Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/9/25

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted. Fox used the Super Bowl lead-in to premiere season three of The Floor.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/12/23

FINALS UPDATE: America's Got Talent: All-Stars (R) (0.1) and Super Bowl (33.8, +10.2) adjusted up while Super Bowl Postgame (17.6, -1.0) and Next Level Chef (5.0, -2.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted. Fox gave its Super Bowl lead-out to Gordon Ramsay's Next Level Chef.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/13/22

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted. NBC aired Winter Olympics coverage following Super Bowl LVI. Please note that the Winter Olympics y2y comparison is vs. last year's Super Bowl lead-out (The Equalizer), not vs. a previous Olympics telecast.
  

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/7/21

FINALS UPDATE: The Super Bowl posted a 15-year low in total viewership with 91.629 million and an even worse historical performance in A18-49 (26.48), down 12% from last year. Lead-out The Equalizer (5.08) had a horrible showing in the demo compared to previous Super Bowl lead-outs but was more competitive in total viewers, skewing far older than the usual lead-out. Compared with last year's The Masked Singer, The Equalizer was off a whooping 38% in the demo but just 14% in total viewers.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted for CBS' Super Bowl Sunday. Lead-out The Equalizer started at 10:39 ET, almost exactly the same time as Fox's The Masked Singer a year-ago (10:40), so the prelim for the 10:30 half-hour should at least somewhat point toward the trendline. (Last year, Fox's 10:30 half-hour in the prelims averaged a 9.9, and Masked Singer ended up with an 8.14 in the finals.)
  

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/2/20

FINALS UPDATE: Super Bowl (29.9, +3.2) adjusted up while Ellen's Game of Games (R) (0.2), Super Bowl Postgame (18.2, -2.8) and The Masked Singer (8.1, -1.8) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Time zone-adjusted fast nationals (much more accurate than what is in the table below) have the Super Bowl at 99.9 million viewers, up by 1% from last year, while lead-out The Masked Singer (23.7 million viewers and an 8.1 demo rating) was only a modest improvement on last year's The World's Best (22.2 million and a 7.0) and trailed This Is Us from two years ago (27.0 million and 9.3).
• In terms of the game's 18-49 score, the non-adjusted hourly 18-49 ratings (27.7/27.0/25.5) are suggesting a roughly 4% year-to-year decline vs. last year's preliminaries (28.5/28.2/27.1), trending a bit worse as the game went on. Last year's game adjusted up to a 31.1 final.
• It is possible the time zone-adjusted numbers could shift enough in finals to put the game over 100 million. (Last year's game had 98.2 million in the fast nats and ended up with 98.5 million in the finals.)

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/3/19

FINALS UPDATE: Super Bowl (31.0, +3.1) adjusted up while Super Bowl Postgame (18.3, -0.7) and The World's Best (7.0, -1.6) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Super Bowl's preliminary household rating was a 44.9, down by 5% from last year's 47.4. A year-to-year decline of that size among total viewers would put the game below 100 million total viewers for the first time in a decade. The three hourly preliminary adults 18-49 ratings (28.5/28.2/27.1) are telling a consistent story about the declines in the demo: they are down 10% / 9% / 10% from the preliminary hours a year ago.

• Stay tuned for more on its lead-out, new reality competition The World's Best. CBS averaged an 8.6 in the demo for the preliminary 10:30 half-hour, which is down massively from last year's 14.9 for This Is Us on the same night. But the show also started nearly ten minutes earlier (10:36) than last year's This Is Us (10:45), so that number includes much more of the show itself than the rating from a year ago.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/4/18

FINALS UPDATE: Super Bowl (33.4) and Bob's Burgers (R) (0.3) adjusted up while Super Bowl Postgame (25.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• TIME-ZONE ADJUSTED RATINGS: The Super Bowl total viewership ended up at 103.4 million, down 7% from last year (basically matching the year-to-year trend in the fast nats) and the lowest viewership since 2009. This Is Us went for 27 million viewers and a 9.3 demo rating, the best performance for a bowl lead-out since The Voice in 2012. (It was technically behind New Girl's 11.4 demo in 2014, but it narrowly edged the entire hour if you combine New Girl's 11.4 with Brooklyn Nine-Nine's 6.9.)

• On Super Bowl Sunday, a down-to-the-wire big game averaged a 47.4 household rating, down by a modest 2.9% from last year's 48.8. If there's a similar decline in total viewers, it would put the viewership south of 110 million for the first time in five years, and it seems likely there will be a decline in adults 18-49 for the sixth consecutive year. Year-to-year comparisons using the preliminary hourly ratings suggest slightly steeper declines: they were -8% / -7% / -5% in total viewers and -10% / -9% / -9% in adults 18-49 vs. the same numbers last year. More updates to come. More Super Bowl ratings.

• But the early indicators suggest that This Is Us may go down as one of the most impressive recent Bowl lead-outs (likely the most impressive since The Voice in 2012). It started at 10:45 (earlier than the last two years' lead-outs but still a little later than average historically) and averaged an 11.2 adults 18-49 in the top 25 markets, demolishing last year's 24: Legacy which had a 7.1 starting at 11:00 and later adjusted down to 6.1 in finals. More Super Bowl lead-out ratings.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/5/17

FINALS UPDATE: Super Bowl (37.1) and Super Bowl Postgame (21.8) adjusted up. The Bowl itself was only down 2% year-to-year in A18-49 but the postgame's 21.8 was down double digits.

WHAT MATTERS:

• TIME-ZONE ADJUSTED UPDATE: 24: Legacy managed just 17.6 million viewers and a 6.1 demo at 11:00 ET, easily the lowest demo rating for a direct Bowl lead-out this millenium (and just barely holding off Alias' 17.4 million total viewership low). The time zone-adjusted viewership for the big game was 111.3 million, which would be just barely below last year's 111.9.

• Super Bowl 51 appeared headed for blowout territory early in the second half, but a huge comeback led to the first overtime in Super Bowl history. The household overnight was 48.8, ever-so-slightly behind last year's 49.0. And the preliminary adults 18-49 rating was 33.8ish from 7:00 to 10:30, down about 2.5% from last year's preliminary 34.7. Last year's 34.7 prelim adjusted up to a 37.7 final. See recent Super Bowl ratings.

• The late finish pushed the premiere of 24: Legacy to an 11:00 ET start time, one of the latest lead-out start times in recent history. It averaged a 7.1 A18-49 in the top 25 markets, but since it started at 11:00 ET there's nothing we can see about it from the preliminary nationals. See recent Super Bowl lead-out ratings. Stay tuned for updates based on time-adjusted numbers.