The lowest-scoring game in Super Bowl history drew the lowest TV rating for the event in a decade.
CBS’ telecast of the New England Patriots’ 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday night posted a 44.9 rating across the nation’s metered markets.
Although still a massive audience, that is the lowest overnight rating for a Super Bowl since 2009 and down about 5 percent from the 2018 game.
Viewers in the Atlanta television market, however, bucked the trend.
Sunday’s game generated a 49.1 rating in host city Atlanta, up from 47.1 for the Philadelphia Eagles’ win over the Patriots in last year’s Super Bowl.
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Atlanta had the seventh highest rating among the 56 metered markets Sunday, according to CBS. For last year’s Super Bowl, Atlanta ranked 29th among those markets.
In the markets of the participating teams, Sunday’s game generated a 57.4 rating in Boston and 44.6 in Los Angeles.
Ratings plummeted in New Orleans, where many fans boycotted the telecast, feeling a controversial non-call on pass interference late in the NFC Championship game deprived the Saints of a Super Bowl LIII berth. The Patriots-Rams game posted a 26.1 rating in New Orleans, the lowest among the 56 metered markets and about half the New Orleans rating for last year’s Super Bowl.
The rating represents the number of households, out of every 100, that watched the game on average.
