Jim Williams, The Examiner
2007-11-07 08:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

It was called Super Bowl 41.5 for a reason. The Patriots 24-20 victory over the Colts this past Sunday garnered the highest national TV rating for a regular season telecast in 20 years. CBS Sports earned an average overnight household rating/share of 22.5/39, which was the highest-rated Sunday afternoon NFL regular-season game on any network in the metered markets since at least 1987, which is as far back as CBS’ records go. The previous high for a Sunday afternoon regular season game was a 22.2/41 (Dallas-San Francisco on Nov. 10, 1996).

Impressive stuff to be sure. But the highest rated show in Washington for the week was the Redskins 23-20 overtime win against the Jets. Locally, the Redskins-Jets telecast on FOX 5 did an overnight 27.9 rating with a 47 share.

So how did the Pats-Colts fare in the D.C. area against the Burgundy and Gold? The Brady-Manning show drew a 24.6 rating with a 23 share, impressive for a late Sunday afternoon game.

It is extremely rare for a national game to get higher ratings than the local Redskins telecast. Even with all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Pats-Colts game, there was no reason to believe it would’ve beat the hometown game on the D.C. airwaves had they matched up head-to-head.

Truth be told, the game did not out-rate any local telecast in any market this past weekend. But when you count the viewership in non-NFL cities with those watching in NFL towns with a double-header game, like in our area, you get the impressive number that CBS pulled in on Sunday.

So there is your fuzzy math for TV lesson.

NOISE BOOST?

The game did have some controversy. It was alleged the Colts were boosting noise levels inside the RCA Dome to disrupt the Patriots.

A day after some unusual sounds were heard during the broadcast, the NFL issued a statement saying what sounded like simulated crowd noise was actually created by the CBS production crew, not the Colts.

“CBS has informed us that the unusual audio moment heard by fans during the Patriots-Colts game was the result of tape feedback in the CBS production truck and was isolated to the CBS broadcast,” the league said. “It was in no way related to any sound within the stadium and could not be heard in the stadium.”

Despite the league’s defense, there is much debate on whether the Colts pump in extra noise at the RCA Dome. I have been there and trust me, they boost the sound. It is what we called in the old days a home-field advantage.

Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.