Super Bowl XLVIII is Most-Watched TV Event in U.S. History

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NEW YORK: The Sunday broadcast of Super Bowl XLVIII on FOX was watched by an average audience of 111.5 million people, more than any television program in U.S. history.

Super Bowl XLVIII posted a 46.4/69, matching the household rating and share for Super Bowl XLVII a year ago, according to national figures issued by Nielsen, and both, along with Super Bowl XVIII and XIX, tie as the seventh highest-rated Super Bowls ever. The game is also now the most-watched program ever on FOX, breaking the 111.0 million viewer mark the network set for Super Bowl XLV. Three of the last four Super Bowls set average viewership records.

The record-breaking trend also extended to the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show, with 115.3 million viewers watching Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform. That figure surpasses the 110.8 million delivered by Beyonce last year and the prior record of 114.0 million set by Madonna two years ago.

Live coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII was also available in the U.S. on a Spanish-language channel, FOX Deportes, for the first time ever and on digital platforms via FOX Sports GO and FOXSports.com. FOX Deportes averaged 561,000 viewers, the most-watched non-soccer sports event in Spanish cable history.