BULLSHIT DETECTOR — NBC shells out $650 million a year to the NFL, part of which went toward securing broadcast rights for last weekend's Super Bowl. It charged advertisers upwards of $3 million for each of the sixty-nine 30-second spots, a new high, to bring in $206 million in ad revenue, also a new high. How disappointing for the peacock network then, when Nielsen said that while Pittsburgh's defeat of Arizona drew huge audiences — 147 million total, and 95.4 million average tuning in — it wasn't the most watched Super Bowl ever. Nevermind that, however, because anything can be fixed with a little politicking. Nielsen has "revised" its statement, and officially crowned NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII as, yes, the most watched ever. How'd that happen?

It was only Monday when Nielsen Media Research said XLIII was the second-most-watched Super Bowl (and third most-watched program ever). But wait! All of that changed in the last 48 hours!

Now, in a revised statement, Nielsen says Super Bowl XLIII was the most-watched Super Bowl and most-watched TV program in history, with 151.6 million total viewers and 98.7 million average viewers.

Why the discrepancy? Because Nielsen, as it's wont to do, realized its audience measurement methodology is about as reliable as Bernie Madoff's accounting methodology: "Nielsen explained the discrepancy of more than 3 million viewers by saying a more complete check of their records revealed additional viewership on some digital tier networks. The company hadn't been aware that they were showing the game."

They weren't aware that digital tiers networks were, uh, "showing the game"? On NBC? A major broadcast network that every single TV tier carries?

Bullshit, Nielsen. But hey, congrats to NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol for what can only be assumed to be a round of convincing late-night phone calls to get Nielsen to suddenly "find" this other information to boost ratings numbers — and give Ebersol and Jeff Zucker another notch on their belt.