Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Super Bowl breaks US TV audience record

Updated at 6:40 pm on 9 February 2010

The 44th NFL Super Bowl marked a first, and not just for the victorious New Orleans Saints; the match broadcast took in over 106 million viewers, an all-time United States television record.

The audience ratings agency Nielsen estimates that the game between the Saints and the Indianapolis Colts drew 106.5 million viewers, breaking a broadcast record that stood for more than a quarter century.

Super Bowl viewership topped by a nose the 105.97 million people who tuned in to watch the final episode of "MASH" in February 1983.

Several of the most widely watched broadcasts in US history have been Super Bowls. The previous audience record was 98.7 million viewers, for last year's game in which the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals.

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