The Super Bowl-themed episode drew 23.1 million viewers immediately after the game last night, The Simpsons’ biggest audience in 11 years. An estimated 15.1 million people stayed up to watch the preview of another animated series, “American Dad,” right after that. Numbers for The Simpsons were about average for that period, falling behind the high of NBC’s “Friends” in 1996 (52.9 million) and above the low of ABC’s “Alias” in 2003 (17.4 million). On the other hand, the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles was seen by an estimated 86.1 million people, down 4 percent from last year’s game.
