Although there were other things on last night that didn’t involve football, it’s really pointless to mention them this time around.  So let’s just focus on the nuts and bolts of the New York Giants/New England Patriots match-up:

• Super Bowl XLII averaged 97.5 million viewers overall.  This put the the contest ahead of the 1996 game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers (94.1 million).
• In addition to being the most-watched Super Bowl, the event came in 2nd for total television viewership ever.  The M.A.S.H. finale still holds the top honor even after 25 years.  (A whopping 105.9 million said goodbye to that series in 1983.)
• At its peak, the game drew in nearly 107 million viewers.  (They were all tuning in to see if Tom Brady would cry.)
• As a result of it’s humongous lead-in, a post-game episode of House drew 29 million viewers.  That was easily its largest audience ever.