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Super Bowl 2014: Early ratings show dip from last year’s record

Head coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates with wide receiver Doug Baldwin during Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday.
Head coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates with wide receiver Doug Baldwin during Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday.
(Jamie Squire / AFP/Getty)
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The people were willing, but the football game didn’t allow for record TV ratings in Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVIII.

Early numbers in the nation’s top TV markets showed that the Seattle Seahawks’ 43-8 romp over the Denver Broncos produced only the fifth-best-rated Super Bowl contest, according to Nielsen.

The 47.6 metered-market rating was down from last year’s all-time record of 48.1 on CBS.

However, there’s evidence that fans were all primed to watch but walked away as the game flew away from Denver and turned into a rout. The initial tune-in was up 6% compared with last year. But viewing fell off considerably as the clock ran down in a game that was anything but a nail-biter.

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More details as final ratings are released later Monday.

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