Super Bowl Ratings: Huge Numbers In Chicago
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago blizzard that was one for the record books, also provided historic ratings for the Super Bowl.
Last night's thrilling finish between New England and Seattle was the highest rated Super Bowl in Chicago since the 1986 Chicago Bears title.
In households the game averaged a 54.9 rating with a 72 share. That topped the numbers for the Chicago-Indianapolis Super Bowl (50.2 rating, 77 share) in 2007.
The 1986 numbers may never be topped: a 63 rating and 87 share--meaning that 9 of 10 households watching TV were tuned into that game.
That means that nearly 2 million people in Chicago were watching and nearly three-fourths of the homes watching TV were tuned in to the game.
The snowstorm likely kept more people at home and in front of their televisions.
It also looks like Katy Perry death-defying routine, along with those dancing sharks, were a huge hit.
The peak rating came during Perry's visually stunning half-time show, when the rating topped at a 58 (just over 2 million Chicago viewers).
The ratings were also 23 percent higher than last year's game.
A rating above 50 is extremely rare.
Outside of the two games that included the Bears, it has only happened one other time (Green Bay vs. Pittsburgh, 2011) since 1981.