American football championship attracts third largest TV audience in U.S. history
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The Associated Press
The American football championship game between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears was watched by 93.2 million people on Sunday, the third-largest television audience in
U.S. history.
It was the second-most watched Super Bowl, trailing the 1996 championship game, which had 94.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research on Monday. The only other program that drew a bigger TV audience was the 1983 series finale of the Korean War-based situation comedy M-A-S-H, which was watched by nearly 106 million people 77 percent of the people who watched TV that night.
Indianapolis
won the game 29-17, which was broadcast on the CBS television network.
Last year’s Super Bowl between
Pittsburgh and
Seattle drew 90.7 million viewers.
According to another measuring service, the most-watched moment of the broadcast wasn’t Colts quarterback Peyton Manning’s lone touchdown pass, the clinching interception and touchdown run by Kelvin Hayden or even Prince’s electrifying halftime show. It was a commercial for Bud Light beer featuring Carlos Mencia and a language class, according to Tivo.
