Storylines = Drama = Ratings.

Taylor Swift was a storyline. End of calculation

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This piece appears this week at Barrett Sports Media.

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In broadcasting, as in sports, you look at the numbers in the end. And what the NFL’s numbers for both the season and the Super Bowl ought to tell the league is this: Storylines carry the day.

The Super Bowl between the Chiefs and 49ers brought in an average of 123.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That represents the highest number of people in TV history to watch the same broadcast. And Nielsen put the number of those who watched any portion of the broadcast at 202.4 million, a staggering 10% increase from last year. Business is crazy good.