UPDATED: Super Bowl XLVI Most Watched Telecast in U.S. History

'The Voice' premieres ahead of last year's 'Glee' post-game telecast

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/6/2012 11:00:27 AM

UPDATED: 3:15 p.m. ET

Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night on NBC drew 111.3 million total viewers, up slightly from Super Bowl XLV (111.0 million), and once again set the record for most-watched television show in U.S. History.

The game earned a 47.8 overnight rating/71 share, the third-highest overnight rating in Super Bowl history, according Nielsen data, ranking behind last year's Packers-Steelers contest on Fox and the 1987 Super Bowl, which are tied as the highest-rated overnights, but Sunday's game came within 1% of that 47.9 overnight rating.

After the game, the second season premiere of The Voice averaged a 19.4/33 metered-market household rating/share from 10:15-11:30 p.m., up 27% from what Glee did in the post-Super Bowl timeslot last year (15.3/27). It scored a 16.3 (up 47% from Glee) rating in the 18-49 demo, and drew 37.6 (up 40%) million viewers overall.

As for the other networks, it was mostly repeats except for a new 60 Minutes on CBS, which earned a 0.6; CBS earned an overall 0.6/1, to place fourth. Fox was second with a 0.8/1 and ABC was third at 0.7/1.