For the fourth time in five years, the Super Bowl set a record as the most-watched TV program ever. In fact, the viewership has been revised up to 112.19 million watching from 6:33pm to 9:55pmET, when the game concluded. FOX’s post-game wrapped at 10:20pmET. So where did the viewers go?
While 26 million million kept it on FOX to watch Prince on “New Girl,” millions of football fans flipped to ESPN or FoxSports1, others checked the DVR, and millions more turned off the TV altogether. But about 1.3 million changed the channel to their favorite cable news network. Take a look at the 9pm hour on cable news Sunday night, compared to the 10pm hour.
The Weather Channel grew its audience by +150% from 9 to 10pm; CNN was up +129%; MSNBC grew by +125%; Fox News grew its audience +126% and HLN was up +84%.
- 9PM Viewers / Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014
FNC – 384,000
MSNBC – 199,000
HLN – 167,000
CNN – 158,000
Weather – 121,000
- 10PM Viewers / Sunday Feb. 2, 2014
FNC – 869,000
MSNBC – 448,000
CNN – 362,000
HLN – 307,000
Weather – 302,000