Ratings
Fox NFL Sunday had been the ratings leader among network pregame coverage from the time of its debut in 1994 (as, at the time, it was the only network pregame show to air for one hour prior to kickoff). In 2006, however, CBS' The NFL Today overtook the Fox pregame in the ratings. The swing in ratings was said to be correlated with the move of Fox NFL Sunday host James Brown back to CBS, where he had been broadcasting before his jump to Fox in 1994.
Fox's 2008 telecast of Super Bowl XLII was the 2nd most watched Super Bowl (Giants vs. Patriots) in history, with 97.5 million viewers. It was also the second-most-watched TV program behind the 1983 M*A*S*H series finale. Coincidentally, the Phoenix area hosted Super Bowl XXX (which aired on NBC), the third most viewed Super Bowl in NFL history, with 95.1 million viewers, in 1996.
With an average US audience of 111 million viewers, Super Bowl XLV became the most-watched Super Bowl as well as the most-watched program of any kind in American television history, beating the previous record of 106.5 million viewers for Super Bowl XLIV. An estimated 162.9 million total viewers watched all or part of the game. The game drew a national household Nielsen rating of 46.0 and a 69 share. It drew a 59.7 local rating in both Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, the second-highest local rating for a Super Bowl after the 63.0 that Super Bowl XX drew in Chicago. In the host market of Dallas-Ft. Worth, the game drew a 53.7 rating.
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