On the other hand, it is extremely interesting that the Super Bowl pulled in this audience with two of the smaller market teams in the Super Bowl. I am certain that the New Orleans Saints story line helped to boost interest in the game.

It was also an extremely well played game in comparison to most Super Bowls. Only one turnover, and it was really a great defensive play more than a bad offensive play, and a total of only 8 penalties between the two teams. The outcome of the game wasn’t really decided until the closing minutes, so that had to keep people interested.

But it does remind me of the movie ticket sales and album sales arguments.

Gone With the Wind is still the number one movie of all time adjusted for inflation, and in tickets purchased, yet box office numbers are kept by dollar amount. Of course, you could also use the “more competition” argument for movies today as well. But Titanic is referred to as the number one movie of all time (now I guess it is Avatar)…when it really isn’t IMO.

Album/CD sales on the other hand are kept by number of units. Artists today and in the future will never catch the old acts and one of the reasons is replacement purchases. So the record for #1 album of all time is based on copies sold, not inflation.

The Beatles get a lot of mileage out of purchases on vinyl, then 8 track/cassette, then CD in various forms, and now digital. The same person may have bought 5 or 6 copies of the same album. That will never happen again.

I have no idea why I went off on this tangent….anyway, you can spin a lot of things which makes for interesting conversations.

And I’m appreciating all the people typing M*A*S*H instead of MASH, but technically, wasn’t it M*A*S*H* ?

I think the world cup this summer will be very strong.

If M*A*S*H was still around, and the final episode happened, never would MASH get those numbers again.

I give humongous credit to The Super Bowl because of all the other channels around now and DVDs and internet and everything else people have. Super Bowl deserves the title.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/21/top-100-rated-tv-shows-of-all-time/14922

The final episode of MASH had a 60.2 Nielsen rating. Nothing else has ever come close. Super Bowl XLIV wasn’t even the highest-rated Super Bowl; a dozen other games rated better. It’s nice for CBS to be able to say it had the most-WATCHED program of all time but the network also has the highest-RATED program under its belt. And that was the final episode of MASH.

Well logic dictates that at one time a show like The Texaco Star Theater or Howdy Dowdy Show had to pull a 100 share because it was the only dam show on the air. At the very least, the first show every broadcast had a 100 share.

Check out the BO list adjusted for inflation:

http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

I thought Avatar was a great experience (although not a great movie), but it’s not even close to the biggest box office hit of all time.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/05/super.bowl.viewers.profit/index.html

CNN had some article over the weekend about how the super bowl is far from the most watched sporting event in the world.

And just to clarify Julia’s comment: no, not each person in a Nielsen home would be counted, just the people who were actually members of that household. Hope that makes sense.

Not knocking Avatar, by the way, which is a sensation like few movies have been in the past 15 years. Just pointing out that being a sensation these days takes a lot fewer actual ticket buyers than it ever has. And that is with the movies today having the advantage of a far greater population from which to draw than every movie year previously.

Still, you could look at this as MORE impressive than the MASH record when you consider how fractured the viewing public is today compared to then. So, in the end, maybe this year’s Super Bowl viewing numbers were a greater accomplishment than compared to the days when MASH was competing against only two other channels.

Either way, it’s apples to oranges, and it would take a whole lot more math than anyone seems to be using to really say for certain. But don’t mind me, I’m the killjoy who thinks the decade still has one year to go.