NBC Hopes Super Bowl Breaks U.S. TV Records, but No Guarantees

SAN FRANCISCO — The potential is certainly there for Super Bowl LX to set a U.S. television viewership record, particularly since the last three Super Bowls have established new marks and the NFL is currently on a viewership heater. NBC Sports, however, is not making any firm predictions about what could be a historic broadcast.

With five days to go before the Feb. 8 game between the Seahawks and Patriots from Levi’s Stadium, network officials are hopeful of establishing a new milestone but did not guarantee it would happen.

“I never predict records,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella tells Front Office Sports. “Sometimes when this data comes in, it’s like unwrapping a Christmas present, and you don’t know what’s in the box. But I do feel good about the game. I feel good about the matchup. I feel good about our production. I feel good about our talent. And I feel good about our plan. Hopefully the game is close and goes to the last play.”

Last year’s Super Bowl LIX, won by the Eagles over the Chiefs, averaged 127.7 million viewers, and that broadcast on Fox is the current standard for the most-watched, single-network broadcast in U.S. television history. 

The Case for a Record

There is plenty of evidence from the NFL’s 2025 season that supports the argument for another record. The league’s regular-season viewership hit the second-highest level in recorded history, while more milestones were set during the conference championship round, the divisional playoffs, the wild-card round, and on streaming. 

NBC is fundamentally a part of that as its Sunday Night Football is on track to be the No. 1 show in U.S. primetime for a 15th consecutive year, by far the largest streak in TV history. 

Helping fuel these bullish metrics is the arrival of Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement process. The methodology, first introduced last September, brings in millions of additional data points from set-top boxes and smart TVs, and the upcoming game will be the first Super Bowl to have the expanded metrics. 

About a week after the game, there will be additional data from Nielsen’s new pilot program of enhanced co-viewing measurement, which NBC praised. 

“We want accurate numbers. It’s what we’re all trying to get to,” Cordella said. “It’s all about ‘How many people are watching this program?’ and for a long time, it was undercounted. So these [viewership] increases that are happening now are capturing what’s actually out there.”

The Case Against a Record

This year’s Super Bowl matchup between New England and Seattle involves a solid bicoastal matchup, as well as the Nos. 10 and 13 U.S. media markets. 

Viewership of the Seahawks, however, has been somewhat weak relative to its status as one of the NFL’s best teams. Seattle’s win over the Rams in the NFC title game averaged just 46.1 million viewers, down 20% from the AFC championship game last season in the same broadcast window. Fox’s audience also was beaten, somewhat surprisingly, by earlier coverage on CBS on Jan. 25 of New England’s victory over Denver in the AFC championship game.

In the divisional round, a similar dynamic unfolded. The Seahawks’ runaway win over the 49ers, aired in a late Saturday night window, was by far the least-watched of the four playoff games that weekend, with an average audience of 32 million. That was down 5% from the comparable game last season. 

Both Seattle wins in the postseason were against NFC West division foes they were facing for a third time this season.

Olympic Considerations 

NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl LX is part of the network’s “Legendary February,” which also involves the 2026 Winter Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game. That historic concentration of top-tier programming has long been a corporate priority for network parent company Comcast, and it is also seen as a likely boost to the Peacock streaming service. 

Comcast is also buttressing its presentation of the events to its cable subscribers to help stem an ongoing decline in that customer base.

The network, however, breathed a significant sigh of relief Tuesday after star Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn—a focal point of NBC’s Olympic-related promotion—will still compete in Milan in her ongoing comeback at age 41, despite tearing a knee ligament last week.

“Having Lindsey Vonn is obviously good for business. This could be one of the greatest Olympic stories of all time if she gets down that mountain and somehow does well,” Cordella said. “This could be an absolutely phenomenal story—and you’re going to have to watch on NBC.”