History UsefulNotes / SuperBowl

The television broadcast of the game is usually the single most heavily-viewed program in the United States for any given year, and by a very large margin. Anything less than 90 million viewers would be regarded as a massive disappointment, in a country where pulling in even one-third of that audience would be considered mega-hit territory for any other show.[[note]]As a point of reference, ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had been pretty consistently the number one show in America throughout the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]] and [[TheNewTens early 2010s]], and at its peak in the mid-late 2000s, it pulled in about 30 million viewers on a good night. The last TV program in the U.S. that reached the same market share as the Super Bowl was the 1994 Winter UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, which was motivated by the UsefulNotes/TonyaHarding ice skating scandal.[[/note]] Meanwhile, most other channels will just throw on a NoHoperRepeat, and even film studios treat Super Bowl weekend as the nadir of the January/February DumpMonths. Super Bowl LVIII, which pulled in an estimated average audience of more than 123 million viewers in the U.S. alone (with upwards of 200 million watching at least part of the game), currently holds the record for the most-watched U.S. telvision program ''ever'' outside of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Non-Americans, imagine what it'd be like if the UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup were played ''every year'', but it was only ''one game''. That's the Super Bowl.

It's ''also'' known for the NFL [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope exaggerating the extent of its trademark rights to the "Super Bowl" name]]. The NFL insists that it's illegal for churches and other nonprofit organizations to advertise their Super Bowl viewing parties with the name "Super Bowl" or even "Super Sunday". This is widely seen to be contrary to the broad recognition of UsefulNotes/FairUse in the United States, but because the NFL's lawyers are very scary and fighting them would be far too expensive, most everyone complies with their demands anyway. As a result, Super Bowl party-organizers will usually give their events alternate names such as the "Big Game" or the "[[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-destler/the-superb-owl-party-and-_b_2625748.html Superb Owl]]". The NFL was near-universally considered to have taken it a step too far when they tried to also trademark the term "Big Game"... in spite of the fact that the term ''predates the NFL itself'' by twenty years, having been used to refer to [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball the annual Stanford/Cal college football game]] since 1900.

The television broadcast of the game is usually the single most heavily-viewed program in the United States for any given year, and by a very large margin. Anything less than 90 million viewers would be regarded as a massive disappointment, in a country where pulling in even one-third of that audience would be considered mega-hit territory for any other show.[[note]]As a point of reference, ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had been pretty consistently the number one show in America throughout the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]] and [[TheNewTens early 2010s]], and at its peak in the mid-late 2000s, it pulled in about 30 million viewers on a good night. The last TV program in the U.S. that reached the same market share as the Super Bowl was the 1994 Winter UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, which was motivated by the UsefulNotes/TonyaHarding ice skating scandal.[[/note]] Meanwhile, most other channels will just throw on a NoHoperRepeat, and even film studios treat Super Bowl weekend as the nadir of the January/February DumpMonths. Super Bowl LVIII, which pulled in an estimated average audience of more than 123 million viewers in the U.S. alone (with upwards of 200 million watching at least part of the game), currently holds the record for the most-watched U.S. TV program ''ever'' outside of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Non-Americans, just imagine what it'd be like if the UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup happened ''every year'', but it was only ''one game''. That's the Super Bowl.

The television broadcast of the game is usually the single most heavily-viewed program in the United States for any given year, and by a very large margin. Anything less than 90 million viewers would be regarded as a massive disappointment, in a country where pulling in even one-third of that audience would be considered mega-hit territory for any other show.[[note]]As a point of reference, ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had been pretty consistently the number one show in America throughout the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]] and [[TheNewTens early 2010s]], and at its peak in the mid-late 2000s, it pulled in about 30 million viewers on a good night. The last TV program in the U.S. that reached the same market share as the Super Bowl was the 1994 Winter UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, which was motivated by the UsefulNotes/TonyaHarding ice skating scandal.[[/note]] Meanwhile, most other channels will just throw on a NoHoperRepeat, and even film studios treat Super Bowl weekend as the nadir of the January/February DumpMonths. Super Bowl LVIII, which pulled in an estimated average audience of more than 123 million[[note]] with upwards of 200 million watching at least part of the game [[/note]] viewers in the U.S. alone, currently holds the record for the most-watched U.S. TV program ''ever'' outside of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Non-Americans, just imagine what it'd be like if the UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup happened ''every year'', but it was only ''one game''. That's the Super Bowl.

The television broadcast of the game is usually the single most heavily-viewed program in the United States for any given year, and by a very large margin. Anything less than 90 million viewers would be regarded as a massive disappointment, in a country where pulling in even one-third of that audience would be considered mega-hit territory for any other show.[[note]]As a point of reference, ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had been pretty consistently the number one show in America throughout the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]] and [[TheNewTens early 2010s]], and at its peak in the mid-late 2000s, it pulled in about 30 million viewers on a good night. The last TV program in the U.S. that reached the same market share as the Super Bowl was the 1994 Winter UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, which was motivated by the UsefulNotes/TonyaHarding ice skating scandal.[[/note]] Meanwhile, most other channels will just throw on a NoHoperRepeat, and even film studios treat Super Bowl weekend as the nadir of the January/February DumpMonths. Super Bowl LVIII, which pulled in an estimated average audience of more than 123 million[[note]] with upwards of 200 million watching at least part of the game [[/note]] viewers in the U.S. alone, currently holds the record for the most-watched U.S. TV program ''ever''. Non-Americans, just imagine what it'd be like if the UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup happened ''every year'', but it was only ''one game''. That's the Super Bowl.

The television broadcast of the game is usually the single most heavily-viewed program in the United States for a given year, and by a very large margin. Anything less than 90 million viewers would be regarded as a massive disappointment, in a country where pulling in even one-third of that audience would be considered mega-hit territory for any other show.[[note]]As a point of reference, ''Series/AmericanIdol'' had been pretty consistently the number one show in America throughout the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]] and [[TheNewTens early 2010s]], and at its peak in the mid-late 2000s, it pulled in about 30 million viewers on a good night. The last TV program in the U.S. that reached the same market share as the Super Bowl was the 1994 Winter UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, which was motivated by the UsefulNotes/TonyaHarding ice skating scandal.[[/note]] Meanwhile, most other channels will just throw on a NoHoperRepeat, and even film studios treat Super Bowl weekend as the nadir of the January/February DumpMonths. Super Bowl LVIII, which drew an estimated average audience of over 123 million[[note]] with upwards of 200 million watching at least part of the game [[/note]] in the U.S. alone, currently holds the record for the most-watched U.S. TV program ''ever''. Non-Americans, imagine what it would be like if the UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup happened ''every year'', but it was only ''one game''. That's the Super Bowl.