ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300016
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The Super Bowl XXXI telecast Sunday posted a 43.3 national Nielsen rating on the Fox Network, ranking 17th among Super Bowls and 19th among televised sports events in history. The other two shows in the top 19 were 1994 Winter Olympics shows featuring figure skating.
The rating is a percentage of U.S. TV homes. The share was a 65 (percentage of homes watching TV). It is the highest Nielsen rating in Fox history.
Green Bay's 35-21 victory over New England ranks fourth among most-watched shows in TV history, with an estimated 128,917,000 viewers watching at least a portion of the game. The three shows with higher total viewers are Super Bowls, all won by Dallas - XXVII, XXVIII and XXX.
The 43.3 Nielsen was the highest for a Super Bowl without the Cowboys since XXIII (January 1989), when San Francisco downed Cincinnati on a Joe Montana-engineered late scoring drive. The rating for Sunday's game was six percent below last year's Dallas-Pittsburgh game, which drew a 46.1 on NBC.
NBC will televise Super Bowl XXXII on Jan.25, 1998.
LENGTH: Short : 29 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB