Saints' Super Bowl Win Is the Most-Watched Show in TV History

If you felt like you were part of a truly shared experience yesterday as you watched the New Orleans Saints get the Super Bowl monkey off their back, you were correct. That's because Super Bowl XLIV is now the most-watched television show ever. According to an LA Times blog, 106.5 million people watched the Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts on CBS, beating out the MASH series finale in 1983, which averaged nearly 106 million viewers, also on CBS.

As the blog post mentions, the TV landscape has changed in the last few decades. The number of homes with TVs has jumped from 83.3 million to nearly 115 million, so it was safe to assume something would eventually beat that MASH record. But, there are also a lot more choices for viewers (Puppy Bowl, anyone?), and the huge storm in the mid-Atlantic causing power outages could've prevented people from watching the game. Instead, it seems like the weather may have helped people stay inside.

Personally, we at Tonic think the record fell because of the inspirational season the New Orleans Saints gave its fans, and those who became fans of the team that brought the city its first professional sports championship. The win by no means makes up for the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, but it does provide a remarkable story of how a team can take a city on its back and bring its residents together in celebration.

Photo courtesy of NewsHour via Flickr