Rihanna's Super Bowl halftime show becomes most-watched in history after blunder uncovered
Topics: Rihanna, Super Bowl, Music, Celebrity, Film and TV
Rachel Lang
Featured Image Credit: UPI / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Rihanna, Super Bowl, Music, Celebrity, Film and TV
Rihanna's epic Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show has officially become the most-watched halftime show performance ever, with the claim to glory coming to light after Nielsen revised its viewership numbers.
The Barbadian singer's first live performance in more than five years officially pulled in 121.017 million viewers during the February 12 broadcast.
According to AP, Nielsen released a revised number of 115.1 million for the football broadcast which saw the Kansas City Chiefs claim a 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
The numbers for Rihanna’s halftime show were also shifted up, moving them from 118.7 million to 121 million.
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The data crunching service reportedly did a 'thorough review ... that revealed irregularities in the encoding that enables Nielsen’s measurement of TV viewing as well as issues with the out-of-home measurement of Super Bowl LVII,' Fox Sports said in a statement.
Nielsen revised the original figure of 113.1 million by 2 million after discovering a series of encoding irregularities as well as issues with out-of-home measurements, which invariably led to the botched numbers.
The new numbers mean that Rihanna’s halftime show has shot up to first place after it was initially reported she had the second most-viewed halftime show, just slightly behind Katy Perry’s 2015 halftime show with 120.7 million views.
Rihanna was praised around the world for putting on an epic Super Bowl Halftime Show, with some praising the star for tackling the performance without any surprise guests.
However, Super Bowl Halftime Show producer Jesse Collins told ET's Kevin Frazier that she did it for a particular reason.
"I think it was just her wanting to make the statement that she could carry this thing and she did,” he said.
"People just want to see her and so she had to give ‘em a show and she did.
"We haven't seen her dance like that in a long time and I thought it was just spectacular.”
Remarkably, the singer’s performance also included a floating stage - an idea that came when the team was worried about how much weight the State Farm Stadium field could hold.
Collins described the field as a ‘sponge’ and explained that it would’ve been challenging to hold up the weight of the stages and dancers.