According to preliminary results from ratings giant, The Nielsen Company, Sunday night’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLV on FOX was the most watched television show ever in the United States.

This year’s Super Bowl had an average audience of 111 million viewers, surpassing last year’s Super Bowl as the most watched television program of all time.

“Super Bowl XLV caps what is arguably the most successful season that any sports league has ever had,” said Pat McDonough of Nielsen, “The number of people watching NFL games has never been higher, with 24% more people watching the average NFL game this year than just five years ago."



The show was viewed in 53.3 million households which translates into a 46 Household rating. Not surprisingly, the top two markets were Pittsburgh and Milwaukee which each had a household rating of 59.7.

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