Readers: Super Bowl won’t set records

A huge number of people will tune in to Sunday’s Super Bowl on CBS.

But it won’t be a record number.

After setting the mark for most-watched television broadcast ever for three years running, the Super Bowl will see its audience decline year to year for the first time since 2005.

That’s according to media buyers and planners, responding to an annual poll posted on Media Life inviting them to weigh in on the Super Bowl.

Media Life asked readers whether the game would set a record for most-watched ever, surpassing the 111.3 million total viewers who tuned into last year’s contest on NBC.

A majority of readers, 64 percent, answered no, the game would not set a record.

The remainder thought it would.

There are many reasons for the prediction of a decline, including the fact that Baltimore is not a top-10 TV market and so will not draw as many viewers as a team like the New York Giants or Boston-based New England Patriots.

Plus, TV ratings for football have been down during the regular- and post-seasons.

The Super Bowl will still draw an enormous audience, perhaps the second- or third-largest in history.

Asked to predict how many people will watch the game, the largest chunk of readers, 28 percent, predicted that between 108.1 million and 111 million will tune in.

Another 22 percent predicted that 111.1 million to 112 million will watch.

And the third-largest group, 14 percent of readers, see a record on the horizon, predicting 112.1 million to 113 million will see the game.

Of course, a close game can lift even the dullest of matchups coming into a contest, and the past few years have featured some exciting matchups, leading to the record ratings.

Asked what is the most important factor in determining ratings for the Super Bowl, 53 percent of respondents chose this answer: “The game itself. If it’s not close, people will drift away.”

And one-third of readers picked this option: “The matchup. If you don’t have a popular big-market team, you don’t have a game.”

Readers agree with oddsmakers that the San Francisco 49ers have the edge in Sunday’s matchup, with 61 percent picking that team to win, compared to 39 percent for the Baltimore Ravens.

But there was one upset pick in Media Life’s poll.

In the nine years that Media Life has been doing this poll, Anheuser-Busch has had been voted the most-anticipated advertiser in every one.

This year, for the first time, the Budweiser parent company was unseated.

Readers voted Doritos the commercial they are most looking forward to seeing by a narrow margin over A-B, 28 percent to 25 percent.

Amy Poehler’s Best Buy ad and Kate Upton’s Mercedes-Benz spot tied for third at 11 percent apiece, while Volkswagen and Wonderful Pistachios tied for fifth at 8 percent each.

The vast majority of readers, 78 percent, plan to watch the game at home, with 19 percent attending parties and 3 percent not watching at all.

As for how “Elementary,” the new drama that grabbed the plum post-Super Bowl spot, will perform, readers think it will draw fewer viewers than last year’s huge postgame episode of “The Voice,” which averaged 37.6 million total viewers.

Fifty percent of readers predicted that “Elementary” will average 25.1 million to 30 million viewers, while 26 percent pegged it at fewer than 25 million.

Just over 18 percent predicted 30.1 million to 40 million viewers, and 5 percent said it would average more than 40.1 million.

Tags: audience, buyers, decline, media life, media life surveys, people, ratings, records, super bowl, super bowl ads, super bowl advertisers, super bowl commercials, super bowl ratings, super bowl viewers, time, viewers