Social Justice Laden Super Bowl Brings in the Worst Ratings in a Decade

By Brandon Morse | 6:00 PM on February 04, 2019

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New England Patriots' Julian Edelman holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy, after the NFL Super Bowl 53 football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019, in Atlanta. The Patriots won 13-3. Edelman was named the Most Valuable Player. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

It was a super bore of a Super Bowl, and the ratings showed it.

The low-scoring game between the New England Patriots and the L.A. Rams was a bit of a snooze-fest until the very end when the tied score of three was finally changed when the Patriots scored a touchdown followed not long after by a field goal which put victory out of the hands of the Rams.

According to The Hill, the Super Bowl had low ratings to go along with its low scores, making it the least watched Super Bowl in a decade:

The audience numbers for this year’s game, which was the lowest scoring in the game’s 53-year history, clocked in with a 44.9 rating in households.

That was the lowest rating since the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals in the 2009 Super Bowl.

For context, last year’s thrilling 41-33 upset victory by the Philadelphia Eagles over the Patriots delivered a 47.4 rating, or 103.4 million viewers.

In 2017’s matchup between the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, 111.3 million tuned in to see New England erase a 28-3 second-half deficit to top the Atlanta Falcons in overtime.

This is a pretty concerning outcome for the NFL, who couldn’t even draw 50 percent of the LA audience with their team in the Super Bowl.

The boring game may not have been the only thing causing people to tune out. The Super Bowl was rife with social justice messaging, including the airing of the sexist, anti-male Gillette commercial. The new Handmaid’s Tale trailer, which mocked Reagan’s “It’s Morning In America” ad, also took a swipe at the religious right.

The NFL has had this problem for a while now. Ever since the kneeling controversy began in 2017, the NFL has had to struggle to recover its ratings drop which went as low as 33 percent of its audience.