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Super Bowl 50 TV ratings down slightly from last year

There were lots of Americans tuned in to Super Bowl 50 between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers on Sunday night, though not as many as watched last year's thrilling game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.

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Variety reports Nielsen's overnight estimated audience averaged 111.9 million viewers on CBS, peaking at 115.5 million viewers during the halftime block, from 8:30-9 p.m. Eastern.

That's about a 2.2 percent drop in viewership from Super Bowl XLIX, which was aired on NBC and averaged 114.4 million viewers. It was the most-watched television program in U.S. history. Sunday night's game is still the third-most watched show in history.

Super Bowl XLVIII, between the Broncos and Seahawks, was the second-most watched, with 112.2 million viewers.

CBS also said that streaming coverage of the game on CBS and NFL outlets, with consumers using laptops, desktop computers, tablets and other mobile devices, averaged 1.4 million viewers.

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