By Don Granese
You probably watched the Super Bowl. That’s not an estimated guess. According to the Nielsen ratings, of the 111.3 million people who tuned in to the game, it’s very likely that you were on of them.
Not only is the Super Bowl a yearly staple of American television… it’s also really well produced. There’s something for just about anyone who wants to be entertained for a few hours.
On Super Bowl Sunday it’s all about the two teams that are about to compete for the title. So why do we as a nation tune in when our own team may not even be playing? The Super Bowl has become something larger than a game. It’s a national gathering. Whether you’re gathering at the actual stadium or like most of America you’re gathering around a TV screen with family and friends.
For people like myself, the Super Bowl isn’t about sports, it’s about having something to talk about the next day at school or work. You don’t want to be that one person who didn’t catch that commercial where Elton John played the king of all Pepsi and then was shown up by the latest winner of FOX’s hit singing competition The X Factor. If you are that person, then you might feel left out the next day when all that people can talk about at work is how crazy that slacklining guy was during Madonna’s halftime performance.
Most people who watch the Super Bowl aren’t tuning in to see their favorite team play. Some people pick a team that they prefer at that moment. If the score is close at the end of the game, they root for the underdog.
It’s usually split pretty even between the people who watch for the game and the ones who come for the entertainment. Your sports fans are the ones who are fixated on the screen throughout the actual game and the entertainment fans are the ones who are able to look away and converse over the crazy M&Ms commercial that aired half an hour ago, but still seems funny to them.
These two breeds of people have differing schedules of operation over the course of the night. The sports fans are able to walk away during halftime and grab some food, while the entertainment goers are glued to the commercials and get up to get a drink once the game is back on.
In this way, the Super Bowl is the most watched program of the year because it has something for everyone. The sports fans will be walking in to work the next day arguing over which team played their hardest, while the entertainment fans will be commenting on whatever strange piece of clothing Nicki Minaj might have been wearing.
The Super Bowl has America pegged. It knows what we want and it gives us that and more.
REPORTING FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD 