There’s little question that Super Bowl LI between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons was one of the greatest postseason football games ever.
Down 28-3 in the third quarter, New England mounted the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, eventually defeating Atlanta by the score of 34-28 in overtime. It’s the first time in Super Bowl history that a team has come back from more than 10 points down to win.
Now, one day after New England’s historical win, ratings for Super Bowl LI on Fox have come out. And its an absolute doozy.
RATINGS UPDATE: #SB51 on @FOXSports is the most-viewed program in television history with a total audience of 172 million.
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) February 6, 2017
According to Fox Sports PR, this broadcast surpassed Super bowl XLIX between these very same Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks back in February of 2015. It also means that the eight most-watched broadcasts in television history are all Super Bowls. In fact, the series finale of M.A.S.H. is the only outlier among the 20 most-watched broadcasts in the history of television.
Fox Sports’ claim that Super Bowl LI was the most-watched broadcast in television history runs contrary to reports earlier in the day.
111.3 million viewers for Patriots-Falcons last night = lowest Super Bowl audience since Ravens-49ers in 2013
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 6, 2017
Though, there’s definitely some ambiguity here. After all, original numbers likely don’t include viewers streaming the game on the Fox Sports Go app as well as other streaming services like Roku TV.
Either way, it shouldn’t be a surprise that a massive audience tuned in to watch New England pull off the greatest comeback in playoff history. It resulted in Tom Brady earning his fifth Super Bowl title after he broke the single-game Super Bowl record for completions, attempts and passing yards.
History meets history.