Sunday TV Ratings 2/7/21: The Equalizer Has Rough Showing, Super Bowl Slides 10% from 2020

Ratings Analysis: With all eyes fixated on the main attraction, CBS's broadcast of 'Super Bowl LV' scored a 26.48 rating in the A18-49 demographic with 91.6 million total viewers. The game was down a noticeable 11% from the previous year's showing (29.9) and over 8 million below in viewership (99.9 million). Considering this is the first time in history where most were not permitted to watch the game live, this small decline still goes down as a major disappointment. After the post-game (15.46) came the dismal series premiere of Queen Latifah drama 'The Equalizer' (5.08). This was close to 40% behind the year-ago 'Masked Singer' premiere (8.1) but not too far behind in total viewers (20.4m vs 23.7m). Retention-wise, 'The Equalizer' only retained 33% of its lead-in while 'Masked Singer' was able to hold close to 45% of its. With such little interest for its heavily-promoted debut, it's hard to imagine this drama will have much success without football assistance.

As always, the other networks went with repeats against the game, with ABC's lineup of 'AFV' (0.20/0.22) and 'Shark Tank' (0.16/0.21) producing the best numbers of the bunch. NBC had particularly rough showings of 'Weakest Link' (0.10), 'The Wall' (0.13), and especially 'Chicago Med' (0.09). Luckily for them, the 10pm 'Dateline' encore (0.25) rebounded from there, stopping them from reaching unspeakable territory. Fox was also dangerously close to hitting a 0.0 rating with repeats of 'Call Me Kat' (0.09) and 'Bless the Harts' (0.08) in the 7pm hour. 'The Simpsons' (0.15/0.19), 'Bob's Burgers' (0.19), and 'Family Guy' (0.18) were able to build a bit from there. And the CW was deep in 0.0 territory with encores of 'Batwoman' (0.04) and 'Charmed' (0.03).

Time	Show	18-49 Rating/Share	Viewers (mil)	Channel
7 PM	Super Bowl LV	26.48/88	91.63	CBS
	America's Funniest Home Videos (R)	0.20/1	1.73	ABC
	Weakest Link (R)	0.10/0	0.82	NBC
	Call Me Kat (R)	0.09/0	0.47	Fox
7:30 PM	Bless the Harts (R)	0.08/0	0.35	Fox
8 PM	America's Funniest Home Videos (R)	0.22/1	1.84	ABC
	The Simpsons (R)	0.15/1	0.45	Fox
	The Wall (R)	0.13/0	0.84	NBC
	Batwoman (R)	0.04/0	0.27	The CW
8:30 PM	The Simpsons (R)	0.19/1	0.55	Fox
9 PM	Bob's Burgers (R)	0.19/1	0.50	Fox
	Shark Tank (R)	0.16/1	1.06	ABC
	Chicago Med (R)	0.09/0	0.78	NBC
	Charmed (R)	0.03/0	0.21	The CW
9:30 PM	Family Guy (R)	0.18/1	0.56	Fox
10 PM	Super Bowl Post Game	15.46/64	51.54	CBS
	Dateline NBC (R)	0.25/1	1.95	NBC
	Shark Tank (R)	0.21/1	1.24	ABC
	The Equalizer (Series Premiere)	5.08/30	20.40	CBS