Super Bowl Dominates Television’s Week

NEW YORK (AP) — Television’s biggest event keeps getting bigger.

This year’s Super Bowl between Seattle and Denver was the most-watched TV event in U.S. history, with an audience even larger than the Nielsen company originally thought. Nielsen said Tuesday that the game was seen by 112.2 million viewers, or 700,000 more than it had initially estimated the previous day.

Fox’s comedy ”New Girl,” featuring a guest appearance by Prince, reached 26.3 million people in the coveted time slot after the game.

Television’s most popular drama last week was CBS’ ”Blue Bloods,” seen by 12.93 million. Even though a handful of other shows, like ”NCIS,” had repeat episodes, it’s an achievement for a Friday night series to draw such a strong audience. Over the past few years, the broadcast networks have deemphasized Fridays, which is second only to Saturdays for the least-viewed night of the week.

Fox’s ”The Following” reached just over 6 million viewers for its second-season premiere, Nielsen said.

Thanks to Sunday night’s game, Fox averaged 30.1 million viewers in primetime. CBS had 7.8 million, NBC had 4.8 million, ABC had 4.6 million, Univision had 2.9 million, the CW has 1.7 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million and Ion Television had 1.3 million.

Among cable networks, USA averaged 2.19 million viewers in primetime, Fox News Channel had 2.18 million, History had 2.05 million, ESPN had 1.98 million and The Disney Channel had 1.92 million.

NBC’s ”Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 10.5 million viewers. ABC’s ”World News” was second with 9.4 million and the ”CBS Evening News” had 8.4 million viewers.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 27-Feb. 2. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. Super Bowl: Denver vs Seattle, Fox, 112.19 million.

2. ”Super Bowl Post-Game Show” (Sunday, 9:55 p.m.), Fox, 93.38 million.

3. ”Super Bowl Post-Game Show” (Sunday, 10:03 p.m.), Fox, 65.78 million.

4. ”New Girl” (Sunday, 10:23 p.m.), Fox, 26.3 million.

5. ”The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 19.05 million.

6. ”Blue Bloods,” CBS, 12.93 million.

7. ”American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 12.73 million.

8. ”NCIS,” CBS, 11.74 million.

9. ”The Millers,” CBS, 11.5 million.

10. ”American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 11.42 million.

11. ”Hawaii Five-O, CBS, 11.24 million.

12. ”How I Met Your Mother,” CBS, 10.81 million.

13. ”Mike & Molly,” CBS, 10.67 million.

14. ”Elementary,” CBS, 10.34 million.

15. ”The Black List,” NBC, 10.17 million.

16. ”2 Broke Girls,” CBS, 10.05 million.

17. ”Super Bowl’s Great Commercials,” CBS, 9.64 million.

18. ”Mom,” CBS, 9.58 million.

19. ”Undercover Boss,” CBS, 9.21 million.

20. ”Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 8.86 million.