The match is set for Super Bowl LIII. Now that we know it will be the Rams and the Patriots, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch felt like his fellow media writers had all of the information they needed to make an informed guess at how many people would tune in for the game on February 3.
Deitsch turned to four writers that specialize in viewership. The panel included Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily, Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, Douglas Pucci of Programming Insider and Awful Announcing, and Robert Seidman of SportsTVRatings.com.
All four writers made a similar prediction: the audience would be bigger than the 103.3 million that watched the Eagles beat the Patriots last year, but nowhere near the record of 111.3 million people that tuned in for Super Bowl XLIX.
The panel expects the matchup to play a role in whether or not people watch. Pucci sighted Patriots fatigue as the reason he expects minimal growth over last year’s number. Lewis noted that the Rams and Patriots was the toughest of the four potential matchups to sell.
Richard Deitsch included the results of his informal survey as part of his latest “Media Circus” column, which also includes an excellent long-form interview with Tony Romo. If you subscribe to The Athletic, you can read it here.
