Sunday's Super Bowl telecast produced the second-lowest ratings in the annual game's history, according to Nielsen overnights. The contest, a blow-out that saw the Baltimore Ravens score a 34-7 win over the New York Giants, averaged a 40.5 rating and a 59 share. The lowest-rated Super Bowl game on record was the 1990 contest between San Francisco and Denver which scored a 39.5 rating. The 1999 Denver-Atlanta contest was the second-lowest Super Bowl with a 40.2 rating. (Final figures may indicate that more viewers tuned into the 1999 telecast than this year's.) The post-game show averaged a 33.5/47, while the debut of Survivor 2: The Australian Outback pulled a 25.6/38. Although substantial, the Survivor ratings were well below those for the final episode of Survivor I, which scored a 28.6/45. CBS averaged a 37.2/54 for the night.

Source: Studio Briefing