Super Bowl XLV ratings poised to break records

The initial overnight metered market ratings are in for the Green Bay Packers defeat of the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV and, if they are any indication, the numbers are poised to be huge when the final tallies come in.

The game earned a 47.9/71 metered market rating/share of households Sunday night (Feb. 6) on FOX, tying it with Super Bowl XXI in 1987 as the highest-rated ever for metered markets. It is also up 3% from 2010's Super Bowl metered market overnight of 46.4/68. A "metered market" means a local market where Nielsen Media Research uses set-tuning meters, which report set usage, or People Meters, which report both set usage and persons viewing information. This information is available more quickly, but look for full national numbers later in the day.

Last year, the 2010 Saints-Colts Super Bowl went on to break the record for most-watched television program in history, earning an average of 106.5 million viewers to the "M*A*S*H" series finale's just under 106 million. Once all the numbers were finalized, so look for that to possibly happen here.

"M*A*S*H" held on to the record for share of households. In this day and age of such diverse choices combined with more households watching TV, it's hard to break a record. But Super Bowl XLV's 71 share of households is the highest mark for a Super Bowl since 1982. 71 share of roughly 115 million households is about 82 million households.