Despite the supposed lack of glamour teams, this year’s Super Bowl was viewed in more homes than any other event in TV history except for the M*A*S*H finale in 1983. Were the recent articles bemoaning the fact that we don’t have mass entertainment moments anymore wrong? Nah. Fragmentation still rules; popularity is still dying. The Super Bowl is just the exception that makes us question the new rules.
Look. The Super Bowl isn’t really about the game – it’s more about having one more excuse for a party. In a unscientific poll taken at our place on Sunday, only 25% of the people there were interested in the game: the rest were there for the food, friends and fun. Which is fine of course, but makes the Super Bowl more like Christmas or Thanksgiving, just with a dollop of violence, commercials and officiating controversy.