The Green Bay Packers helped make the Super Bowl a record success. And the Super Bowl helped make Glee a record success—and not.
Wait… What?!
First things first, Sunday's big game averaged a staggering 111 million, Fox said. The number easily makes Super Bowl XLV the most-watched show in the history of TV. (The old record, by the by, wasn't that old—last year's Super Bowl held the previous high with 106.5 million viewers.)
As for Glee…
On one hand, Its post-game, "Thriller"-tuned, football-centric episode scored with nearly 27 million, a fantastic number, a series record, and, per Fox, the most-watched scripted show since House's post-Super Bowl stint three years ago.
On the other jazz hand…
Glee was tuned out by more Super Bowl viewers than any post-game show in at least the five last years.
Going back, a 2006 Grey's Anatomy did the best job at keeping couch potatoes on the couch, "only" losing about 53 million Super Bowl viewers. Glee, by comparison, was tuned out by some 84 million.
Other recent defection rates: 68 million for 2010's Undercover Boss; about 76 million for 2009's The Office (which lost a bigger percentage of its crowd than Glee); 68.4 million for 2008's House; and, about 67 million for 2007's Criminal Minds.
There are no losers, of course, at the Super Bowl. Except for, you know, the team that lost.
Not that Packers fans would ever point out anything like that, Pittsburgh Steelers.