The Tim Tebow “Focus on the Family” ad got a lot of attention when it was announced CBS would air it during the Super Bowl.  Many pro-choice and women’s rights groups protested its inclusion.

The progressive site The Huffington Post uploaded a story today calling the ad “a flop” because the fewest number of people watched the ad.  Only 92 million viewers, so hardly anyone.  Who’s Tim Tebow again?  Right.

The Nielson Group, which monitored the ratings for the Super Bowl put up on their web site the total number of viewers for each of the 73 commercials that aired during the game. Sure enough the Tebow ad is #73 with a measly 92,576,680 viewers. But it got the same number of viewers as the Snickers/Betty White ad. You know, the Betty White ad that was voted #1 in the USA Today poll. But since it tied for #73 I guess nobody saw it either, therefore nobody voted it #1 like USA Today tells us they did. Must have been some kind of problem with the vote counting.

Two problems with the Huffpo story: 1) Nobody knows when each commercial is going to run, so they can’t make a point to tune in when it airs.  CBS doesn’t release a press statement telling everyone “Hey, that Tebow ad is going to run at exactly 6:43pm during the first quarter of the game. Set your alarm!”  So it’s not like people voted with their clickers if the 30 sec ad met their approval.

2)  The ad ran during the beginning of the game, when the fewest total number of people had their TVs tuned into it.  The most watched commercial of the game was for Doritos. You know why? Is it because everyone looooves Doritos? No, because it aired at 9:30pm, during the 4th quarter when the game was at its highest drama and maximum viewership.