Super Bowl Ratings Up Only Slightly

Apparently, the closeness of the Super Bowl does not have a great effect on television ratings.

Sunday’s game, in which San Francisco edged Cincinnati, 20-16, drew an average overnight Nielsen rating of 42.7 and a share of 65 in the nation’s 17 largest markets, according to NBC.

Last year’s Super Bowl, in which Washington routed Denver, 42-10, drew an overnight rating of 41.2--only 3% lower than this year’s--and a 60 share.

The final national rating will be announced later in the week.

In Los Angeles, this year’s Super Bowl rating was a 42.4 and the share a 72, compared to a 42.8 and a 66 for last year’s game.

In San Francisco, the game drew a 53.3 rating and an 82 share.

The highest national Super Bowl rating ever, a 49.1, was for the 49er-Bengal game in 1982. The San Francisco rating for that game was a 55.7 and the share an incredible 93, meaning 93% of the people in San Francisco watching television at the time were watching the Super Bowl.

A rating represents the percentage of television households where a particular program is being watched.

Last year’s Super Bowl drew a national rating of 41.9, the lowest since 1974.