Super Bowl XLV Most-Watched TV Program Ever

Half of America was watching. Bill Carter:

And it wasn’t a squeaker. The game surpassed last year’s Super Bowl by 4.5 million viewers. That game, on CBS, reached the pinnacle of American television viewing by hitting 106.5 million total viewers, just half a million more than what had been television’s perennial audience champ, the finale of the series “M*A*S*H,” in 1983, which attracted 106 million viewers.

And of course, the Super Bowl numbers only include viewers watching in homes; they do not include parties watching in bars – or in the parking lot outside Cowboy Stadium in Dallas.

The figure for total number of viewers watching at least some part of the game also set a new record with 162.9 million, also well up from the previous record of 153.4 million last year. That puts the number watching the game well past one half of the total population of the United States – 308 million in the 2010 census.

The numbers beat all predictions. Still, eight previous games had higher ratings. The country has gotten bigger so audiences are larger. The episode of “Glee” that followed the game did have its best ratings ever.

If you are one of the few Americans who has yet to see the Super Bowl ads, they’re all here. And if you’re chortling over Christina flubbing a line, Jacob Weisberg says we should all give her a break, “It’s a wonder anyone gets it right.”