The final tally is in, and while Super Bowl XLVII drew some monstrous ratings figures, it fell short of being the highest rated Super Bowl in history.
The official tally from the Nielsen ratings released Monday shows that about 108.4 million people tuned in to CBS to watch Super Bowl XLVII Sunday, which emanated from New Orleans, La.
Those figures were impressive, earning the telecast of the NFL's biggest game of the season the distinction of being the third most-watched show in U.S. TV history.
However, those numbers fell short of last year's Super Bowl XLVI numbers when Eli Manning and the New York Giants upset Tom Brady and the heavily favored New England Patriots 21-17 in their rematch from the 2008 Super Bowl.
The ratings tally discounted the half-hour delay due to a power outage at the New Orleans Superdome, where the game was being played, that forced the game to be delayed temporarily.
As far as what caused the blackout, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters on Monday that the league was investigating what caused the disruption.
However, contrary to popular belief, Goodell said that there was no indication that Beyonce's halftime show was the cause of the outage.
CBS has not issued any statement on whether the power outage affected the ratings. However, the Super Bowl lost 10 million people from 7:30 p.m., when Beyonce's Halftime Show ended, and tuned back in around 8 p.m. EST-when the lights were still out.
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