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Home » Superbowl ratings hit 10-year low

Superbowl ratings hit 10-year low

The New Neo Posted on by

Not a surprise. The NFL has been alienating a lot of viewers in recent years.

And probably quite a few of those who tuned in yesterday at the outset ended up tuning out before it ended because the game was a low-scoring defensive battle. Others aren’t all that interested because the somewhat-hated (outside of New England, that is) Patriots have become such a juggernaut that they seem to win and win and win.

I didn’t watch, but that’s because (a) I’m not a football fan; and (b) I was busy watching a movie with some friends. I hear from usually-reliable sources that even the ads were pretty bad, though.

Comments

Superbowl ratings hit 10-year low — 33 Comments

  1. Not all the ads. The one where the dragon incinerated the dilly-dilly people was pretty good.

  2. Didn’t watch, husband didn’t watch. However, I did watch the video of Gladys Knight singing the national anthem this morning. Excellent.

  3. All in all…a defensive battle. You can love those or hate them.
    1 really good drive engineered by McDaniel & executed by the Pats offence.

    The rest (halftime or commercials) is when you get up for more beer or to pee.

  4. That was 3 hours of my life I wish I had back. I watched mainly in the hope the Pats would lose. A very boring game, a very boring halftime, and very PC “let’s not offend anyone” commercials.

  6. I couldn’t watch it. Whenever I watch the Patriots they play poorly. After the first ten minutes, I tuned out. I’ll see replays later.

    I’m very glad that they won. The entire organization demonstrates excellence, with every player and coach expected to know their role and contribute to the team’s success. This is the weakest Patriots team in a while, and they still managed to win it all. They’ve been in four of the last five super bowls; they’ve won three of them; and they should have won against the Eagles last year.

    Extraordinary achievement, ending a three month dought in NE championships. [h/t Red Sox]

  7. Maybe Gladys Knight will get some of the Kaepernik supporters to change their minds in the future. If people want politics, they can watch Nancy Pelosi. And maybe big companies will start to realize that politicized ads (like Gilette’s) aren’t good for their business.

  8. Not a fan, I haven’t watched the game for many decades, but I was glad the patriots won. It is always a good thing when the sjw folks are disappointed.

  9. I wonder how many potential viewers were totally ticked off because LA shouldn’t have been playing at all….and only got there because of one of the worst cases of officiating in NFL history.

    Call it “the last straw”. The league doesn’t seem to be doing itself many favors.

    It can come back, though, given the right conditions and more sensible decisions on the part of some of the players.

    (People generally have short memories.)

  10. I wonder if many people noticed the glaring omissions in the Washington Post ad proclaiming their “Democracy died in Darkness” motto. While the Oklahoma city bombing was featured, the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings was not. Three murdered journalists, well, two journalists and an occasional columnist, were featured, but not Daniel Pearl. It was an interesting, puzzling, and informative clue into the inner motives of the Washington Post.

    While I enjoyed Ms Knight’s rendition of the anthem (I missed the Pips), I found the rest of the performances off-putting and disjointed. Maroon 5 is not a favorite of mine* and the juxtaposition of the gospel choir was a mistake. Give me a gospel choir all most anytime and I’ll be moved. This time I was moved to go to the kitchen.
    Big Boi and the other black singer should have offended more blacks than Governor Northam did.

    * for a great cover of Maroon’s song “Maps”, youtube has the exceptional Morgan James with Postmodern Jukebox singing her heart out.

  11. I watched the half-time to see if Maroon 5 would go SJW, as the lead singer seemed to threaten, but they didn’t. Instead they were a bland pop-rock group with a beefcake lead singer who had lots of tats and a decent falsetto, but no soul whatsoever. Stripping his shirt off didn’t help.

    Sorry I missed Gladys Knight. I consider the loss of soul music and its replacement by rap and hip-hop to be one of the great cultural disasters of our time.

  12. I heard earlier today that the viewing audience in New England was the highest for the Super Bowl since 2015. The rest of the country was down quite a bit.

    The game was a snoozer for the occasional fan. Personally I like the more defense oriented contests, creates a lot of good tension. And I’m a lifelong Boston sports fan, so I was pretty happy with the outcome.. I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to the ads but agree this year’s seemed especially pedestrian.

    I travel around the country for work, and talk with folks from all over. The overwhelming majority of folks that complained about another Super Bowl with the Patriots in it didn’t express hatred for the team, rather they were bothered by the fact they appear in so many.

  14. “Sorry I missed Gladys Knight. I consider the loss of soul music and its replacement by rap and hip-hop to be one of the great cultural disasters of our time.”

    THIS…1000 times this.

  16. To the limited extent that I’m interested in pro football, I like the Chargers and the Saints. So I watched the game partly in the very faint hope that by some miracle the Patriots and the Rams would both lose. And partly just because it’s the last football till August or so.

    Did not watch the half-time show because I knew it would only aggravate me. I did catch a few seconds of it when I looked in to see if it was over yet, which confirmed the wisdom of my plan.

    I was never that big a fan of soul music in its heyday but I came to appreciate it later, and especially in light of what’s come after.

  17. Haven’t watched football, much less the Super Bowl in years. I really liked football, and enjoyed rough house pick-up games as much as anyone right into my early 20’s . Though in looking back on it, it is lucky we never killed anyone accidentally and that I’m not paralyzed myself.

    Football long ago became a spectacle famous mostly because it’s a mass spectacle. Designed to maximize revenue by appealing to a breathless, drama swilling population addicted to team sports, the process leaves me pretty cold.

    I guess I just don’t have a fully functioning “be a part of it all” gene. Maybe if they dropped the half-time shows I’d think of tuning in again.

    Professional football has never been “pure” of course. But apart from watching a 40 year old quarterback demonstrate he can still play the game, I just could not see the point. But then, the package was never designed to attract guys with a group sensibility as slight as mine anyway.

  20. Susanamantha on February 4, 2019 at 4:34 pm at 4:34 pm said:
    I wonder if many people noticed the glaring omissions in the Washington Post ad proclaiming their “Democracy died in Darkness” motto. While the Oklahoma city bombing was featured, the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings was not. Three murdered journalists, well, two journalists and an occasional columnist, were featured, but not Daniel Pearl. It was an interesting, puzzling, and informative clue into the inner motives of the Washington Post.

    * * *
    Well, WaPo has the motto right, they are just on the wrong side of the door.
    I almost admire the ability of the MSM to write stories with not a single wrong fact, and still tell a bald-faced lie.
    And then there are the stories that have only a tenuous connection to facts…

  22. Confession; I did not intend to watch, but it was on in the house and I watched a good bit of the second half. (Deliberately missed half time.)

    I thought the commercials I saw tried too hard for cleverness, and missed for the most part. I did enjoy the one with the Clydesdales, as always. The Washington Post’s conceit was a real low point.

    If I cared about the NFL I would be pleased that the Pats won. Actually, I am. I root for them because of sustained excellence; and because so many virtue signalers hate them. Besides, this year they were playing a team from LA.

    A little humor. After singing the praises of the mighty Rams from the rooftops leading up to the game, our local SoCal rag’s headline this morning referred to them as “Sheep”. Naturally, every writer and blabber in the LA area thought it was a lackluster game.

  23. Super what?

    Didn’t bother – and wouldn’t have noticed it was this past weekend; except folks at work mentioned it on Friday asking if I was going to watch. nope.

    Instead I did chores during the day; then watched “Victoria” on PBS at night. Despite it “stretching history” a bit, I am rather enjoying the historical drama about a young Victoria. Sure, it is a bit fake; but, it still beats the hyperdrama of pro sports.

  24. Neo, I have been concerned for sometime about dark rumors that unscrupulous brewers might have been using corn syrup in their zymurgy. So those public service announcements exposing this practice were a highlight.

  25. I got to hear Gladys Knight share her conversion story at a concert with the Saints United Voices. She was touring around the country, giving free concerts in our LDS meetinghouses, as a “fireside” or religious devotional. We were in a large meetinghouse, called a stake center, and it was packed. Every seat taken, people standing in the aisles and by the walls.

    Sis. Knight talked about her son joining the Church first, and how very concerned she was that he was joining this “white, racist” church. After a few years, seeing her son and his family growing even happier, she started investigating the faith for herself, and eventually converted.

    Regarding the Tabernacle Choir, members of the choir have to audition, plus demonstrate a solid knowledge of music theory. I love to sing, but I can’t wrap my brain around music theory so phooey. But applicants must also live within a certain distance of Salt Lake City, and they are *not* to move to the area just so they can get into the choir. The choir spends many hours practicing, and they travel on tour every year. If I recall correctly, mothers with younger children at home are not accepted into the choir. I’m unsure if the same limitation applies to the father.

    Regarding ethnic markers, over half the Church’s membership is outside of the U.S., and aside from the U.S. and Canada, the countries with the largest numbers of members are in Latin America. There is also significant growing membership in Africa and Asia, which is no small feat given the violence, political repression, and social pressures that exist in many countries on those continents.

    A few years ago, our ward [congregation] in Phoenix had an African-American bishop, with one counselor half-Belizan and the other counselor Polynesian. Shortly after we moved, our bishop was made stake president (like a diocese, the stake consists of many wards in a geographical area). We visited last year, and one of the counselors in the stake presidency is from Mexico and had to speak via translator because he feels his English is not good enough to convey all that is in his heart. It was a privilege to hear him speak and to learn from him.

    Just wanting to share some insight on my church. 🙂

  26. I checked out the Manchester City – Arsenal highlights. That’s as close as I got to football over the weekend.

  27. I actually liked the game. But then I am from the old school days of running the ball and tough defense. Both teams had devised excellent defensive schemes. The difference was a wise, battled-hardened quarterback and an undersized receiver who cannot be covered by the Rams corners in short passing situations. When Brady needed seven or eight yards there was Edelman, open and able to hold onto the ball like a weasel with fresh meat in its paws. Like a chess match, it wasn’t exciting until time was running out in the fourth quarter, except for fans like me who enjoy defense. And it was a chess match between two excellent coaches. It just so happened that Belichick had Brady and Edelman making plays. Hopefully, Jared Goff learned a lot and will be better for it. And Brandin Cooks, the Rams receiver, will make the catches in the future that he missed this time.

    The ads? I hardly looked at them. Gladys Knight and the National Anthem? Fantastic! What a performance.

    Training camp opens in August. On to next season. 🙂

  28. Edelman is amazing. Like the commentators said, you just can’t cover him. Not with one man. Serious fans would know this, but I didn’t until last night when I was curious and looked him up: he was a qb in high school and college.

  29. I got to hear Gladys Knight share her conversion story at a concert with the Saints United Voices…

    OKBecky: Thanks. I love to hear insider stories and it is unusual for blacks to join the Mormon church.

    I confess I don’t get Mormonism but I can tell it works for a lot of people. And I appreciate that Mormons, such as Gladys Knight, don’t have a problem defending America.

    That Don Lemon would show Kaepernick’s attorney pontificating how a Superbowl performer would be “crossing a picket line” as a challenge to Gladys Knight singing the national anthem made my blood boil. (H/T John Guillfoyle)

    Here’s Gladys singing, “O Say Can You See”:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTuoq6TllaU

    She’s 74. She can’t hit the high notes, but what passion, what control!

  30. Not a Pats fan but I have great respect for what they have done. It is especially impressive to have maintained excellence so consistently in the age of free agency and the salary cap. But they may be having the same effect as the old Yankee dynasty in baseball – great if you root for them (I was a Yankee fan growing up) but boring and frustrating for everyone else.

  32. Gladys Knight gave one of the best National Anthem performances I’ve seen in wins at the Superbowl. He voice was mellifluous, the presentation was strong and simple. No added fluff. She was tastefully and beautifully dressed. She gave us a rendition that was about her voice and the song. It was wonderful.

  33. huxley on February 5, 2019 at 1:10 am at 1:10 am said:
    …

    OKBecky: Thanks. I love to hear insider stories and it is unusual for blacks to join the Mormon church.
    * * *
    Not as unusual as many people think. Some of the perception comes from visual anecdotal demographics aka pictures (there aren’t many black Mormons in Utah — where people still think most of us live — because there just aren’t many black people in Utah*), and some is outdated**.
    And some is just rote parroting of memes.
    One of our sons served a mission in Brazil the late 1990s. He and his companion had a door slammed in their faces one day by a man who claimed he would never join the Church because they didn’t allow blacks to be members (which was never true). The Brazillion elder rubbed at his arm real hard and then said, “Funny, it doesn’t come off.”

    *1.1% of the 2016 population
    https://gardner.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/RaceandEthnicity_FactSheet20170825.pdf

    **The Latter-day Saints have congregations in these African countries to date:
    Angola
    Benin
    Botswana
    Burundi
    Cameroon
    Cape Verde
    Central African Republic
    Cote d’Ivoire (I have a friend from here, and helped her father at home contact the local branch)
    Democratic Republic of the Congo
    Ethiopia
    Ghana
    Kenya (One of our ward’s young men served a mission here)
    Lesotho
    Liberia (I have neigbors from here)
    Madagascar
    Malawi
    Mauritius
    Mozambique
    Namibia
    Nigeria
    Republic of the Congo
    Reunion
    Rwanda
    Sierra Leone
    South Africa
    Swaziland
    Tanzania
    Togo
    Uganda
    Zambia
    Zimbabwe

    https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/country

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