SUNDAY’S Super Bowl snared a staggering 93.1 million viewers on CBS – the second-most-watched Super Bowl in history and the game’s best numbers in 11 years.
The Colts’ sloppy 29-17 victory over the Bears, played in rainy Miami, was also the third-most-watched show in TV history – behind the 1983 finale of “M*A*S*H” and Super Bowl XXX in 1996 (Cowboys-Steelers on NBC).
Viewership for Sunday’s game, which aired from 6:27 to 10:04 p.m., peaked from 9 to 9:30, when the game snared a 45 rating and a 65 share – meaning that 65 percent of TV sets in use during that time were tuned to the game.
Viewership for Sunday’s game also jumped over 2 million from last year’s Seahawks-Steelers Super Bowl, which averaged 91 million viewers.
Sunday’s Super Bowl also gave a huge boost to “Criminal Minds,” which was awarded the plum post-Super Bowl timeslot. “Minds” (Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson) delivered 26 million viewers, easily its best-ever audience.
That’s a lot less than last year, when the post-Super Bowl episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” averaged 38.1 million viewers on ABC and helped put the show on the map.
And “Survivor II” snared 45 million viewers after the 2001 Super Bowl. According to Nielsen, 139.8 million people watched all or part of Sunday’s game – making it the third-most-watched Super Bowl in that category.