SportsNewser

After earlier overnight numbers showing last nights’ NFL championship telecast was the third most-watched Super Bowl, it turns out it’s the most-watched Super Bowl, which also makes it the most-watched TV program ever.

According to Nielsen Fast National Data 111.3 million viewers watched Super Bowl XLVI, topping last year’s game by 300,000 viewers. Final data will be released tomorrow.

Most-watched programs in TV history:

1. 111.3 Million – Super Bowl XLVI, NBC (2012)
2. 111.0 Million – Super Bowl XLV, Fox (2011)
3. 106.5 Million – Super Bowl XLIV, CBS (2010)
4. 106.0 Million – M.A.S.H. Finale, CBS (1983)
5. 98.7 Million – Super Bowl XLIII, NBC (2009)

The game earned a 47.0 rating and a 71 share, up 2% from last year’s 46.0/69 for Super Bowl XLV. And while it was the most-watched program ever, Super Bowl XX in 1986, featuring the Patriots vs. the Bears, earned a higher rating: 48.3 and a 70 share of the audience.

More stats after the jump…

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According to overnight numbers, Super Bowl XLVI earned a 47.8 rating, making it the third-most watched Super Bowl ever, after last year’s Packers-Steelers match-up and Super Bowl XXI which pitted the Giants against the Broncos in 1987.

When Nielsen Fast National data is released this afternoon, the viewership could approach last year’s 111.0 million that watched Super Bowl XLV, the most-watched Super Bowl ever, and the most-watched television audience in U.S. history.

Last night’s game was 7% higher than the 47.8/71 than Super Bowl XLII four years ago, when the Giants defeated the Patriots 17-14. That game was on FOX.

The flip and slip-tacular halftime performance by Madonna earned a 48.1/72 overnight, which is 1% ahead of last year’s 8-8:30 time period featuring the Black Eyed Peas (47.4/70) and 20% higher than NBC’s last Super Bowl with Bruce Springsteen (40.2/62).

Top 5 Super Bowls of all time (overnight ratings):

T1. 47.9/71 – Super Bowl XLV, Packers 31-Steelers 25, FOX (2011)
T1. 47.9/68 – Super Bowl XXI, Giants 39-Broncos 20, CBS (1987)
3. 47.8/71 – Super Bowl XLVI, Giants 21-Patriots 17, NBC (2012)
4. 47.4/NA – Super Bowl XIV, Steelers 31-Rams 19, CBS (1980)
5. 46.9/70 – Super Bowl XX, Bears 46-Patriots 10, NBC (1986)

Many more stats after the jump…

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It’s more than just a game… it’s an opportunity to absolutely blanket TV viewers with the spoils of your consolidated company. Call it Super Bowl everywhere.

NBC TV may have the rights to Super Bowl XLVI, but if you turn on just about any NBCU channel or watch any NBC-produced program you will see Super Bowl-themed programming next week.

NBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, Bravo, Weather Channel, E!, Telemundo, and G4 will all be taking part. The newly named NBC Sports Network (formerly OLN, formerly Versus) will air more than 18 hours of live programming ahead of the game.

The “Today” show starts next Friday, a split show with Al Roker and Ann Curry from Pan Am plaza in downtown Indianapolis. Jenna Wolfe is there for Saturday “Today.” And Natalie Morales and Savannah Guthrie will join coverage Sunday morning. It hasn’t been announced yet, but Matt Lauer will likely get a pre-game interview with Pres. Obama at the White House, which has become an annual event.

Absent from NBC’s listings is “Meet the Press.” The last two years, when the game was on FOX and CBS, “Fox News Sunday” and “Face the Nation” originated from Cowboys Stadium and Sun Life stadium, respectively.

And there’s more…

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Joe Paterno, the legendary coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, who lost his job over the Jerry Sandusky scandal in November, died this morning after a short battle with lung cancer. Paterno, 85, is being memorialized with flowers and candles at his statue on the campus of Penn State, as shown during live reports on ESPN and CNN.

Fox News was first to report the news at 10:19amET, ESPN about a minute later, MSNBC at 10:22 and the NFL Network at 10:34.

CNN sent a breaking news alert earlier, but the cable channel did not report the news until 10:34, when Candy Crowley interrupted “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” At 11am, Howard Kurtz‘s “Reliable Sources” reported the news with Susan Candiotti reporting from campus in State College.

On his show this morning, Kurtz also fessed up to sending a Tweet last night after a report that Paterno had died. “I didn’t check it. I said it was sad news. I should have been more careful. Lesson learned.” As Poynter reveals, the erroneous report, picked up by several news organizations, stemmed from a Tweet sent by Onward State, a student-run website.

CNN host Piers Morgan is joining Fox… as a soccer analyst. This Sunday, the Fox broadcast network will air an English Premier League game between Manchester United and Arsenal. It will be the first time an EPL game has been televised on U.S. broadcast TV, but it will not be the first time Morgan joins the broadcast booth.

Morgan provided some analysis to Fox Soccer Channel last year, though the broadcast network is a much bigger platform. He is an unabashed Arsenal supporter, so there is no doubt where his heart lies in the match.

Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand spoke to Fox Sports co-president Eric Shanks about soccer, and Morgan:
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This morning CBS Sports confirmed that longtime ESPN host Jim Rome would be joining CBS, as a contributor to CBS Sports programming, the CBS Sports Networks and Showtime Sports. Rome will host an eponymous weekday program on CBS Sports Network, as well as a “Real Sports”-esque program on Showtime.

Given the wide-ranging deal, and his high-profile in the sports world, it is also reasonable to think that Rome could end up on CBS News programming, say on “CBS This Morning,” the just-launched morning news program. Sports is a huge news topic, and neither ABC nor NBC have someone with Rome’s background to discuss it (though ABC’s Josh Elliott and Robin Roberts come close, given their “SportsCenter” history).

For CBS, the hire gives CBS Sports Network and Showtime a high-profile host to build their brands, while Rome gets to contribute to some of the most-watched TV programming out there with NFL, U.S. Open and NCAA coverage.

More information after the jump.

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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will hold a news conference this afternoon to announce the league has extended its TV partnerships with FOX, CBS and NBC through the 2022 season — the longest extension ever between the league and TV partners.

• CBS keeps the AFC package of Sunday afternoon games it acquired in 1998. CBS first began televising NFL games in 1956 and carried the NFC package from 1970 through 1993.

• FOX will continue with the NFC package of Sunday afternoon games that it acquired in 1994.

• NBC will continue with Sunday Night Football games it acquired in 2006. NBC will continue to televise the Thursday night NFL season Kickoff game to open each season and will add the annual Thanksgiving primetime game starting in 2012.

CBS, FOX and NBC will each televise three Super Bowls during the term. NBC will carry Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona in 2015, Super Bowl LII in 2018 and Super Bowl LV in 2021. CBS will broadcast Super Bowl L in 2016, Super Bowl LIII in 2019 and Super Bowl LVI in 2022. FOX will televise Super Bowl LI in 2017, Super Bowl LIV in 2020 and Super Bowl LVII in 2023.

More in the release after the jump…

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ESPN continues its recent trend of acquiring business-savvy reporters with its latest hire. TVNewser has learned that Bloomberg TV’s sports business reporter Michele Steele is joining the Worldwide Leader as on-air talent.

Steele is the second business network talent to depart for Bristol in recent weeks: ESPN hired Fox Business Network anchor Chris Cotter last month. The channel also recently hired a sports business reporter of its own in Kristi Dosh, who founded the Business of College Sports blog.

Bloomberg TV meanwhile has seen a small exodus of talent. In the last few weeks producer Mark Berniker left the channel while managing editor Dan Colarusso jumped to Reuters. That said, Bloomberg has also been adding staffers to its ranks, including Courtney Chapman and Wendy Brundige from ABC, Stephanie Ruhle from Deutsche Bank and Justin Dial from CNN.

CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian, who spent many years with CBS Sports, is working on a series on the pervasiveness of gangs in college athletics. “Gangs in Sports” will air tonight on the CBS Evening News and tomorrow morning on “The Early Show.”

The series is in conjunction with Sports Illustrated, where Keteyain was a reporter early in his career in the 1980s.

Keteyian and SI contributing writer Jeff Benedict traveled to Compton, CA to get a look at the intersection of gangs in sports at three local high schools. Keteyian and Benedict rode along with a supervisor in the LA Sheriff’s Department’s Gang Unit. He’ll also profile several high school stars fighting to avoid the violence in the streets as they try to break into top college football programs.

While the Green Bay Packers head east across Lake Michigan to take on the Detroit Lions this afternoon, a Milwaukee radio host headed north to the home of the Packers, Lambeau Field, on foot.

J. Pat Miller who hosts a midday show on 94.5 Lake FM in Milwaukee walked 112 miles to Green Bay. He started last Tuesday and arrived Friday.

“The walk was long and painful, but the feeling when I arrived at Lambeau was intense,” said Miller, who helped raise nearly $28,500 for a Thanksgiving program which will feed 800 Wisconsin families today.