Super rating for big game

Bowl helps 'Anatomy' score best ratings to date

By RICK KISSELL

'Super Bowl XL'

ABC's 'Grey's Anatomy' stayed hot in its post-Super Bowl episode.

No event has held up as well in today's 500-channel universe as the Super Bowl, which continues to amaze in the ratings game.

In its last year airing the National Football League, ABC drew its largest program aud ever Sunday with the Steelers' victory over the Seahawks, helping cap a huge night that also saw rising medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" easily deliver its best scores to date.

Sunday's telecast of Super Bowl XL averaged a whopping 34.6 rating in adults 18-49 (up 4% vs. last year) and 90.7 million viewers overall, according to prelim in-home viewing estimates by Nielsen. In total viewers, a category that benefits from population increases, it's the best showing for the big game in 10 years.

Nielsen estimates that 141.4 million in the U.S. watched at least six minutes of the game, putting its reach behind only CBS' 2004 Super Bowl (New England-Carolina), which stands as the most-viewed program in history (144.4 million).

While every other annual event, including the Academy Awards and World Series, has seen its audience consistently decline over the years, pro football's title game has done the best job withstanding erosion.

If there's one fly in the ointment for the NFL -- as well as the film studios shelling out millions to hype their spring and summer fare during the game -- it's that the Super Bowl is losing some of its grip on the youngest of adults.

While Sunday's 18-49 rating (34.6) was within 6% of its prior 10-year average (36.9), its 18-34 rating (30.0) was off 14%. Contrast this with a modest 2% decline in the 25-54 demo over the past 10 years, and it's clear that the league needs to do a better job of reaching the fickle 18-24 crowd.

Still, there's no arguing with the Super Bowl's massive 18-34 score, which is more than double the season's second highest rated primetime telecast -- the premiere of Fox's "American Idol" in January (14.7).

Game's 18-49 aud was roughly 44% femme, meaning that significantly more women (34.7 million) watched the Super Bowl than last year's Academy Awards (24.5 million).

There wasn't a significant dropoff at halftime, with the Rolling Stones concert averaging a 40.1 household rating from 8 to 8:30 p.m. ET, a 4% decline from the game's 41.6 rating.

Looking at the local markets, Sunday's Super Bowl averaged a 57.1 overnight household rating in Pittsburgh, a 55.0 in Seattle and a 52.3 in host city Detroit.

Reliable numbers weren't available for ABC Sports' roughly 20-minute postgame show (10:07-10:27 p.m. ET), but Nielsen will issue these and final numbers for the game today.

As for "Grey's Anatomy" (10:27-11:27 p.m. ET), the hot second-year skein averaged a 16.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 38.1 million viewers overall -- well above its previous high set in May (9.8 in 18-49, 22.2 million) and the best for a post-Super Bowl program since CBS followed the 2001 game with the second edition of "Survivor."

"Grey's" also stands as TV's top-rated entertainment program since the finale of NBC's "Friends" in May 2004. And no ABC series telecast has rated higher in 18-49 since the coming-out episode of "Ellen" in April 1997.

Not surprisingly, no other net came close to ABC on Sunday. The Alphabet's estimated 30 rating in 18-49 for the night was roughly 15 times second-place Fox (2.1), which went with repeats of comedies "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy."

After primetime and the late local newscasts, ABC's special edition of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" hit series highs (3.3 rating in 18-49, 7.4 million viewers overall). Previous best came with its debut following the 2003 Super Bowl (2.6 in 18-49, 4.9 million viewers).