Super Bowl Ratings Down

The Super Bowl battle between the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos was seen by an estimated 105 million viewers, ABC said Monday, but the overnight Nielsen ratings from 15 major cities indicated that the football championship had a smaller audience than last year.

Sunday’s game, which Washington won 42-10, averaged a 41.2 rating and attracted 60% of the available viewers in the 15 cities where ratings are available the following day. National ratings will be available today.

Last year’s Super Bowl between Denver and the New York Giants garnered a 48.3 rating and was seen by about 120 million people. The record Super Bowl rating is a 49.1 for 1982’s battle between San Francisco and Cincinnati.

In Washington, Sunday’s Super Bowl won a 55.2 rating and 78% share of the people watching TV at that time. The game did even better in Denver, with a 57.9 rating and an 87 share.

In Los Angeles, the game got a 43.2 rating and 66% of the audience.

Even though the Redskins had sewed up Super Bowl XXII by half time with a 35-10 lead, most of the audience stayed tuned for the inevitable conclusion, with the number of viewers dipping only slightly to a 58 audience share by the last half-hour.

For the overall four-hour time period, which included “The Wonder Years” on ABC, ABC netted 55% audience in the 15 markets, while CBS drew 20% and NBC trailed with 15%.