Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson stole the show during Sunday’s Super Bowl, attracting almost twice as many viewers as the most thrilling moments on the field, according to an annual measurementof second-by-second viewership in TiVo households.
The Jackson-Timberlake moment drew the biggest spike in audience reaction TiVo has ever measured. TiVo said viewership spiked up to 180 percent as hundreds of thousands of households used TiVo’s unique capabilities to pause and replay live television to view the incident again and again. Overall, the halftime extravaganza had a powerful grip on viewers. According to TiVo’s analysis of aggregated data from an anonymous sample of 20,000 households, viewership of the game’s intermission increased by 12 percent compared to last year’s halftime show.
Commercials once again drew a bigger reaction from viewers than any of the action on the field. And humor seemed to be the best weapon for attracting the largest audience. Budweiser’s humorous spots were an especially big hit. Commercials for Bud Light filled three of the top five slots of commercials, as measured by TiVo.
“The ‘wardrobe incident’ during half time was the scene stealer of the Super Bowl,” said Marty Yudkovitz, President of TiVo. “In fact, the half time show during the Super Bowl is now running a close second to the commercials as the most compelling content for viewers. The actual contest on the field continues to be the secondary event during the Super Bowl.”
TiVo Top Ten Super Bowl Commercials
1. “Sleigh Ride” — Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light)
2. “Dog Bites” — Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light)
3. “Shards of Glass” – Truth
4. “Slam Dunk Contest” – Seven Up
5. “Talking Monkey” – Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light)
6. “Homer Simpson” — Mastercard
7. “Must Be Tough” Designated Driver Campaign – Anheuser-Busch
8. “Time Travel” – Time Warner (AOL)
9. “Washed Out with Soap” – General Motors (Chevy Trucks)
10. “We ID” – Anheuser-Busch
Overall, 40 percent of TiVo households tuned in to watch the game. Unlike last year’s less competitive contest, the TiVo ratings saw almost no drop off in the second half and viewing numbers remained high to the game’s exciting conclusion. The most watched play of this year’s Super Bowl was Jake Delhomme’s fourth quarter 85 yard touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad.
TiVo’s audience measurement analysis is based on aggregated data from a sample of 20,000 anonymous TiVo households. TiVo viewership information gauges the interest in programming content by measuring the percentage of the TiVo Super Bowl audience watching in “play” speed.
