing for the second half?
You tell ‘em, gay dude!
“THE WAGES OF FEAR” is what they should have run.
Or something with trucks, explosions, boobs, guns and noise.