The ratings for Fox’s New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine post-Super Bowl episodes are in.
Both comedies had their biggest audiences ever Sunday night thanks to the huge NFL lead-in (but you expected that, right?). New Girl had a delirious 25.8 million viewers and an 11.8 rating among adults 18-49; Brooklyn had 14.8 million viewers and a 6.7 rating. That makes New Girl, which featured a guest-star appearance by Prince,the highest-rated scripted entertainment telecast in the adult demo on broadcast TV in three years (since Fox’s post-Super Bowl Glee).
How do those numbers stack up to previous post-Bowl entertainment shows? Really good for New Girl, though arguably disappointing for Brooklyn (see chart below). The best comparison for both is probably the last sitcom to run after the big game — NBC’s The Office in 2009 — which New Girl topped. The comedies were probably not helped by the Seahawks blowout since suspenseful games result in more fans sticking around to the very end and into the post-game show. Here’s EW’s New Girl recap and our one for Brooklyn.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/02/03/new-girl-super-bowl-ratings/