I should have been a baseball fan.
Why, you ask?
Well, I like records. They’re interesting. And baseball has lots o’ records.
So does TV. And one of the biggies, a record that’s withstood everything television programmers could hurl at it for 27 years, fell on Sunday night.
According to preliminary ratings estimates by Nielsen, Super Bowl XLIV was the most watched television program ever in the United States. About 106.5 million folks tuned in to see the New Orleans Saints battle the Indianapolis Colts—about half a million more than watched the M*A*S*H finale in 1983 (105.97 million).
What should we make of such interest in a game between two teams that hardly hailed from major markets?
Some have speculated that the massive snowstorm on the East Coast may have contributed to the spike in viewership. But I think the numbers are interesting for a couple other, more significant reasons.
In a media world that is increasingly divided into a myriad of niche options for consumers, the Super Bowl seems to be the last man standing. It’s a cultural event that transcends race and gender and socioeconomics and politics. It’s something that just over a third of our nation watched. And we’re still talking about the commercials, if not the game itself. In short, it’s a unifying event that’s taken on the feel of a national holiday—if not a national religious experience for more ardent fans.
But if the Super Bowl unifies, everything else under the television sun is fragmented—and fragmenting further given the profusion of cable TV offerings, on-demand capability and Internet options. And that makes it very unlikely we’ll ever see a network television show serve as a the catalyst for a shared cultural experience like the M*A*S*H finale.
That fact is illustrated by how the nation’s biggest sitcoms bowed out, ratings-wise, post M*A*S*H. In 1993, the Cheers finale drew 80.4 million viewers. Fast-forward five years to Seinfeld’s final show (about nothing), and 76. 3 million fans tuned in. And Friends? The show’s 2004 sign off netted 52.5 million viewers—less than half of M*A*S*H‘s record.
Now, fewer people watching popular sitcoms isn’t anything to cry about. In fact, it might well be worth celebrating, given the content of current comedies such as Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother. But it does illustrate the fact that our cultural common ground when it comes to broadcast entertainment is a far cry from what it once was.
At least, with everything except the Super Bowl.
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