130 Million Watched Super Bowl

NEW YORK (AP) â€” A lopsided Super Bowl with by far the most punts ever dragged the TV rating down, but still managed to interest about 130 million people. <br><br>CBS Sports' telecast of the Baltimore

Monday, January 29th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” A lopsided Super Bowl with by far the most punts ever dragged the TV rating down, but still managed to interest about 130 million people.

CBS Sports' telecast of the Baltimore Ravens' 34-7 victory over the New York Giants registered a preliminary big-market rating of 40.5 with a 59 share from 6:30 to 9:53 p.m. EST Sunday.

That means an average of 40.5 percent of the country's TV homes were watching at any given moment, while 59 percent of in-use televisions were tuned to the game.

Sunday's game â€” which had the advantage of a team from the country's biggest market, New York, and the disadvantage of two East Coast rivals â€” pulled in the lowest overnight mark for a Super Bowl since the 40.4 for the Washington Redskins' 37-24 win over the Buffalo Bills in 1992. That was the last time CBS aired the NFL championship game.

Still, CBS estimates 130 million people watched all or part of the 2001 Super Bowl.

The preliminary, or overnight, ratings released Monday were based on measuring 47 of the 49 largest TV markets, covering about 65 percent of the United States. The full national ratings were to be released later Monday.

The overnight numbers were down about 6 percent from last year's Super Bowl on ABC, which isn't surprising given the nature of the games. The outcome of Sunday's contest was decided by the third quarter; the St. Louis Rams' 23-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans in 2000 came down to the final play.

And while last year's game featured the Rams' big-play offense, neither Baltimore nor New York was particularly efficient when it had the ball Sunday. The teams combined for a record-low 393 yards of offense, and the game's 21 punts shattered the old Super Bowl record of 15.

This year's overnight rating compares favorably with the 1999 game, which drew a 40.7 on Fox as the Denver Broncos beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-19.

While the Ravens-Giants game isn't likely to break any viewership records, CBS had not made ratings guarantees to advertisers, who paid an average of more than $2 million per 30-second commercial during the telecast.

And the network continued to draw viewers after the on-field action ended, registering a 33.5 rating and 47 share for 24 minutes of postgame coverage. The season premiere of ``Survivor'' followed, and drew an overnight rating of 25.6 with a 38 share.

``We're absolutely thrilled from every standpoint, from the pregame to the game to halftime to the phenomenal amount of people who stuck around for 'Survivor,''' CBS Sports president Sean McManus said. ``Other than having some control over the score, I don't think I would have done anything differently.''