Entertainment

Super Bowl draws record 123.4 million viewers, helped by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce

Published

7 months ago

February 13, 2024

Super Bowl draws record 123.4 million viewers, helped by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce

If you bet on Super Bowl LVIII being the most watched TV event of all time, it’s time to collect.

The telecast of the Kansas City Chiefs’ stunning 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers had an average audience of 123.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.

The game from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, which aired across CBS, Nickelodeon and Univision and streamed over Paramount+ and NFL+, topped the previous record set by last year’s game, when the Chiefs topped the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-31. That game was watched by 115.1 million viewers on Fox and other platforms.

Most of the viewing was on CBS, which averaged 120 million viewers — the largest audience ever for a single network. Detailed numbers for viewing on other platforms will be released later, but CBS said the game was the most streamed event ever on Paramount+.

Expectations for this year’s ratings were high. The presence of Taylor Swift, on hand to cheer on her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, elevated the game’s stature as the center of the pop culture universe.

The celebrity romance story line even entered the political realm as right-wing zealots spread lies about the game being rigged to boost the vaccine-promoting Kelce and Swift, who has expressed support for President Biden in the past. The 49ers — based in the liberal bastion of San Francisco — strangely gained a following among the MAGA crowd as a result.

The record-setting number was in line with the overall dominance of the NFL in the current media landscape, where audience levels for all other programming genres on traditional TV have diminished dramatically due to viewer migration to video streaming platforms.

Ratings were up during the 2023-24 regular season and set records in the playoffs. The AFC Championship game, where the Chiefs topped the Baltimore Ravens to claim their Super Bowl berth, was watched by an all-time high of 55.5 million viewers on CBS. The NFC Championship on Fox, where the 49ers topped the Detroit Lions, drew 56.6 million viewers, the largest audience for the game since 2012.

San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa chases Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes during Super Bowl LVIII.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

The outcome of Super Bowl LVIII, determined by a touchdown pass from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. in overtime, provided a perfect ending, as close competitive contests keep viewers tuned in longer.

The game was only the second Super Bowl in history to go into overtime. The New England Patriots’ win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI on Fox in 2017 was the first.

Underscoring the enduring value of America’s biggest sporting event, advertisers paid CBS an average of $7 million for a 30-second spot on the telecast, on par with last year’s price.

Most of the commercials were laden with big-name celebrities, such as the State Farm Insurance spot with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. The ad ranked first in the annual Ad Meter panel of viewers assembled by USA Today, followed by the Dunkin’ Donuts spot with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Brady.

While none of the spots were the kind of creative boundary pushing productions seen on past games — think Apple’s revolutionary 1984 spot introducing the Macintosh computer — brands clearly experience a halo effect from including big show-business names.

After Beyonce appeared in a spot for Verizon internet service, she announced on her website that her next album, “Act II,” will drop on March 29, associating the company with the major music news.

Movie Reviews

Speak No Evil (2024)

Published

3 hours ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

Chilled American couple Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis) meet overfriendly Brits Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) on an Italian holiday and accept an invitation to spend a weekend with them in the West Country.  However, it becomes apparent that the charming hosts have a sinister hidden agenda.

Christian Tafdrup’s 2022 horror Speak No Evil — available on Shudder — was an impressive, frog-boiling psycho picture about polite Danish folks who unwisely agree to spend a weekend away with the hearty Dutch family they met on holiday and are subjected to many, many micro-aggressions before the macro ones start up. For a while, James Watkins’ English-language remake hews close to the original… then, the films diverge (around the time of the excruciating decision to go back for the daughter’s toy rabbit) and become different, if complementary experiences.

There’s no denying that the first film was upsetting, and having watched that you wouldn’t want to go back again, so new twists are satisfying. James McAvoy, with a Mummerset burr and an imposing too-much-time-in-the-gym physique, is a charismatic, intimidating presence. He’s not played an all-out villain before, and goes to town with this, repeatedly springing some unforgivable trespass on his guests before taking it back and begging for sympathy, or acting hurt that they’re offended and stringing it out for another few hours, even as clues pile up about the depth of the hole they’re falling into.

Director James Watkins is very good at ratcheting screws.

Both Watkins’ major horror films — Eden Lake, The Woman In Black — are fairly ruthless in killing off characters who ought to be safe in the genre, aligning his vision with the bleakness of Tafdrup’s film. However, this fight is more even-handed, and a Straw Dogs-ish farmhouse battle rousingly pays off multiple Chekhov establish-deadly-weapons-for-use-later moments, throwing in extra revelations which add bite.

The business of this story in both versions is suspense, and Watkins is very good at ratcheting screws — stringing out moments like a possible getaway, one the villain seems happy to let play out, in such a manner that a companion even compares him to “my aunt’s cat” because he insists on playing with his food — but also springs satisfying reversals and pay-offs.

It’s not Speak No Evil (2022)— because what would be the point of that? — but Speak No Evil (2024) is a quality horror-suspense picture. 

Entertainment

Stylist Rachel Zoe, husband Rodger Berman announce split after 26-year marriage

Published

4 hours ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

Stylist Rachel Zoe, husband Rodger Berman announce split after 26-year marriage

It’s over for celebrity stylist and reality star Rachel Zoe and her husband, Rodger Berman. The couple is calling it quits.

“The Rachel Zoe Project” star announced Monday that she and Berman “have come to the mutual decision to end our marriage” after 33 years together and 26 years of marriage.

“We are incredibly proud of the loving family we have created and our countless memories together,” Zoe and Berman said in a joint statement posted on her Instagram. “Our number one priority has been and will always be our children. We are committed to co-parent our boys and to continue to work together within the many businesses we share. We ask for privacy during this time as we navigate this new chapter.”

The couple, who are both from New York, met in 1991 while both were attending George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Zoe was working as a hostess in a D.C. restaurant where he was working as a server. They got married in February 1998 and had two sons — 13-year-old Skyler and 10-year-old Kaius — who have been featured on the designer’s Bravo reality series and her Lifetime show “Fashionably Late With Rachel Zoe.”

The “Climbing in Heels” podcast host, who rose to fame in the early 2000s as a wardrobe stylist for the likes of Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan, became synonymous over the past couple of decades with the boho-meets-rocker chic aesthetic. She has expanded her brand as a fashion designer and TV personality over the past two decades and built up Rachel Zoe Inc. and the investment management company Rachel Zoe Ventures, among others. Berman, a former investment banker, is a co-founder and co-chief executive of the former company and managing partner of the latter.

It is unclear whether the couple has already filed for divorce.

Movie Reviews

Creeping Death – Review | Screambox Halloween Slasher | Heaven of Horror

Published

11 hours ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

Creeping Death – Review | Screambox Halloween Slasher | Heaven of Horror

Watch Creeping Death on Screambox

Creeping Death comes from writer-director Matt Sampere who makes his feature debut with this Halloween horror movie. As mentioned earlier, it’s based on his short film of the same name.

The cast works well overall and the design and practical effects for the Celtic spirit Aos Si are all impressive. With the one big and unfortunate exception of the writer-director himself who plays Tim.

As good as he is at directing the rest of the cast, he does not work in front of the camera for me. Not at all. In fact, the movie only works briefly for me, when he isn’t on screen.

I love when a movie is made with passion, but it must be accompanied by talent. For this movie, there is passion and also talent, but someone needs to come in and “kill the darlings” because Matt Sampere isn’t quite able to do this himself.

This may sound harsh, but my intention is an honest and heartfelt recommendation. I think he could make solid horror movies as a writer and director, but not with himself in front of the camera.

Creeping Death is out on SCREAMBOX on September 10, 2024.