Oh, wait, we forgot to carry the 1 mil: Now SB XLIII is really special

Yesterday, NBC sent out a release (linked here) calling Super Bowl XLIII the third-most watched event in TV history, and second to last year's game. Today, NBC sends along this new memo, with some more creative number crunching somewhere along the way (going beyond the Top 56 markets and actually including everyone in the head count for this consensus:

Super Bowl XLIII is now the most viewed television program in U.S. history with a total audience of 151.6 million viewers, according to official national ratings data released today by Nielsen Media Research.

"It's always incredibly satisfying to amass large audiences, but this television record simply reaffirms the power of the Super Bowl and the National Football League," said Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics. "Everyone associated with the NFL should feel a great sense of pride in this accomplishment and in providing a day of enjoyment to American families - especially those who are struggling in these difficult times."

MOST VIEWED TELEVISION PROGRAMS IN HISTORY (total viewers):
1. Super Bowl XLIII: 151.6 million (NBC 2009)
2. Super Bowl XLII: 148.3 million (Fox 2008)
3. Super Bowl XXVIII:144.4 million (CBS 2004)

The total audience of 151.6 million viewers tops the previous Super Bowl record audience of 148.3 million viewers by 3.3 million viewers (Super Bowl XLII, Giants-Patriots, Note: total audience measures viewership for all or part of a broadcast).

MOST-WATCHED SUPER BOWLS (average viewers):
1. Super Bowl XLIII: 98.7 million (NBC 2009)
2. Super Bowl XLII: 97.5 million (Fox 2008)
3. Super Bowl XXX: 94.1 million (NBC 1996)
4. Super Bowl XLI: 93.2 million (CBS 2007)
5. Super Bowl XXVII: 91.0 million (NBC 1993)

The average viewership of 98.7 million is tops in Super Bowl history, beating last year's game by 1.2 million viewers (97.5 million). NBC now owns two of the top three and three of the top five most watched Super Bowls of all-time, with Super Bowl XXX third on the list with 94.1 million viewers and Super Bowl XXVII fifth with 91.0 million viewers. (Note: P2+ measures average viewership per minute). * The M*A*S*H finale in 1983 averaged 106 million viewers and total audience figures for the program are estimated to be 122 million viewers.

What is it they say about numbers and a French prostitute: You can pretty much make 'em do whatever you need done. In this case, it's taking the nebulous "total viewers" number -- which means counting anyone who even caught six minutes of the broadcast -- lumping them all together for a grand total of what'd you'd pay for gas a year ago. As for "average audience," The "average audience" that's where Sunday's game passed last year's game now, when it didn't yesterday for some reason. We're going back to our peanut butter and jelly sandwich now.