Super Bowl Post-Mortem

Well, it's over for another season, and maybe even beyond that.

The always-over-the-top Super Bowl may have set another audience viewing record last night. Early, although unofficial, estimates have the game up 3% from last year's record-breaking Saints-Colts matchup. Some of that may be due to lack of quality counter-programming. Many competing stations either tried to tie in to the game (The Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet) or simply gave up, bowing to the inevitable (A Roseanne marathon on TV Land?). Perhaps there was also a sense that with a strike looming that could cancel the 2011 season, this was the last pro football anyone was going to see for awhile.

If so, the NFL went out with a bang--good game, interesting commercials, drama at the end, and nice production work from Fox. Yes, there were assorted problems related to the game, including lots of chirping about the hosts, but in the end nothing could slow down the runway train that is the Super Bowl on television. In the multi-channel, multi-platform universe we live in today, sporting events are lucky to draw a 10-20 rating and 30 share. Estimates suggest Super Bowl XLV pulled a 71 share--71% of all people watching television last night were watching the game.

Astounding.