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Let’s Evaluate Some of the More Unhinged Responses to Super Bowl, Bad Bunny Ratings

A lot of people were triggered by the Super Bowl viewership numbers.
Jimmy Traina|
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show drew 128.2 million viewers.
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show drew 128.2 million viewers. | Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

1. Shortly before 7 p.m. on Tuesday, NBC sent out the ratings for Super Bowl LX.

I read the press release and then posted the numbers on social media with no opinion and no editorializing. I literally just posted the ratings and information, as you can see below.

Despite just posting the ratings without sharing any thoughts on the game or Bad Bunny, people still managed to get very angry and very nasty.

Let’s take a look at a sampling of the responses I received and see if we can figure out what’s going on even though I offered not even an inkling of a take in my post and just provided straight data

Here’s Wikipedia’s definition for simp: “Simp is an internet slang term describing someone who exhibits excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically to someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in pursuit of affection or a sexual relationship.”

And here I was just thinking that I was posting some ratings. Who knew my posts were so deep.

This guy thinks a drop from 127.7 million to 124.9 million is 39%. The decrease is actually 2.19%, but I know math is hard.

Mrs. Peacock was not verbose. And she left me hanging. If my posts were wrong, I wish she would’ve shared the ratings information she had for the Super Bowl.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Reminiscences of an American Capitalist was so unnerved by the ratings that they actually created a poll!

For the record, the numbers that NBC announced don’t come from NBC. They came from Nielsen. NBC can’t make up the numbers because Nielsen would then call out NBC for making up the numbers, but let’s not let facts get in the way of a good internet poll.

This response offends me because I love the “Sure, Jan” GIF and use it regularly, but I’m not sure why I would get Sure Jan’d just for posting ratings.

Kyle with a bunch of numbers in his user name thinks I work for ESPN.

Again, the ratings come from Nielsen. I don’t know if Nielsen is considered big media or if Nielsen manipulated the ratings, but there really isn’t anything to manipulate. The numbers are the numbers. Or is this person saying I’m Big Media and I manipulated the numbers? If that’s the case, I’m gonna have to ask SI to pay me more since I’m not just media, but Big Media.

This individual thinks 49 million people watched the Super Bowl based on something called Samba TV. The last time a Super Bowl drew less than 50 million viewers was 1970. The last time the Super Bowl did not draw at least 100 million viewers was 2009. This guy thinks 49 million people watched the Super Bowl.

I’ll just quote the last one so I can censor the profanity. @JoeMotta66 wrote: “US numbers are all that matter, and half of America turned that s--- off.”

I’m exhausted from doing this. I can’t even respond to this one. Let’s move on.

2. Load management caused SiriusXM’s Chris “Mad Dog” Russo to compare himself and Bruce Springsteen to NBA players during his Tuesday show and it was hysterical.

3. This is a huge piece of information many of you will be interested in. Better get those credit card deposits in before March Madness begins.

4. If I told you that a local reporter did a bit on the Olympics being held in Milan, Italy, and not Milan, Ill., you’d think there was no way it would be amusing. That was my thought when I hit “play” on the clip. But I was wrong. This was well done.

5. It’s hard to fully tell from the picture and video how cool this will end up being, but the Big 12 announced today that its men’s and women’s conference tournament games are going to be played on a glass floor.

6. Recent SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast episodes you should catch up on:

• NBC’s Maria Taylor
• The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis
• ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt
• NBC’s Mike Tirico
• ESPN’s Laura Rutledge

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 57th birthday to Jennifer Aniston.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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