Guest Mole Report post Posted January 28, 2003 Tampa Bay wasn't the only winner Sunday. ABC's telecast of Super Bowl XXXVII -- in which the Tampa Bay Buccaneers trounced the Oakland Raiders 48-21 -- averaged 88.6 million viewers, up 3 percent from last year's 86.8 million, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. About 137.7 million people watched all or part of Sunday's big game and it notched a 43.8 preliminary rating -- giving the Super Bowl its largest audience since 1998. Last year, the New England Patriots' 20-17 upset of the St. Louis Rams on a final-play field goal scored a 42.5 overnight rating on FOX. The final national rating of 40.4 tied for the fourth lowest for a Super Bowl since 1972. The highest Super Bowl rating was the 49.1 that CBS scored for San Francisco's 26-21 victory over Cincinnati in 1982. Still, it wasn't all good news for ABC. The post-Super Bowl edition of Alias pulled in just 17 million viewers, a hefty drop from the game. Meanwhile, ABC's new late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live," starring the former Comedy Central "Man Show" comic, attracted a network-pleasing 4.8 million total viewers, according to preliminary numbers -- despite the fact that it premiered at 12:36 a.m. Monday (a full hour behind schedule) following a lengthy Super Bowl wrap-up. According to the Hollywood Reporter, that figure compares favorably with a post-Super Bowl episode of ABC's "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" in 2000, which started at 12:06 a.m. and drew 4.3 million viewers. From People.Com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest imajackoff? Report post Posted January 28, 2003 Its nice to see the Kimmel show pull the big numbers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest BRUCE Report post Posted January 28, 2003 Well, everyone thought it was going to be the best SuperBowl in years, that would explain the high rating. Also it would account for all the pissed off people who watched it. But then again if I had not of lost $$$, I wouldn't be so bitter. But from a footbal fans point of view, not a gambler, it really wasn't the game I expected. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest kkktookmybabyaway Report post Posted January 28, 2003 It'll be interesting to see how much of that audience stays to watch Jimmy in the weeks to come... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
