Journal Sentinel TV and film critic Duane Dudek looks at life on the small and big screen, and some of the cool stuff on both.
Highest rated Super Bowl ever
WITI-TV (Channel 6) earned a 59.7 rating for Sunday's Super Bowl telecast, in which the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers. The rating is the equivalent of 538,00 households.
The station has said it was the highest rated Super Bowl in Milwaukee market history. An announcement that it was the most watched television event in history is due later today.
The game earned an 85 share, meaning 85% of the TVs being used at the time were watching the game. There are approximately 900,000 homes in the Milwaukee area television market.
For the NFC championship game with the Chicago Bears, WITI earned a 57 rating, as well as an 85 share. And when the Packers played the Atlanta Falcons WITI earned a 51.1 household rating, the highest Packers divisional game since 2004.
Makes sense, considering it was the first time local viewers had rooting interest in 14-years.
The highest rated program the station ever aired was the "M*A*S*H "series finale, back when WITI was a CBS affiliate. It earned a 61 rating and a 75 share in 1983.
Nationally the "M*A*S*H" finale drew 105.9 million viewers. Last year, however, its 37 year run as the highest rated TV show ever, was ended by the Super Bowl, which drew 106.5 million viewrs.