With the Patriots trailing most of the game, the Super Bowl was less of a draw in Boston.
The Patriots’ Super Bowl win over the Falcons scored a 54.3 rating in Boston, down 11% from the team’s 2015 win over the Seahawks (61.0) and down 4% from their 2012 loss to the Giants (56.7). The 54.3 is the lowest for a Patriots Super Bowl in Boston since their 2004 win over the Panthers (52.2) and ranks fifth out of their seven appearances during the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick regime.
New England’s early deficit had a definite impact on the local rating, with Boston dipping from a 56.2 at halftime to a 52.1 when the Patriots fell behind 28-3. Ratings eventually rebounded to 57.6, per Fox Sports executive Michael Mulvihill.
In Atlanta, the Falcons’ collapse had a 57.0 rating — down 2% from the team’s previous Super Bowl appearance way back in 1999 (58.2). The market peaked at a 62.0 rating at 10 PM ET, also per Mulvihill.
Neither Atlanta nor Boston topped the ratings charts, ranking third and eighth respectively among the 56 metered markets. In share, which measures televisions in use rather than total television homes, they took the top two spots — Atlanta first with 82% and Boston second at 81%. Based on that discrepancy, one can infer that there was much greater interest in the home markets than anywhere else, but not all viewers consumed the game on their household televisions.
Pittsburgh was the top rated market with a 57.9 rating, followed by Buffalo (57.2). As previously noted, Atlanta was third. Norfolk and Richmond, VA, rounded out the top five with a 55.9 and 55.7 respectively. Host market Houston was well out of the top ten with a 47.4, down 3% from the Bay Area last year (49.1) and down 15% from Phoenix in 2015 (55.6). It was the lowest rated host market since at least 2010.
(Numbers from Fox Sports, with additional information from Michael Mulvihill/Twitter 2.6a, 2.6b, 2.6c)
