Fox can claim a win with their airing of Super Bowl LIV, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs staging a fourth-quarter comeback that saw them turn a 10-point deficit into a 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The big game was watched by just under 100 million viewers, up slightly from 2019’s game and it scored its first ratings increase in five years.
Early ratings show that the game came in with 99.9 million viewers and a 41.7 household rating in the 18-49 demo. Both figures represent a slight uptick from CBS’ broadcast of Super Bowl LIII in 2019 (98.2 million viewers, 41.1 18-49 demo rating).
As is mostly always the case, the much-praised Pepsi Halftime Show featuring powerhouse performances by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, was the highest-rated portion of the broadcast, pulling in 103 million viewers. The figure is up about 4 percent from last year’s halftime show which featured a rather polarizing performance by Maroon 5. The halftime show has outdrawn the game in each of the past nine years.
Kansas City really had all their eyes on the big game with ratings from that area showing a massive 55.7 household rating and 89 share. Viewership there peaked in the fourth quarter at 62.6/97 which means that 97 percent of all Nielsen-measured TV viewing happening in Kansas City at that time was of the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl also provided a huge lead-in for the third season premiere of The Masked Singer which drew 23.7 million viewers and an 8.1 rating among adults 18-49 — both improvements on The World’s Best (22.2 million viewers, 7.0 demo rating) on CBS last year. Both Masked Singer figures represent series highs for the show which continues to grow in popularity.
Although the game was up from 2019, this is the second straight year that the Super Bowl has come in below 100 million viewers. Before 2019, there was a nine-year run where the game topped 100 million viewers. That being said, the increase for the game this year represents a trend of ratings growth for NFL games during the regular season which saw a 5 percent increase year-to-year.
