Update: (12:10p PT): Super Bowl XLV scores 111 million viewers, shatters last year's record (106.5 million).
Update (10:20a PT):
Airing from 10:39-11:45p last night, a special episode of GLEE posted an 11.1 rating among Adults 18-49 with 26.8 million Total Viewers, earning its highest ratings ever and outperforming the most recent scripted program to air post-Super Bowl, NBC’s The Office on 2/1/09 among Adults 18-49 (+1%, 11.1 vs. 11.0) and Total Viewers (+17%, 26.8 vs. 22.9 Mil).
Last night’s GLEE is the highest rated scripted series telecast on any network in three years in Adults 18-49 and Total Viewers (since HOUSE post-Super Bowl on 2/3/08). In addition, GLEE is the highest rated series telecast on any network in one year among Adults 18-49 and Total Viewers (since Undercover Boss on 2/7/10, post-Super Bowl).
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: Rating/Share | 32.4/65 | 0.7/1 | 0.7/1 | 0.6/1 | |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | |||||
| Total Viewers (million) | 75.227 | 3.946 | 2.907 | 2.638 |
Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for Fox (Super Bowl, Glee ) should be ignored until time zone adjusted fast national results are available later today.
Of course Fox won the night and demolished the competition and none of the other results are really worth talking about. Unfortunately last night's viewer and demo numbers for Fox will not be useful until time zone adjusted fast national numbers are available later today.
In the metered market ratings (which are time zone adjusted) Super Bowl XLV tied a record for highest overnight ratings with a 47.9/71 household rating share. That's about 1% higher than last year's game which set viewing records, but last year's metered market numbers did not contain same day DVR viewing and this year's do. In those same metered market ratings, Glee was tracking behind last year's results for Undercover Boss by ~25%.
Sure, Christina Aguilera botched the lyrics to the National Anthem, and sure Green Bay jumped out to an 18 point lead, and sure the twits on Twitter complained about the halftime show. Fortunately for Fox, Pittsburgh still managed to make a game of it, getting within three points with just over seven and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter before the Packers sealed the victory.
In addition to the issues of live broadcasts needing time zone adjustment, the Super Bowl began at about 6:32p ET, so most of the first half hour wasn't in prime time. The Game ended shortly after 10pm ET, but with post game coverage, Glee didn't start until 10:39p ET, and ran an hour and five minutes, so more than 2/3rds of it was outside of primetime. Also, there were likely some local affiliate preemptions in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania for local post-game coverage and news.
We should see time zone adjusted fast national numbers for both the entire telecasts of both the Super Bowl and Glee shotly, and I'll post them (and update this post) as soon as they are available. Those time-zone adjusted numbers will change little, if at all, in the final numbers which won't be available until Tuesday morning.
Broadcast primetime ratings for Sunday, February 6, 2011:
You should ignore Fox's fast national data below. We'll post time-zone adjusted totals once they are available.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Sh | Viewers (Millions) |
| IGNORE FOX'S NUMBERS | ||||
| 7:00 | FOX | Super Bowl XLV | 37.5/76 | 105.33 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes (R) | 0.4/1 | 3.58 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos (R) | 0.4/1 | 2.43 | |
| NBC | Who Do You Think You Are? (R) | 0.3/1 | 1.57 | |
| 7:30 | FOX | Super Bowl XLV | 36.9/73 | 102.40 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes (R) | 0.6/1 | 4.27 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos (R) | 0.6/1 | 3.27 | |
| NBC | Who Do You Think You Are? (R) | 0.3/1 | 1.53 | |
| 8:00 | FOX | Super Bowl XLV | 36.1/70 | 99.10 |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos (R) | 0.7/1 | 3.41 | |
| CBS | Undercover Boss (R) | 0.7/1 | 3.23 | |
| NBC | Who Do You Think You Are? (R) | 0.4/1 | 1.85 | |
| 8:30 | FOX | Super Bowl XLV | 36.7/70 | 101.27 |
| CBS | Undercover Boss (R) | 0.8/2 | 3.59 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos (R) | 0.7/1 | 3.34 | |
| NBC | Who Do You Think You Are? (R) | 0.4/1 | 1.96 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | Super Bowl XLV | 36.0/69 | 98.79 |
| CBS | CSI: Miami (R) | 0.6/1 | 3.15 | |
| ABC | Movie: Knocked Up | 0.6/1 | 2.09 | |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 0.5/1 | 2.34 | |
| 9:30 | FOX | Super Bowl XLV | 35.0/68 | 94.90 |
| ABC | Movie: Knocked Up | 0.7/1 | 2.17 | |
| CBS | CSI: Miami (R) | 0.6/1 | 3.52 | |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 0.6/1 | 2.55 | |
| 10:00 | FOX | Super Bowl XLV/Post Game | 27.8/59 | 73.15 |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 1.0/2 | 3.80 | |
| CBS | Hawaii Five-0 (R) | 0.8/2 | 4.33 | |
| ABC | Movie: Knocked Up | 0.8/2 | 2.72 | |
| 10:30 | FOX | Post Game/Glee | 12.8/33 | 32.03 |
| NBC | Dateline NBC | 1.3/3 | 5.51 | |
| ABC | Movie: Knocked Up | 1.2/3 | 3.83 | |
| CBS | Hawaii Five-0 (R) | 1.1/3 | 5.90 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2011 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live baseball game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101 and Numbers 102.
