Bud Light’s spot with comedian Carlos Mencia was the No. 1 Super Bowl ad on Tivo’s most-viewed report

Ameriquest sits

Anheuser Busch grabbed the top two spots of Tivo’s fifth annual Super Bowl ratings report, which monitors the second-by-second viewing habits of 10,000 random anonymous households during the game and commercial breaks. This was the beer behemoth’s first appearance in the top spot on Tivo’s chart since 2004, having been benched by Ameriquest for the last two years. The two-time ad victor, whose "Don’t Judge Too Quickly" spots scored high with viewers, sat out this year’s game.

This year also saw a few rookies in the user-generated space, with Doritos’ two winning ads taking the No. 5 and No. 8 spots. Chevrolet also got a piece of the user-generated content action at No. 9, while the NFL’s homemade ad placed outside the Top 10, presumably for its comparative lack of scantily clad men at a car wash or horny checkout girls.

The star with the biggest pre-game buzz, of course, was Kevin Federline, whose Nationwide ad got enough Trick Play activity (that’s TiVo talk for rewind or fast forward) to put it in fourth place.

Ads rank higher than game

As for the game itself, Todd Juenger, Tivo’s VP-general manager, audience research and measurement, said the commercials ranked higher than anything involving the game’s participants, the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts, which is comparable with all previous years’ data. TiVo doesn’t release specific numbers on the actual ratings, but the Prince-fueled halftime show was also in keeping with its predecessors by scaring away about 10% of viewers.

"There was some speculation that post-Janet Jackson there would be less halftime drop-off," Mr. Juenger said. "But there hasn’t been a change in the trend. It narrows in and around to that number every year."

Top 10 Most-Watched Super Bowl Ads on Tivo:
1. Bud Light: Language Course With Carlos Mencia
2. Bud Light: Rock Paper Scissors
3. FedEx: Don’t Judge
4. Nationwide: Kevin Federline Rollin’ VIP
5. Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl promotion: Live the Flavor
6. CareerBuilder: Office Jungle
7. Blockbuster: Mouse
8. Doritos Crash the Super Bowl promotion: Checkout Girl
9. Chevrolet: Everybody Loves a Chevy
10. Schick: Quatro Science

Andrew Hampp