Super Bowl breaks viewership record

Super Bowl breaks
viewership record

NEW YORK — The New York Giants’ thrilling win over the New England Patriots was the most-watched Super Bowl ever, with 97.5 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said Monday. The game eclipsed the previous Super Bowl record of 94.08 million, set when Dallas defeated Pittsburgh in 1996. More people watched Sunday’s game than all but one American television broadcast ever, the “M-A-S-H” finale in 1983, which was seen by 106 million viewers. The game had almost all the ingredients Fox could have hoped for: a tight contest with an exciting finish involving a team that was attempting to make history as the NFL’s first unbeaten team since 1972. But the Giants ended New England’s bid for perfection, 17-14. Throughout the game, the teams were never separated by more than a touchdown.

Opera star is pregnant

VIENNA, Austria — Anna Netrebko says it is a high note of another kind: She is pregnant and she’s getting married. The 36-year-old star soprano and her fiancé, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott, are expecting a child this autumn, Netrebko’s management company said Monday. It will be her first child. She and Schrott, 35, became engaged late last year in New York.

Actor battles disorder

LOS ANGELES — Justin Chambers, who plays Dr. Alex Karev on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” has gotten real medical help. Chambers, 37, voluntarily checked himself into UCLA Medical Center “to get help with a pre-existing sleeping disorder,” his publicist, Danica Smith, said. He entered the center Monday and checked out Wednesday.

Today’s birthdays

Baseball Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron is 74. Television producer-writer Stephen J. Cannell is 67. Football Hall-of-Famer Roger Staubach is 66. Singer Cory Wells (Three Dog Night) is 66. Movie director Michael Mann is 65. Rock singer Al Kooper is 64. Actor Christopher Guest is 60. Actor Tom Wilkinson is 59. Actor-comedian Tim Meadows is 47. Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh is 46. Actress Laura Linney is 44. Rock singer Chris Barron (Spin Doctors) is 40. Singer Bobby Brown is 39. Country singer Sara Evans is 37.