The Game's Just the Cherry On This Sunday

Among the minds who run network TV, it's considered a law of nature: Given enough time, a hit show eventually will fumble away viewers. Series run their course, new programs emerge and conquer, and competition from non-broadcast channels takes its toll.

Then there's the Super Bowl. America's Anomaly. The Defiant One.

The NFL's big game has been a massive viewing attraction since its inception as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game in 1967. And heading into today's game between the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts, TV's ratings giant seems only to grow bigger.

Roughly 140 million American viewers tuned in to some part of last year's Super Bowl -- more people than voted in the 2004 presidential election (122 million), filed a federal tax return for 2005 (130 million) or went to church on any given Sunday in 2006 (on average, about 60 million). That's also more than 3 1/2 times the viewership for the highest-rated episodes of America's top series, Fox's "American Idol."

As remarkable as its outsize popularity, though, is the Super Bowl's staying power. Viewers have drifted away from other event shows, but the big game -- at age 41 -- has remained the grand exception, actually growing in popularity.

Over the past five years, the Super Bowl has averaged 88.4 million viewers, or about 4 million more viewers than the same period two decades ago, according to Nielsen Media Research. During that span, other big televised events have slipped: The World Series has lost 41 percent of its viewers; the NCAA men's basketball championship game has dropped 32 percent; and the Emmy Awards telecast is down 25 percent.

All of which makes the Super Bowl the last true national campfire -- the event that holds the common attention of a diverse and fragmented society.

David Carter, professor of sports business at the University of Southern California, calls it "not just a game, but a communal experience. . . . People who don't even care much about football pay attention to the Super Bowl. It's so much a part of the culture now" that who wins is almost beside the point.

The game is so woven into the fabric of American life, its popularity so presumed, that on Game Day, few besides social scientists and network executives might pause to ask: Why has it only grown in appeal -- especially when other event shows haven't?

The sport alone doesn't explain it. The NFL long ago passed Major League Baseball as most popular among TV audiences, but regular-season pro football telecasts haven't bucked the long-term trend of declining TV audiences. Over the past 20 years, the NFL's regular-season ratings have dropped 35 percent.

But the Super Bowl is an entirely different animal. Several sports and entertainment experts say an unusual combination of factors keeps the Super Bowl at the pinnacle of public fascination: