Superbowl ratings down on 2004

Ratings for Sunday night's Superbowl were down 4% on 2004, according to estimates from Nielsen Media Research.

The game, broadcast on FOX, still averaged a massive 86.1 million viewers over almost four hours. In the past 20 years, figures have ranged from 73.9 million in 1990 to 94.1 million in 1996.

In the prized post-Superbowl slot, a themed episode of The Simpsons drew 23.1 million viewers, the show's biggest audience in eleven years. The number is down on last year's premiere of Survivor Allstars, which had 33.5 million, but above ABC's Alias in 2003 (17.4 million) and FOX's Malcolm in the Middle in 2002 (21.4 million).

The preview of new animated series American Dad also fared well, with an audience of 15.1 million.

In the UK, coverage of the game on ITV1 averaged 734,000 viewers and a 10.9% share from 10.45pm through 2am, peaking at 11.30pm with 1.04 million (10.5%).