Super Bowl ratings hit a new low in television’s most important demographic.
Sunday’s Super Bowl 53 on CBS delivered a 31.0 rating and 39.95 million viewers in the adults 18-49 demo, down 7% in ratings and viewership from last year on NBC (33.4, 43.0M) and down 16% in both measures from 2017 on FOX (37.1, 47.6M).
It was the lowest rated Super Bowl in the demo since at least 1992, falling below the previous mark of 33.2 in 2005.
Ratings in adults 18-49 have declined in seven straight years, and viewership has declined in eight. Earlier this decade, the game scored as high as 40.5 in 2012 and 52.5 million in 2011.
Adults 18-49 made up just under 41% of the CBS TV audience of 98.2 million. Since 2008, when the demo accounted for fully half of the TV audience, it has accounted for a smaller and smaller percentage each year.
Streaming would not explain the declines, as the game averaged only 2.6 million viewers per minute digitally — not enough to make up the viewer shortfall of 3.0 million.
As for the other young adult demographics, the Super Bowl had a 26.0 rating in adults 18-34, off 9% from last year (28.6) and 21% from 2017 (32.9). It scored a 34.6 in adults 25-54, down 6% from last year (37.0) and 15% from 2017 (40.5).
As previously reported, the Super Bowl had a 41.1 rating and 98.2 million viewers overall, with the viewership total rising to 100.7 million across all platforms. A historic chart of Super Bowl ratings is available here. The full list of 2018-19 NFL ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 2.5, ShowBuzz Daily 2.5]
