4 Feb 2014

Record number of Americans watch Superbowl

4:50 pm on 4 February 2014

A record 111 and a half million American's watched the telecast of the Super Bowl yesterday, keeping the NFL championship game ensconced as TV's perennial U.S. ratings champion despite the most lopsided game in 21 years.

The Seattle Seahawks trounced the Denver Broncos 43-8, giving Seattle its first National Football League championship.

The TV viewership was the largest for a single TV program in the United States.

It surpassed the 111.3 million who watched the game on Comcast Corp's NBC network in 2012 between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.

Fox Television, a unit of 21st Century Fox, said viewership was 5 percent lower in the game's closing minutes than it had been throughout the game, when the Seahawks' victory was in hand.

The halftime show, which featured singer Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was viewed by an even larger 115.3 million viewers, passing the record 114 million who watched Madonna perform two years ago.

The network charged an average of 5 million dollars for a 30-second commercial, the most in the game's history.