TV Ratings : Refs Disagree Over Super Bowl Stats

Is CBS’ 40.3 rating for the Super Bowl half full or half empty? On the one hand, according to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., Washington’s 37-24 victory over Buffalo Sunday ranked 21st among the 26 Super Bowls in terms of TV ratings. On the other hand, CBS said that because the audience represented by a rating point has grown over the years, and because there were proportionately more people watching each set this year, the NFL championship actually attracted the second-largest number of home viewers ever--an estimated 120 million who saw at least part of the game. The full list of ratings is on F13.

* Fox’s special halftime edition of “In Living Color” garnered what it said was a series record of 29.5 million viewers. Fox said that CBS’ viewership dropped from 84.1 million during the first half to 62.9 million at halftime, but CBS said that its advertisers had not suffered because there were no commercials at halftime.

Show Points Share 1. “Super Bowl” (CBS) 40.3 61 2. “Super Bowl Postgame” (CBS) 27.9 43 3. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 20.9 34 “Roseanne” (ABC) 20.9 31 5. “Murphy Brown” (CBS) 19.6 28 * “In Living Color” (FOX) 13.4 20