Super Bowl Scores Big With TV Viewers

The Super Bowl on NBC was watched by more people than any show in TV history, the network said Monday, crediting a blockbuster game and good production decisions.

NBC said it estimated total U.S. viewership of Dallas’ 27-17 victory over Pittsburgh at 138,488,000. The previous record was the 1994 Super Bowl between Dallas and Buffalo on NBC, watched by 134,800,000.

The Super Bowl received an average national rating of 46.1 with a 72 share, up 12 percent from last year’s San Francisco blowout victory over San Diego on ABC (41.3).

Each Nielsen ratings point represents 959,000 American TV households, or 1 percent of the total. Each share point represents 1 percent of the households with their TVs in use.

Total viewership is estimated by the networks, using these figures.

All but one of the top 10 most-watched shows in TV history are sports shows. The top four are Super Bowls. No. 5 is Harding-Kerrigan in women’s figure skating from the 1994 Winter Olympics on CBS