The Super Bowl ratings game may be a tighter competition than the actual game.
In Nielsen's early overnight numbers, Sunday's Super Bowl 50 averaged a 49.0 household rating/73 share in the 56 metered markets across the country for CBS, according to Variety.
The game's ratings peaked with a 51.0/73 for the final 15 minutes (10-10:15 p.m. ET).
Separated by mere decimal points, this year's game was unable to beat the overnight numbers for NBC's broadcast of last year's Super Bowl, which averaged a 49.7 household rating in the overnights. That would mean a record national audience of 114.4 million viewers for last year's game.
As far as CBS's hope to introduce its late-show lineup to new viewers after the show, it seemed to have worked. Nielsen reported that the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert" averaged an 11.2/21, an all-time high for the show. And the "Late Late Show with James Corden" averaged 3.5/10, the highest ever metered rating for any “Late Late Show” broadcast since the program’s inception in 1995.
Final numbers for Sunday's game (as well as the post-game broadcasts) will be released later on Monday by Nielsen.
Advertisers, which spent about 11% or $500,000 more per 30-second spot for the game, got the extra bonus of its first live streaming. The game and all of its commercials streamed on Apple TV and Roku.
The Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers 24 t0 10 on Sunday. Lady Gaga sang the national anthem, with Coldplay, Beyonce, and Bruno Mars performing in the halftime show.
NOW WATCH: Here are the 4 best ads of Superbowl 50
