CBS did not get a great Super Bowl on Sunday night with the lowest-scoring championship in history. On Monday morning, network executives woke up to a 10-year low in early TV ratings. That’s also not great, but rest assured, everyone, Super Bowl LIII will still be the highest-rated TV telecast of 2019.
Super Bowl LIII got a 44.9 rating in the metered markets, a 5.3 percent letdown from last year.
Last year’s Philadelphia Eagles’ victory over the New England Patriots scored a 47.4 overnight rating/70 share in the 56 metered markets. While it was a great game and that’s a big number, its own metered market returns were down 2.8 percent from the prior Super Bowl.
Immediately following the Super Bowl, CBS’ series debut of global talent competition “The World’s Best” bowed to a 14.0 overnight rating. That was down 13.6 percent from ABC’s post-Super Bowl drama “This Is Us” in 2018, which posted a 16.2 for the killing off of the show’s patriarch Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia).
We’ll get fast national ratings for the broadcast nets around 8 a.m. PT. Those won’t be super-helpful, however, as they’re not adjusted for time zone differences. CBS has ordered fast-official ratings from Nielsen, which we will get not too long after.
Read all about Sunday’s on-field action here. The low-scoring affair should help explain the year over year TV tune-out.