UPDATED with more numbers: The Kansas City Chiefs’ 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in Super Bowl LIV in Miami drew 102 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox, NFL and Verizon’s digital properties, according to Nielsen numbers special-ordered by Fox Sports. That was up slightly from the comparable cume number last year (100.7 million).
Following the game, the Season 3 premiere of Fox’s flagship series The Masked Singer averaged 23.7 million viewers at 10:40 PM ET on the broadcast network, up 7% from the debut of The World’s Best on CBS last year, which logged 22.2 million viewers with a similar start time, 10:36 PM. In adults 18-49, The Masked Singer (8.1 rating) was up 16%.
The small ratings gains also carried over to the Super Bowl halftime, headlined by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. It averaged 103 million viewers on Fox, according to Nielsen/Fox Sports, up 4% from last year’s half-time Maroon 5 performance. The pregame show drew 21.6 million viewers, the best since 2016.
The 2019 Super Bowl drew a total audience of 100.7 million when adding up totals from the CBS network, CBS Interactive, NFL digital properties, Verizon Media mobile properties, ESPN Deportes and other properties.
On Fox alone, this year’s Super Bowl, which aired live from 6:41-10:11 PM ET, averaged 99.9 million viewers, according to preliminary results from Nielsen. That would be up a notch from the 98.2 million total viewers for the New England Patriots’ 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams last year, which was the lowest broadcast network viewership total since 2008.
The 41.6 household rating for last night’s game on Fox grew five tenths from last year, but still was the second-lowest total since 2006 (Super Bowl XL, ABC, 41.6) according to Nielsen historical data.
In addition to Fox, Sunday’s game streamed live on FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app, on mobile via NFL digital properties (NFL app, NFL Fantasy and NFL.com mobile web), as well as on Yahoo Sports and other Verizon Media properties. Fox Deportes had exclusive Spanish-language rights and drew 757,000 total viewers, Nielsen said Monday.
Fox News Channel also said host Sean Hannity’s pregame interview with President Donald Trump on Sunday drew 10.3 million viewers at 3:30 PM ET, and 4.2 million in the adults 25-54 news demographic. Those numbers are up 28% in viewers and 31% in adults 25-54 compared with last year, when CBS’ Margaret Brennan interviewed Trump in the same time slot.
On social media, there were 43.9 million total interactions across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter regarding Super Bowl LIV.
The Chiefs, who won their first NFL championship in 50 years, erased a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to knock off the 49ers, capping a night that saw Jennifer Lopez and Shakira headline the famed Pepsi Halftime Show.
The Chiefs became the first team in NFL history to be down double digits in three different postseason games, but rally to win them all. Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes was named the game’s MVP, the youngest in Super Bowl history.
Here are the top five most watched Super Bowl telecasts:
1. 2015: 114.4 million – Super Bowl XLIX: New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks (NBC)
2. 2014: 112.2 million – Super Bowl XLVIII: Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos (Fox)
3. 2016: 111.9 million – Super Bowl 50: Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers (CBS)
4. 2012: 111.35 million – Super Bowl XLVI: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots (NBC)
5. 2017: 111.32 million – Super Bowl LI: New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons (Fox)
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