In news that will probably make fans in New York and Boston giddy, and only encourage the folks in Bristol to continue showing every conveivable Yankees-Red Sox matchup (even when more compelling games are on), the ratings for the Super Bowl dropped slightly this year, from a rating of 44.7 last year to 42.1 this year.  Each rating point represents 1,145,000 households.

The rating for the 2007 game was also a 42.1, and in 2006 it was a 42.2.  East coast fans will likely conclude that the drop in ratings was because neither team in the Super Bowl was from New York or Boston (despite the fact that no teams last year were either–the Giants are from New Jersey, and the Patriots are from Foxboro).

There are other plausible explanation, though–there may have been more fans who were unable to take time off from work, thanks to the economy.  And since it sounds like tickets were cheaper, and it was the first time for Arizona (and since Pittsburgh fans are so fanatical), it’s possible that more people made the pilgrimmage to Tampa to try to attend in person.

Or maybe a whole bunch of people were so sickened by the crap that NBC chose to air as its pregame show, that they turned the TV off in disgust and listened online or on radio.

Still, it was a lot of people watching (estimated at about 90 million), but we do wonder if a ratings drop (combined with the economy, and the fact that some companies finally started mocking the prices–see High Life with their 1 second spots) will impact the price for ads next year…lord knows if they drop by about $2,999, 925 or so, ZoneBlitz.com will be first in line for a 30-second spot…

**UPDATE** After further review, the numbers for this year’s Super Bowl were actually higher than last year’s–take THAT, East Coast Media Bias!