Fox Sports "surprised" by record Super Bowl TV viewing figures

A Fox Sports executive has admitted that he was "surprised" that Sunday's Super Bowl attracted record television viewing figures.

The match between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos drew 111.5m viewers to make it the most-watched TV event in American history, with the former cruising to a comfortable 43-8 victory.

It was the fourth time in the last five years that the Super Bowl has broken such a record, and Bill Wanger, executive vice-president for programming and research at Fox Sports, was not expecting such impressive figures due to the uncompetitive nature of the match.

"Big-event television is a great way for people to have a communal event, to talk about it socially and to talk about it as a group. You see that in the Super Bowl numbers of the past four or five years. They've just gone up to a different level," Wanger is quoted as saying by ESPN.

"We were a little surprised, absolutely. Let's just say we weren't popping Champagne bottles."

The previous record for TV viewing figures came in the 2012 Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.