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Super Bowl XLIV the most-watched TV event ever? Pffft. Not even close

Feb 10, 2010, 7:00 PM EDT

7 Comments

It was inevitable that eventually some show would surpass the final episode of M*A*S*H in the category of most eyeballs glued to the TV screen. But this big rumpus over Super Bowl XLIV being the most-watched TV event ever is quite misleading, and to us M*A*S*H diehards, more than a little insulting. First, the numbers:
A record 106.5 million people watched the Saints beat the Colts in Miami on CBS, according to Nielsen. That figure surpasses the biggest audience for a televised event in the U.S. ever — besting the M*A*S*H finale’s average of almost 106 million viewers in 1983. My reaction: So what? Those numbers are virtually meaningless. Especially when compared to soccer.


When the M*A*S*H finale, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, ran in 1983, there were 83.3 million television homes. Today there are nearly 115 million. As the Los Angeles Times pointed out, surpassing M*A*S*H in sheer numbers was inevitable; population growth was always working against it. But the M*A*S*H finale received a rating of 60.2 (percentage of all homes with TV), while Super Bowl XLIV got a 45. That’s the real number everyone should be looking at. By that measure, the Saints-Colts game isn’t even the most popular Super Bowl; the 49ers’ win over the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI in 1982 tops the list at 49.1. That’s No. 4 all time, behind M*A*S*H, the Nov. 1980 episode of Dallas Who Shot J.R.? (53.3) and the 1977 finale of Roots (53.1).
If M*A*S*H’s 60.2 rating were adjusted for today’s TV viewing population, the episode would have drawn about 142 million viewers.
And of course we’re only talking U.S. TV here. The most-watched sporting event ever has to be a World Cup. According to Initiative Worldwide, the 2006 Cup final between France and Italy averaged 260 million viewers, with more than 600 million watching some part of the match. Most watched overall? According to Wikipedia, the funeral of Princess Diana was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people. And the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony from the Beijing National Stadium was seen on TV by an estimated four billion viewers worldwide.
And so I leave you with this:
Frank: “I’m a good doctor. Just ask any of my patients!”
Hawkeye: “We’re not digging up people just for that.”
***
Saints’ Super Bowl win nips ‘MASH’ finale for most-watched show ever [Los Angeles Times]

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  1. LewP - Feb 10, 2010 at 8:29 PM

    It’s difficult for me to believe that MASH has survived this long as the #1 TV program for so many years.
    Just as M*A*S*H* had to end, so do the gawdy numbers that it produced.
    As an Army veteran myself, all I can say was MASH had a helluva a run.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGVs7E2sfXY

  2. Donn - Feb 10, 2010 at 9:09 PM

    What about the Houston Rockets in the playoffs last year with Yoa Ming playing, must have been over 200 mil chinese (alone) watching the game?

  3. Sam - Feb 10, 2010 at 11:59 PM

    You must be joking? You are comparing the Super Bowl viewers with MASH viewers? For that to be of any significance you would have to facter in that there was nothing else to watch on TV except maybe “Three’s Company” or “the Gong show” during that time frame. Also you would have to take into account the mindset of the viewing audience of MASH, mostly stoner rejects left over from the 60′s who didn’t know or care what they were watching, ‘hey dude, pass the pipe’ if you don’t believe that just look at the wardrobes worn in the 70′s and the hair. No one could come up with those clothes, only a doper. AND basically there were only three channels (networks)then grinding out the same old sitcoms, same as today, opposed to hundreds of cable TV channels today. Have you ever watched any of the reruns of the shows we had to watch in the 70′s for lack of anything else to watch? The ole finger down the throat gesture. MASH wouldn’t stand a chance today and would be cancelled the first season. Besides. no one has ever ask me or anyone I know or associated with if my TV is on or what I was watching over the last 70 years. Based on that fact I figure the ratings are a myth. My favorite non-redeeming shows were always cancelled for lack of interest, I guess I was the only one watching them and nobody ever ask me what I was watching. An audience of one might have saved a couple of those shows. Regardless of whether the Super Bowl was the most watched it was the best Super bowl ever only because the two best teams finally got to play each other and that is a rarity.

  4. Michael - Feb 11, 2010 at 8:06 AM

    Sam, you are living proof that we have finally dumbed down society to its lowest possible equation. Yes there were only about 5 channels available in those days (we had vhf and uhf stations – but I don’t want to hurt your brain) – and today we have what, 200+? You know how much watchable, quality TV is on these 200+ stations? About 3-5 shows.
    Mash was incredibly popular because it was one of the best written sitcoms of all time. See that word? Written? I know that’s a tough concept for your generation to grasp – because today instead of writing shows, we just watch videos of fat people losing weight, desperately ignorant girls lining up for that top bachelor, and oh yeah, people with limited to no talent being abused by somebody with limited to no talent on some piece of garbage called American Idol.
    If Mash came out as a new show today with the same script, and actors in their prime, it would blow everything else on television out of the water. Including the Stupor Bowl.

  5. Whataboutbob - Feb 11, 2010 at 9:34 AM

    I would have to agree with Sam, at least to a point. When MASH was on, you were basically limited in what you could watch. If the same scenario were present today, with only 3 (or even 5) channels, MASH’s numbers would have been surpassed long ago. Granted, there WERE cable networks at the time, but the number of channels (~40) and their somewhat limited availability kind of makes it a non-factor.

  6. willmose - Feb 11, 2010 at 10:25 AM

    Back in the day, we didn’t have pipes to smoke our weed. After we started a fire by rubbing two sticks together, we all sat around the fire and inhaled (okay, Billy didn’t inhale, but the rest of did). By the firelight, we watched the magic tube that glowed, and showed us the M*A*S*H finale. Most of us don’t remember it not because we were stoned, but because we were engaging in free love at the time (scoring at home for you baseball fans). Of course, we don’t need satires on war anymore because all war is some good.

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