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Super Bowl Produces Super Ratings For WFLA, NBC

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 2, 2009

Updated: 02/02/2009 12:50 pm

Preliminary overnight ratings indicate NBC's Super Bowl coverage pulled super ratings for WFLA, Channel 8, topping at a 50 rating and 77 percent share of Tampa-St. Petersburg TV audience during the final quarter of Sunday's game.

According to early results from Nielsen Media Co., more than half of the 1.8 million TV households in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market were watching the game. At its peak, the audience totaled 1,836,000 viewers about 10:15 p.m.

Nationally, the show did well, but the ratings were down from last year's Super Bowl and about on par with the 2007 and 2006 games.

An estimated 90 million watched Sunday night, according to Nielsen, which recorded a 42.1 rating and 65 share in overnight measurement of the nation's top cities.

That is off from the 44.7 rating for last year's New York Giants-New England Patriots game.

In the Tampa market, the game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers started with a respectable 40 rating and a 75 percent share at about 6:30 p.m. and quickly built to a 47 rating and 77 percent share.

A close finish kept the audience tuned to the game. At 10 p.m. the game had a 50 rating, and 77 percent of the homes watching TV were tuned to Channel 8. The game averaged 896,000 households and 1,520,000 adults ages 18 and older.

Programs on each rival network's local affiliate averaged less than a 1 rating during the game.

NBC's pregame coverage also did well locally, but "The Office" postgame comedy special started with a 59 percent share (26 rating) about 10:30 p.m. and fell off to a 23 share (7 rating) by 11:30 p.m.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is the 13th largest television market in the country with an estimated 1,822,160 households.

Each rating point represents 1 percent of the total number of households with TVs, and the share is the percentage of TV sets in use at the time of measurement.

National ratings results are expected later today, and these preliminary results could change as more data is complied.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.

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