Early numbers: New high for Super Bowl

The SuperDome lost power last night, but the Super Bowl scored another powerful rating.

The big game on CBS set a new record, according to metered-market numbers.

The Super Bowl averaged a 48.1 household rating and 71 share, according to Nielsen, up 1 percent from a 47.8/71 for last year’s contest on NBC between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.

That was also up from a 47.9/71 on Fox two years ago, which holds the record for best overnight rating.

Of note, last night’s number excludes the half-hour period during which the SuperDome lost power. CBS’s announcers were also without power during part of that delay.

The network scrambled to fill the down time with extended analysis from its pregame team, but there was some speculation that people might tune away from the Super Bowl because of the delay.

That seemed to be true. The game’s rating dipped to a 46.5/68 from 8:45 p.m. to 9:15 p.m., when the game was in the 33-minute delay. That was the third-lowest-rated half-hour block of the night, behind the opening hour when CBS drew a 42.6/67 (6:30 p.m.) and 46.3/71 (7 p.m.).

What had been a dull game, with the Baltimore Ravens leading the San Francisco 49ers 21-6 at halftime, picked up after the power outage, with the Niners pulling within two points during the fourth quarter.

San Francisco had a chance to pull ahead in the final minutes but couldn’t get to the end zone, and the Ravens won 34-31.

The game peaked with a 52.9/75 at 10:30 p.m.

Time zone-adjusted fast nationals for the game will be out later today, and Media Life will post them as soon as they arrive.

Note that metered-market ratings do not always hold up when the later, more accurate numbers come out. Last year’s game came in under 2011’s rating with metered-market numbers, but it ultimately set a record for most-watched Super Bowl ever, with 111.3 million total viewers.

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