Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Fri.-Sun., Feb. 5-7) -- Super Bowl 50 edition
02/08/16 08:56 AM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Absent any high-flying offensive fireworks, Sunday’s landmark Super Bowl 50 dipped in the D-FW ratings compared to last year’s down-to-the-wire thriller between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.
The Denver Broncos’ defense called the tune in a 24-10 throttling of the favored Carolina Panthers. Running from 5:39 to 9:22 p.m. on CBS, the game averaged 2,443,428 viewers, down from the 2,740,782 for Patriots-Seahawks on NBC. Broncos’ defender Von Miller was the game’s MVP, with both Peyton Manning and Cam Newton struggling all day to move their teams. Neither QB had a touchdown pass, and Denver’s first TD was scored by the defense.
The Broncos and Panthers hit their peak audience early on, with a high of 2,620,488 between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m. That also fell well short of New England and Seattle, which maxed out at 2,915,132 viewers last year.
Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, Super Bowl 50 averaged 1,038,454, down from the 1,258,366 for last year’s game.
A few words about the halftime show. It never really registered, with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin starting by lip syncing way out of sync while the “filmic” presentation made it all look remote rather than live. Overall poor sound quality added to the mess. Things picked up a bit when Beyonce and Bruno Mars joined in, but their previous solo Super Bowl halftime shows were far superior. Sunday’s musical highlight -- by far -- was Lady Gaga’s unexpectedly glorious singing of the National Anthem.
CBS’ post-Super Bowl 50 attraction, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, started a few minutes before 10 p.m. and averaged 396,614 total viewers. But the audience plunged from 644,498 viewers for the first 15 minutes to 219,464 for the final quarter hour. Late Show averaged 174,664 viewers in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic.
On Saturday night, ABC’s prime-time Republican presidential candidate debate from New Hampshire clashed with CBS’ live NFL Honors special, hosted by Conan O’Brien.
It was no contest, with the Republicans averaging 304,543 total viewers while NFL Honors limped in with a surprisingly low 84,989. The Republicans also beat the NFL among 18-to-49-year-olds.
Friday’s top prime-time scorers in total viewers were CBS’ Undercover Boss and ABC’s Shark Tank, each with 177,060.
CBS’ two-hour Super Bowl’s Greatest Halftime Shows drew 134,566 viewers while also lagging with 18-to-49-year-olds. Undercover Boss and Shark Tank likewise tied for the prime-time lead in that demographic with 47,636 viewers apiece.
Here are Friday’s local news derby results for the second weekday of the February “sweeps” ratings period.
TEGNA8 ran first in total viewers at 10 p.m. while NBC5 won among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).
Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions and TEGNA8 ran the table at 6 p.m.
NBC5 had the most total viewers at 5 p.m. and tied TEGNA8 for the lead with 25-to-54-year-olds.
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