The Raining Champ: Super Bowl XLI

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning after the ratings MVP Super Bowl. (By Donald Miralle -- Getty Images)

Super exciting week in the TV ratings! Super Bowl XLI! More lousy "American Idol" auditions! And, for the first time in TV history, Nielsen Media Research unearthed concrete evidence that 18- to 24-year-olds from Nielsen homes who leave the nest for college watch television in their dorms and apartments! Huge stuff!

Here's a look at the week's Colts and Bears:

WINNERS

Super Bowl XLI. An average of more than 93 million people saw the Indianapolis Colts slip-slide to victory over the Chicago Bears during the breaks between commercials otherwise known as Super Bowl XLI. Into the books it goes as the third most watched program in broadcast history, behind the "M*A*S*H" finale in '83 and Super Bowl XXX (Dallas vs. Pittsburgh) in '96. After the game, CBS's broadcast of "Criminal Minds" clocked its biggest audience ever -- 26.3 million people -- though it came nowhere near the 38 million snared by "Grey's Anatomy" following last year's Super Bowl broadcast on ABC.

College-age viewers. For the first time, Nielsen was able to include viewing by members of Nielsen households who now live in dorms or college apartments. Previously, they got in on the Nielsen action only when they went home to do laundry at holidays. (I know, we can put a man on the moon but we can't find a Nielsen household member in a dorm. Don't get me started.) Anyway, seven prime-time shows saw their ratings among 18- to 24-year-olds -- the closest thing Nielsen has to "college demo" -- shoot up by at least 50 percent over their most recent previous original episodes. The seven: ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," "Ugly Betty," and "What About Brian"; NBC's "Scrubs" and "The Office"; Fox's "Til Death"; and CW's "Gilmore Girls."

"American Idol." Dreadful performances by the clueless and tone-deaf continue to enthrall audiences nationwide. Tuesday's lousy-auditions-in-Birmingham episode was up by nearly 4 million viewers compared with last year's counterpart; Wednesday's lousy-auditions-from-Los Angeles was up by nearly 1.5 million, though, in fairness, last year's Wednesday episode aired at the less watched hour of 8 p.m.

ABC's Thursday. ABC won the opening night of a February ratings sweeps for the first time in at least 15 years, thanks to the horny hotties of "Grey's Anatomy," which enjoyed its biggest winning advantage yet over an original "CSI" at 9, and the sex-change story line on "Ugly Betty," which logged its second biggest audience among young viewers, behind only its debut. Speaking of sex, "Men in Trees" bagged a series-best among young women as word circulated that star Anne Heche had dumped the father of her child in favor of her co-star -- male.

"House" returned to Fox's lineup in the slot following "American Idol" and was seen by its largest audience ever -- 27.3 million viewers. That, you might notice, is a bigger crowd than "Criminal Minds" drew in the best time slot of the TV season, right after the Super Bowl. We did, too.

"Puppy Bowl III." Sunday's first broadcast of Animal Planet's bowl game on Super Bowl Sunday jumped 23 percent compared with last year. The cable network reran the three-hour bowl three more times that night.