The Media Notepad: Super Bowl LX second most-watched ever
Also: Court TV sold; Trump endorses Nexstar-Tegna deal
Super Bowl LX wasn’t much to look at on the field, but it still drew a large crowd.
Ratings released by Nielsen Tuesday showed the game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks averaged a 39.4 household rating and 79 share and drew 124.9 million viewers across all platforms for NBC, down two percent from Fox’s Super Bowl LIX, which drew a record 133.5 million. Still, it’s the second-highest-rated Super Bowl in history, and the highest-rated ever for NBC. Super Bowl LX did peak at 137.8 million across NBCUniversal’s platforms – a new record.
Telemundo scored its highest ratings ever with the Spanish-language telecast of the Super Bowl, with 3.3 million viewers, peaking at 4.8 million during the halftime show (see below.) Telemundo and NBC share a parent in Comcast Corp.
The game was largely a dud as the Seahawks prevailed 29-13 to win their second Super Bowl title. For the first time in over 40 years, this writer missed the entire Super Bowl telecast due to work commitments, and judging by the game and the commercials, I didn’t really miss anything (I already said I would not be writing a Super Bowl Commercials Review article back in November, and from the looks of things, it would’ve been hard to come up with even five good ads, let alone ten.) Budweiser’s “American Icons” won the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter, while a Coinbase ad ranked last.
The “controversial” halftime show featuring Grammy-winning Puerto Rican rapper and performer Bad Bunny attracted 128.2 million viewers, compared to the 6.1 million viewers for the pre-recorded “alternative” halftime show streamed by Turning Point USA. Bad Bunny however, drew fewer viewers than last year’s halftime show with Kendrick Lamar as the headliner (133.5 million.) Bad Bunny’s show won almost universal praise (except from…well, you know who and his supporters) and was performed entirely in Spanish.
The baton now passes to Disney, whose ESPN will televise the Super Bowl for the first time next year from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. They let us know in no uncertain terms Sunday night and Monday, and have already annoyed us with this to no end.
Looking to pare down its portfolio to cut costs, Scripps announced it was selling Court TV to Law&Crime owner Jellysmack (not to be confused with Chicago-based digital gamemaker Jellyvision.)
As first reported by The Desk on Tuesday, the soon-to-be former owner, Scripps, laid off dozens of employees after announcing the day before that it was selling the brand to Jellysmack. Jellysmack’s Law&Crime focuses on legal and justice news and trials, and it also operates several YouTube channels and paid 24/7 content. Jellysmack plans to continue operating its multicast linear channel, mostly over Scripps’ stations. Jellysmack bought Law&Crime in 2023 from founder Dan Abrams, who remains with the network as its CEO.
A decade after Turner Broadcasting converted Court TV to TruTV, Scripps bought the brand in 2018 to launch a new digital multicast channel in May 2019 and quickly struck deals with the former Tribune station group, whose WGN-TV carried Court TV on channel 9.3. After Scripps bought Ion in 2021, it shifted Court TV to its digital space. The most recent version of Court TV covered the trials of Harvey Weinstein and Kyle Rittenhouse.
This is the second linear multicast network Scripps has either sold or paired back in recent months; in 2024, it removed Scripps News from linear television and drastically downsized its news operation, and recently sold Indianapolis TV station WRTV to Circle City Broadcasting. Scripps recently rejected an overture from rival Sinclair to purchase them, but the Maryland-based broadcaster has recently indicated it will continue to pursue the company.
To the surprise of practically nobody – and predicted by this site last November, President Donald Trump reversed course last Saturday and is now backing the proposed Nexstar-Tegna deal, which would give the Irving, Tex.- based company 265 stations across the country covering 80 percent of the nation, far above the 39 percent cap.
“We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, referring to NBC, CNN, MS Now, and ABC. “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar – Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level. Those that are opposed don’t fully understand how good the concept of this Deal is for them, but they will in the future. GET THAT DEAL DONE!”
It’s not known why President Trump changed his mind; this site suggested a meeting with the National Association of Broadcasters lobbyists or Nexstar CEO Perry Sook would do the trick, but there have been no reports of any meeting between the two and the White House. Later in the evening on Saturday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr endorsed the idea, signaling he would support abolishing the 39 percent cap, which the NAB, local station groups, and Republicans have been asking to do away with for decades.
On Tuesday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz held a hearing on the cap, which prohibits broadcast groups from expanding their portfolios, while Big Tech streamers such as Netflix and Amazon are not subject to such regulations. Testifying in favor of axing the cap was NAB Chairman Curtis LeGoyt, and on the other side was Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, who argued his right-leaning news organization would suffer since Nexstar’s NewsNation is a competitor, feeling that having a 265-station group at NewsNation’s disposal would be an unfair advantage. Opponents to lifting the cap argue that journalism would suffer if consolidation continues and state that the likes of Nexstar and Sinclair are big enough.
After the hearing on Tuesday, Ruddy said he may sue to keep the cap intact.
With President Trump on board and Carr in support, there is no reason to believe the ownership cap will stay.