By Dawn Chmielewski
LOS ANGELES, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Nearly 125 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch the Seattle Seahawks crush the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl, making it the second-most-watched show in U.S. history, according to NBC Sports data released on Tuesday.
The Seahawks’ 29-13 victory over the Patriots averaged 124.9 million viewers on the NBC network, as well as on the streaming service Peacock and Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo and on NFL+, NBC Sports said, citing Nielsen data.
The league’s national championship game ranked just behind last year’s Super Bowl matchup on Fox, in which the Philadelphia Eagles trounced the Kansas City Chiefs. That competition averaged a record 127.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
More viewers tuned in to watch the Super Bowl halftime show featuring Latino rap star Bad Bunny. The live performance averaged 128.2 million viewers in the United States, and logged 4 billion views on social media within the first 24 hours of the performance, according to NBC.
The Super Bowl is the biggest event each year on U.S. television. The audience peaked at 137.8 million in the game’s second quarter, the network said. Advertisers this year paid as much as $10 million for 30 seconds of time during the game.
Bad Bunny transformed Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, into an homage to his native Puerto Rico in a high-energy performance that included surprise appearances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin and a tribute to reggaeton pioneer Daddy Yankee.
The selection of Bad Bunny, whose given name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, to headline the halftime show drew a rebuke from President Donald Trump and other conservatives over the entertainer’s choice to perform entirely in Spanish and his outspoken criticism of U.S. immigration policy.
The conservative group Turning Point USA produced an alternative halftime concert, which it called the “All-American Halftime Show”, featuring Kid Rock and other artists.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Howard Goller)
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