Our friends over at .biz blog have confirmed for us what we already sort of knew: We are some TV-watching fools in the Triangle. 

Nielsen agrees. Read more here. 

The ratings for last night's title game between Duke and Butler were 34% higher than last year's match between UNC and Michigan State.

CBS, which aired the NCAA Tournament, says the Duke-Butler game drew a 16 overnight rating, which translates into 16% of TV households in 56 urban markets.

The Duke-Butler audience also tied the 16% for North Carolina-Illinois final in 2005 as the highest overnight rating for the title game since Connecticut-Duke in 1999, which drew a 16.9.

Between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. ET, the game's rating peaked at 20.3%.

It's kind of cool and kind of sad at the same time, but last night's Super Bowl beat the 27-year-old record previously held by the final episode of "M*A*S*H" to become the most-watched television broadcast in U.S. history.

The Super Bowl XLIV attracted 106.5 million viewers, but there are still caveats to the record. As TV MoJoe explains, significant U.S. population growth is one thing accounting for the record number of viewers, but in terms of percentage of TV viewers watching the Super Bowl, "M*A*S*H" still reigns (Note: the U.S. had 75 million fewer people in 1983 than it does today). 

The Washington Post also points out that thanks to a massive snowstorm, a big chunk of east coast viewers were housebound Sunday night, giving CBS a pretty captive audience.

Still, it was the best Super Bowl ratings performance in 23 years, grabbing a 46.4 rating and a 68 share.

What do you get when 6 inches of snow collides with a historic
presidential inauguration? Eye-popping television ratings in the
Triangle.

The Nielsen numbers show that the Raleigh-Durham TV market had the largest concentration of viewers watching President Barack Obama's inauguration of anywhere else in the nation -- a higher percentage than even Obama's hometown of Chicago.

More than 51% of the snowbound Triangle's households ...

Last Saturday’s SEC Championship was the highest-rated college football game of the season, The Nielsen Co. reports. Florida's victory over Alabama on CBS drew a 9.3 rating — it was seen in 9.3 percent of the nation's households by an estimated 15.1 million viewers, making it the most watched SEC Championship ever and the highest-rated, non-bowl game since 2006.

ABC’s "Saturday Night Football" had six of the top seven games. Not surprisingly, given the way the season played out, Big 12 games dominated the top 10, with seven of the top nine broadcasts.

No sign of the ACC in the top 10, which follows:

Rank Time/date Network Game Rating
1. 4 p.m. Dec. 6 CBS SEC Champ: Alabama-Florida 9.3
2. 8 p.m. Nov. 1 ABC Texas-Texas Tech 7.5
3. 8 p.m. Sept. 13 ABC Ohio State-USC 6.9
4. 8 p.m. Nov. 22 ABC Texas Tech-Oklahoma 6.6
5. 8 p.m. Oct. 25 ABC Penn State-Ohio State 6.4
6. 8 p.m. Nov. 29 ABC Oklahoma-Okla. St. 5.7
7. 8 p.m. Dec. 6 ABC Big 12 Champ.: Missouri-Okla. 5.5
8. 8 p.m. Nov. 8 ABC Okla. St.-Texas Tech; Cal-USC 5.3
9. 12 p.m. Oct. 11 ABC Texas-Oklahoma 5.2
10. 3:30 p.m. Nov. 8 CBS Alabama-LSU 5.1

The ACC title game, in which Virginia Tech whipped Boston College, drew a 2.6 rating on ABC.

The Carolina Hurricanes' television ratings since the start of the season are down slightly from last year's figures for the same time period, according to Nielsen Co. research. The Nielsen Co. reports that the hockey team drew a 1.0 rating in the Raleigh-Durham market through Nov. 16, down from 1.2, or a 17 percent decline. For more, go to:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/sportsmedia/canes-ratings-down-a-bit