From ew, At long last, the Super Bowl has slain that ratings behemeth known as the 'M*A*S*H' finale. More people tuned in to watch New Orleans take down Indianapolis on Sunday than any one TV program in American history, meaning the 27-year-old record held by the comedy classic has been broken.
According to Nielsen (via the AP), 106.5 million viewers watched the game on CBS. The 105.97 million who watched Klinger and Hot Lips in the TV show's 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen' episode, also on CBS.
Alan Alda, who played Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce on the show, was gracious in defeat after hearing the news.
"I'm happy for New Orleans," he told the NY Times. "I want to see that city come out first in every way that it can, even if it means giving up a record that 'M*A*S*H' held for a long time."
According to reports, there are 114.9 million TV households in the United States, which is about 32 million more than when 'M*A*S*H' signed off in 1983. Also it's wise to note there weren't 5 million channels to choose from back then.
The previous record for a Super Bowl was set last year, when a whopping 98.7 million football fans watched Pittsburgh beat Arizona.
6 comments:
I've never seen an episode of M.A.S.H. in my life but it bums me out that football beat its record.
Me neither, me too.
I can't even stay awake through the theme song of M*A*S*H.
The theme song to M*A*S*H is titled "Suicide is Painless" There are lyrics to it as well although they didn't use them for the show. Just sayin'
What?!? I LOVE M*A*S*H*!!! Jerks.
That was an awesome game though.
I loved it too DCD.
Meh, like the Hollywood box office record, this one seems a pretty silly and meaningless one.
M.A.S.H. was watched by basically the same number of people in a nation with 32 million fewer households.
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