Yes, a lot of people watched the Super Bowl, but the monoculture is still a myth
Super Bowl viewership isn't faltering in the same way broadcast, cable and awards shows are. But do we really need mass consumption of the same cultural work? Or just smart and connected consumption?
Announcements that networks make about viewership are like announcements that rich people make about the gold coins they swim in every night: kinda true, but fuzzy at the edges. Even so, viewership data suggests a huge audience saw Sunday's Super Bowl — 200 million people watched at least some part of it.
Most TV programming has seen audiences melt away like a witch under a bucket of water. Broadcast shows, cable shows, and special events like (and the spectacle-filled ads) and the growing queasiness, so many people have about CTE and off-the-field violence and exploitation of labor, this one thing is hanging on.
