The spectacular flameout of Tim Tebow and his Denver Broncos in the NFL playoffs Saturday night may or may not crimp "Tebowmania," but early numbers suggest it gave a boost to the ratings for this year's "Miss America Pageant" on ABC.
While Tebow and his buddies were getting clubbed 45-10 by the New England Patriots on CBS, the beauty pageant thrived. And as the football game turned into a rout, it appears many viewers clicked away.
Building steadily throughout its two-hour telecast, the pageant's audience jumped by 2.8 million viewers and by 47 percent from its first half-hour to its final half-hour. In, fact during its final half-hour from 10:30-11 p.m., it drew an average audience of 8 million viewers and earned a 2.2 rating, 6 share with young adults 18-25.
With the exception of its New Year’s Eve programming, ABC scored its best non-sports adult 18-49 rating in the 2-hour time period in more than a year. Despite the big NFL competition, the pageant increased its overall audience and surged by 13 percent in adults 18-49 over last year’s broadcast. Those are its best numbers since 2004.
