Miami, FL – The Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of M-A-S-H to become the most-watched program in television history.
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The Nielsen Co. estimated Monday that 106.5 million people watched the New Orleans Saints upset the Indianapolis Colts. That beats the “M-A-S-H” finale, which had 105.97 million viewers in an era when there were fewer television sets.
Compelling story lines involving the city of New Orleans and its recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the quest for a second Super Bowl ring for Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning propelled the viewership.
The game also obliterated the previous record viewership for a Super Bowl — last year’s game between Arizona and Pittsburgh in which 98.7 million people watched.
Meanwhile, commercials took up nearly 48 minutes of the game — the most for any Super Bowl.
Research firm Kantar Media says the amount of ads that aired on CBS was nearly 3 minutes longer than last year’s total, the previous record holder.
The game brought an unusual number of shorter, 15-second ads as marketers looked to keep their costs low but still be in the advertising world’s biggest event.
Commercials typically come in 30-second blocks — which sold this year for between $2.5 million and more than $3 million. But Kantar says seven of this year’s 66 ads were just 15 seconds long. That’s the most since 2002.
Wow..Thanks for this news…VIN should have put in an ad too, i am sure that thousands of Yidden like me that watched it would have liked it.and VIN would have
had great coverage…I am so happy for New Orleans after everything that they went thru since Katrina…
Now how many VIN readers watched the game? Come on now, you know you did! Wasn’t Tracy Porter’s touchdown awesome?
was a massive game! i was rooting for the colts, but i’m happy for new orleans…they deserved it. i wish VIN would start posting scores from all mojor sports on a regular basis.
Boruch Hashem I didn’t know who was playing until Sunday morning when I heard it while listening to weather and traffic, and I could care less. The superbowl is a great argument against having a TV. Companies don’t pay $2.5 million for 30 seconds because they think CBS needs charity. they pay because they 30 second commercial has an effect on people or behaviour that is worth more than 2.5 million to the company. Now try to convince yourself that letting your kids watch a 60 minute violent or sexually oriented TV show has absolutely no effect on your child while someone else is willing to pay 2.5 million for 30 seconds of your time. The reason there is a shidduch crisis is because modern orthodox parents poison their children with thousands of hours of programming in which they are introduced to what is attractive and what is not (according to Goyishe American standards) and their children spend 35 years looking for a frum movie star that doesn’t exist unlike chassidim who get married at 18 because they don’t what the opposite sex is “supposed” to look like. You want to end the Shiddich crisis for the next generation? Throw out your TV and don’t let your kids go to movies.
oh so the girls r looking for movie stars but not the boys that’s brilliant
The shidduch crisis is the direct result of an absolute deterioration of middos, as yiddin apply disgraceful tactics including every facet of loshon harah, greed, insensitivity, lies and deceit in procuring shidduchim. Saying TV is the cause is a naïve and sophomoric swipe at the issue. It’s like saying eating causes cancer. TV is the least of it.
Even if you grant that American football isn’t treif because it’s violent, there are still all those ads and the half-time show. They’re guaranteed to provide as much pritzus as you want – after all, in American society that’s what sells products. If you watched the game, I hope you at least turned it off at half time and didn’t let your kids anywhere near it.
I knew we were becoming Americanized when I saw the “Rebbe cards” a generation ago, with our Gedolim being collected and swapped like baseball players. Now it’s become totally acceptable to watch over-paid, morally questionable people beating each other up on a stadium field on an instrument that even many non-Jews consider treif. On the internet at least you don’t have to go to a site you don’t find acceptable. Once you’ve turned on the TV you’re at the mercy of whatever they choose to throw at you.
B/H that the New Orleans Saints made it at the super ball, the inyan of helping someone thats downtroden is in this weeks parsha mispothim, Ki sira chamor shonachu roveits tachas masoa, OZEV TAZOV IMO” new orleans has suffered so much its time we give them a hand
To all the people bashing my post #7 above,
You all fail to address the fact that the shidduch crisis is not occuring in chassidic communities where there are no TV’s and 90% + of eligibles are married by 20-21. In the MO community 90% of elgibles remain single into their thirties. The MO will reject a shidduch on looks alone while chassidim don’t know what the opposite sex is “supposed” to look like. MO men and woman are no different in this respect. Chassidim know, sheker hachain vihevel hayofi, and look for midos. There are thousands of intelligent, successful, attractive, educated MO Jews, that simply “cannot” find their bahsert because they have been poisoned by TV and use American goyishe standards instead of Torah in looking for a spouse. There is nothing posted here that even begins to suggest I’m wrong.
Q: When was the last time you saw a modern orthodox wedding invitation with 5 pairs of great/grandparents listed?
A: It’s difficult for grandparents to be listed when the average of matrimony is 35 instead of 18.
Don’t bother telling me that chassidim are “forced” into marriage. They’re alot happier than MOs.