Last night’s Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos winning over the Carolina Panthers earned a 49.0/73 overnight household rating/share in Nielsen’s largest 56 markets., That’s down 1% versus last year’s 49.7 for New England-Seattle which set the record for overnight household rating, but was good enough for second-best overnight rating ever. Per CBS the game peaked with a 51.0/73 from 10:00-10:15p ET.
It’s risky to make predictions about what the final national viewership and household rating will be based on the metered market numbers…
Overnight Super Bowl ratings 2005-2016:
| Year | Network | Teams | Overnight Rating |
| 2016 | CBS | Panthers-Broncos | 49.0 |
| 2015 | NBC | Patriots-Seahawks | 49.7 |
2014 | Fox | Seahawks-Broncos | 47.6 |
2013 | CBS | Ravens-49ers | 48.1 |
2012 | NBC | Giants-Patriots | 47.8 |
2011 | Fox | Packers-Steelers | 47.9 |
2010 | CBS | Saints-Colts | 46.4 |
2009 | NBC | Steelers-Cardinals | 42.1 |
2008 | Fox | Giants-Patriots | 44.7 |
2007 | CBS | Colts-Bears | 42.0 |
2006 | ABC | Steelers-Seahawks | 42.1 |
2005 | Fox | Patriots-Eagles | 43.4 |
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Here’s the list of final household rating and viewership numbers for past Super Bowls.
Overnight household rating = the live+same day DVR overnight metered-market household rating from the top 56 Nielsen television markets. The 56 markets (out of 210 total) account for about 70% of the US TV-viewing population. The overnight household rating is the percentage of the households that were tuned-in in those markets. The share is the percentage of the households that were watching TV at the time.
Example: a 21 household rating with a 40% share means that on average 21% of all the households (in those 56 markets) were tuned-in and that 40% of the households watching TV were tuned-in.