Dem
47
GOP
53
It takes a couple of days to compile the numbers, but Nielsen has announced that this year's Super Bowl averaged 124.9 million viewers. That's down slightly from last year's event, which averaged 127.7 million U.S. viewers. Donald Trump does not seem to have commented on this yet, but we've gone ahead and taken the liberty of putting together the infographic he'll need:
See? Going woke was a disaster for the NFL. Are you going to doubt your own eyes?
And a slightly finer-grained report on the ratings most certainly tells a tale different from the one the White House wants to tell. This Super Bowl did set a ratings record, for the largest number of viewers tuned in at one time, 137.8 million. That peak occurred... right at the end of the second quarter, undoubtedly as some viewers who did not care about the game tuned in to catch Bad Bunny. After halftime was over, the ratings dropped a fair bit, because the game was not great and because no more Bad Bunny. The much softer second half is how we end up with an average of 124.9 million.
The halftime show itself averaged 128.2 million viewers, which places it fourth all-time behind Michael Jackson, Kendrick Lamar, and Usher. With a list like that, it's not very hard to figure out why the NFL features so many people of color in its halftime shows these days. By contrast, Kid Rock's show attracted 5 million viewers on YouTube (the other outlets were not metered, and so there are no data for those) and the Puppy Bowl attracted 12 million viewers. For those keeping score at home, then, that is:
Kid Rock insisted yesterday that he was not lip synching, which is reminiscent of the time that Donald Trump insisted that he read that hurricane map correctly. It becomes ever more clear why Kid Rock is MAGA.
Perhaps you thought that since the game and the halftime show are in the rear-view mirror, and there are new culture-wars battles to be fought, this storyline has reached its end. If you did think that, then all we can say is: "Ha! You fool!" MAGA thinks there is still plenty of red meat to be harvested here, and they have been kvetching about Bad Bunny for days. For example, Laura Loomer sniffed that it made no sense for the show to include utility poles, since Puerto Rico is known for power outages. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, that one. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) decreed that the Bad Bunny performance was "smut" and included "gay porn." Fox entertainer Greg Gutfeld went on a bizarro rant, apparently in an effort to make a point about identity politics, in which he said next year's show should feature Jews slinging pastrami sandwiches, while a circumcision is performed live at the 50-yard-line.
In view of all this, some House Republicans are pushing for an investigation of the halftime show. The same folks who were claiming on Sunday that the show stinks because you can't understand the lyrics are now saying that if you DID listen to the lyrics, they broke the rules about over-the-air indecency. And actually, in making the claim, they are confirming that they definitely did not understand the lyrics. Bad Bunny has songs that are not family-friendly, but those are not the ones he performed. He did choose one song that has four-letter words, but they were bleeped out.
We shall see how much more mileage MAGA can get out of this. Could be a lot; the Bud Light thing went on for well over a month. On the other hand, many MAGA Republicans have moved on... to using the Winter Olympics as their primary supplier of red meat. (Z)