Shows That Aired After The Super Bowl: 11 Touchdowns, 5 Fumbles And 1 Field Goal

"What to air after the Big Game?" That is the millions-of-viewers question that faces one broadcast-TV network each year, when its turn rolls around to host the Super Bowl.

For Super Bowl LIX, airing Sunday, Feb. 9 and pitting the Philadelphia Eagles against the Kansas City Chiefs ft. Taylor Swift, Fox announced back in May that its Hawai'i-based lifeguard drama Rescue HI-Surf would lay claim to the cushiest real estate in the business, leading out of a championship game that should draw well over 100 million viewers.

Fox reversed course in November, though, when it announced that the Season 3 premiere of the Rob Lowe-hosted game show The Floor would follow The Big Game.

It is often the case that a Super Bowl broadcaster uses the plum spot to debut a new series or showcase an existing one. Yet while following the Super Bowl invariably brings a supersized audience, it is not always a bellwether of future success.

In the gallery below, TVLine has singled out five shows that Fumbled the opportunity... 11 that in one way (ratings) or another (quality) scored a Touchdown... and one that, though highly regarded, merely put up a Field Goal.

But first, some Fun Facts!

🏈 Over the past decade, the program following the Super Bowl has averaged 21.9 million total viewers (in Live+Same Day tallies). The least-watched in that stretch actually came in 2023, when Fox's Next Level Chef Season 2 premiere drew fewer than 16 million viewers.

🏈 Over the past 25 years, a reality-TV show has been chosen to lead out of the Super Bowl seven times. Dramas have filled the slot 11 times, comedies have gotten the nod five times, and a late-night talk show claimed the coveted spot once — as did Winter Olympics coverage.

🏈 The last reality/game show to air after the Super Bowl was Fox's Next Level Chef, which as noted above fumbled the opportunity in 2023. Fox also went with a reality show in 2020, when The Masked Singer retained 27.3 million viewers.

🏈 Of the last 25 series to follow the Super Bowl, only two wound up not getting renewed that year: CBS' The World's Best and Fox's 24: Legacy reboot.

🏈 Heading into Super Bowl LIX, Fox's track record is a bit of a roller coaster. House (29 million viewers in 2008), Masked Singer (27.3 mil in 2020), Glee (27 mil in 2011) and New Girl (26.3 mil in 2014) are at the higher end of the spectrum, whereas Next Level Chef (15.6 mil) and 24: Legacy (17.6 mil) were two of the least-watched lead-outs of the past 25 years.

🏈 Over the past 25 years, a series premiere has been chosen to lead out of the Super Bowl just five times (most recently with CBS' Tracker) — while in the 28 years before Friends followed the Big Game, a pilot episode got picked 12 times.

🏈 Though that 1996 episode of Friends lays claim to the largest audience on record for a Super Bowl lead-out (53 million viewers!!), CBS' All in the Family (in 1978) and 60 Minutes (1980) delivered sliiiightly larger shares (47 and 50 percent) of their available audiences.

🏈 ABC's Alias (in 2003), CBS' Elementary (2013) and CBS' Tracker (2024) were saddled with some of the latest start times (after 11 pm ET!) on record for a Super Bowl aftershow. Conversely, the record-setting Friends episode enjoyed one of the earliest kickoffs, airing just a few minutes after 10 o'clock.

No, not ABC's Sally Field/Calista Flockhart family drama. This NBC comedy was one of three (count 'em, three) series to try to capitalize on the Animal House craze in early 1979 alone. Its Super Bowl Sunday audience was 31.7 million viewers, leading out of the Steelers' 35-31 squeaker over the Cowboys. And yet, like the similarly ill-fated Delta House (on ABC) and Co-Ed Fever (on CBS), it was expelled from the airwaves by April.

Despite being No. 5 on the list of most watched apres-Super Bowl programs — its pilot episode drew nearly 40 million viewers, leading out of the Bears' 46-10 thrashing of the Patriots — this NBC police comedy (from Stephen J. Cannell and starring Adam West) was quickly cancelled and only aired seven total episodes.

The pilot for this CBS action-drama about two bounty hunters (played by The Dukes of Hazzard's John Schneider and comedian Paul Rodriguez) delivered 30.8 million total viewers on game night — and then took a nosedive, inviting the axe after just six airings.

This pilot for this ABC drama about a search-and-rescue team operating out of the Rocky Mountains of Utah drew 22.6 million total viewers... which it quickly squandered, and in turn got cancelled after seven total airings. The cast included James Brolin and future Modern Family momma Julie Bowen.

Our fifth and final "Fumble" was a toss-up between this freshman CBS competition series and Fox's 24: Legacy (which debuted after the Big Game two years prior), seeing as both turned out to be one-and-done efforts. But The World's Best's far steeper drop-off — from 22.2 million viewers and a 7.0 demo rating to 5.6 million and a scant 1.0 with its first regularly scheduled episode — coupled with an average "C+" grade from TVLine readers and near-zero buzz, secured it this dishonor.

Airing after (what would become known as) the Washington Football Team's 42-10 bucking of the Broncos, ABC's 1960s-set family dramedy enjoyed a premiere audience of nearly 29 million — and went on to run for more than 100 episodes.

Boasting a stellar cast (including an up-and-coming Andre Braugher) and loads of bona fides (Paul Attanasio adapted the crime drama from David Simon's similarly titled book), this NBC freshman enjoyed a debut audience of more than 28 million, leading out of the Cowboys' 51-17 trouncing of the Bills. Homicide: Life on the Street wound up running for seven seasons (and a movie).

The most watched Super Bowl lead-out on record, "The One After the Superbowl" retained nearly 53 million (!) total viewers following the Cowboys' 27-17 win over the Steelers. The double-episode outing guest-starred Julia Roberts, Brooke Shields, Fred Willard, Dan Castellaneta, crooner Chris Isaak and action-movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme. Try to make time for THR's oral history, which includes among other things the tale of one guest star's tongue gone wild.

The Season 4 episode "Leonard Betts," which drew 29 million viewers following the Packers and Pats' 35-21 matchup, is regarded both for ER doc Paul McCrane's titular, head-turning turn and for being the episode in which Scully first suspects she has cancer.

The kickoff to the competition series' second season — which came just five months after its freshman finale — drew 45.4 million total viewers, trailing only Friends among Super Bowl lead-outs and setting the stage for what to this day remains Survivor's most watched, highest rated cycle ever.

Landing two-thirds of the way through the buzzy medical drama's second season, "It's the End of the World" famously guest-starred future Friday Night Lights coach Kyle Chandler as a bomb squad leader who helps Dr. Meredith Grey, best he can, keep an explosive lodged inside a patient's chest cavity from going boom. It stands as the most-watched drama episode (with 37.8 million viewers) to ever follow the Big Game.

Landing at No. 16 in total audience (with 29.1 million Super Bowl Sunday viewers) and the first drama chosen to follow a Fox-hosted Super Bowl in more than a decade, House's "Frozen" episode saw the titular doc trying to remotely diagnose a researcher (played by Academy Award winner/guest star Mira Sorvino) at the South Pole who had suddenly fallen ill. Telemedicine! Whodathunkit?!

Talk about found money. Leading out of the Saints' 31-17, fourth-quarter win over the Colts, this relatively low-profile reality series enjoyed 38.7 million total samplers, as the President and COO of Waste Management went incognito among his employees. A Season 2 renewal followed barely a month later, and Season 11 finaled last April.

Coming off a red-hot freshman run, what better way to tee up Season 2 of the singing competition than with a Super Bowl Sunday showcase? Drawing 37.6 million viewers (following the Giants' 21-17 win over the Patriots), The Voice's sophomore opener — which had a reasonable 10:15 pm start time — stands as the No. 8 most watched post-Super Bowl program ever.

With 27 million total viewers (leading out of the Eagles' 41-33 win over the Patriots),  "Super Bowl Sunday" is only the eighth-most watched drama episode to ever air after the Big Game. And though some felt the episode's themes were especially dark for the family drama, there was a certain brilliance in using this primo showcase to reveal, after nearly two seasons, exactly how Pearson family patriarch Jack perished. And we have not looked at a Crock Pot the same ever since.

The Justin Hartley-led CBS drama nearly tied Alias (circa 2003) and Elementary (2013) for the latest start time ever for a Super Bowl lead-out, kicking off as it did just before 11:15 pm ET. Even so, it retained a robust 18.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched primetime entertainment program since the 2021 debut of CBS' own The Equalizer (which also followed a Super Bowl). Tracker scored a Season 2 renewal just three weeks later, and went on to be the most-watched non-sports program of the 2023-24 TV season, with an average weekly audience of 11.58 million viewers — plus, one year later, it stands as broadcast's most-watched entertainment series.

Lord knows, ABC's J.J. Abrams spy drama made every effort to capitalize on its plum Super Bowl Sunday perch, leading straight out of the game with a lingerie-clad  Jennifer Garner walking in slow motion while caressing a riding crop, and then packing the hour with XL amounts of action. Beyond that, the episode "Phase One" deigned to change the game for Sydney Bristow & Co. by effectively shuttering the sinister SD-6, serving up Sydney and Vaughn's first kiss, and then, for good measure, having BFF Francie killed by... her doppelganger?! (See where "Phase One" ranks among Alias' best episodes ever.)Alas, what keeps this seminal Alias episode from scoring a full touchdown is the cold, hard fact that — perhaps stymied by a late, post-11 pm start time, following the Bucs' 48-21 blowout against the Raiders — it stands as one of the least-watched Super Bowl lead-outs ever, with just 17.4 million viewers. (Read much more about the making of the Super Bowl episode on Page 3 of TVLine's Alias Oral History.)

🏈 THE TOP 10 MOST WATCHED SUPER BOWL LEAD-OUTS 🏈Friends (NBC, 1996) — 52.9 million viewersSurvivor: Australia* (CBS, 2001) — 45.4 millionRaid on Entebbe (NBC TV-movie, 1977) — 42.8 million60 Minutes (CBS, 1980) — 40.8 millionThe Last Precinct** (NBC, 1986) — 39.7 millionUndercover Boss** (CBS, 2010) — 38.7 millionGrey's Anatomy (ABC, 2006) — 37.8 millionThe Voice* (NBC, 2012) — 37.6 millionAll in the Family (CBS, 1978) — 35.5 million3rd Rock From the Sun (NBC, 1998) — 33.7 million

*Season premiere **Series premiere — Data via Wikipedia