Are You Ready for Some Football?

If not, it's okay, because this fact isn't really about it.

Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. The NFL season kicked off last night, and we’re Raven(ous) for this Chief of a fact.

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

19 of the 20 most-watched television broadcasts are Super Bowls. The only one that isn’t a Super Bowl is the series finale of M*A*S*H.

The Ravens and Chiefs started the 2024 NFL season off strong, nearly as strong as my wordplay at the start of this story. In a thrilling game, Baltimore lost by a literal toe.

If recent history is any indication, by the time this season’s Super Bowl rolls around, it’ll be the most-watched event in television history.

Last year’s big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers set a record for viewers. Per Nielsen, 123,714,000 people tuned in.

I also won a snazzy Taylor Swift blanket at the Super Bowl party I attended.

I earned this because no one scored in the first quarter. Hooray!

Before last year’s Super Bowl, the Super Bowl for the 2022 season was the most-watched thing on television. While the “every year tops the previous one” trend ends there, pick any random Super Bowl from the past 20 years, and you’ll likely find one of the broadcasts with the most viewers.

One notable exception sits on that top 20 list. At No. 11 is “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,” the series finale of M*A*S*H.

On February 28, 1983, 105,970,000 people tuned in to see how Hawkeye, Hot Lips, and the whole gang wrapped up their stories. M*A*S*H was on the air for 256 episodes across 11 seasons. Until 2010, the finale was the most-watched television broadcast of any kind.

Despite the show being off the air for 41 years, I will not offer any spoilers here. “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” was written by eight different people, including Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye. It aired as a two-and-a-half-hour spectacular on CBS.

The show commanded such attention that CBS cashed in quite impressively. The network sold 30-second commercial spots for $450,000, or $1.38 million in today’s money. NBC aired that year’s Super Bowl, and even it didn’t charge as much for advertisements.

Again, no spoilers here, but the next time you attend a Super Bowl party, bring a chicken along with you and see if anyone notices your oddly specific reference to a show that hasn’t been on network television for over four decades. Or you can M*A*S*H potatoes like the classic dance.

Welcome back, NFL.