Kansas City Ranks First in Super Bowl Television Ratings
By Ben Nielsen
Feb 2, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; A general view of a roman numerals sculpture before Super Bowl XLVIII between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas City loves football and it showed on Super Sunday. According to Fox Sports, Kansas City was the number one market for ratings, even beating out Seattle and Denver.
Top SB mrkts: KC 58.1/78; Sea 56.7/92; Indy 53.9/74; NO 53.2/72; Tulsa 52.9/71. Host NY 50.5, best NY rating for SB since 53.4 in '87.
— Lou D'Ermilio (@LouDCommLLC) February 3, 2014
As you can see from the tweet, Seattle came in second in terms of viewing markets, while Indianapolis, New Orleans, and Tulsa (?!) rounded out the top five. Denver finished a surprising 10th place, but one could imagine there were a lot of televisions being turned off around the time Percy Harvin was returning the second half opening kickoff for a touchdown.
Rest of Top 10 SB markets: 6) LV 52.5/75; 7) Portland 52.4/82; 8) Knoxville 52.3/68; 9) Jacksonville 52.0/68; 10) Denver 51.4/83.
— Lou D'Ermilio (@LouDCommLLC) February 3, 2014
The Super Bowl itself was the fifth most watched championship in history, but the lowest since 2010. It makes sense the ratings would not be as great as last season’s record-setting Super Bowl considering this year’s game was over by halftime. In fact, this was the most lopsided Super Bowl since 1993 when Dallas destroyed Buffalo 52-17.
Kansas City finished fourth in television markets for the 2013 regular season with a 42.9 average rating. New Orleans, Denver, and Milwaukee filled out the top three. The 42.9 average rating for 2013 was a 41% increase from 2012’s 30.3 average rating, which was still good enough to rank 10th. Yeah, Kansas City likes football just a little bit.