“Biggest audience since the moon landing.” That was the headline when Nielsen launched viewership numbers for Super Bowl 2024. About 123.7 million individuals within the US watched the sport, greater than every other recreation since Nielsen began conserving observe and, sure, near the 125 to 150 million individuals within the US who watched the moon touchdown in July 1969. Despite the scores of streaming choices and different issues to look at, individuals nonetheless tuned in to look at dwell—to see the Kansas City Chiefs win in additional time, to see Taylor Swift, to watch Usher, to see Martin Scorsese’s alien-invasion ad, to catch the new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer.

Maybe dwell TV isn’t lifeless in spite of everything.

It is, in fact, straightforward to chalk this as much as the occasion being, properly, the Super Bowl, which remains to be the one hottest US sporting occasion of the yr. Also of word: A billion-plus individuals watch occasions just like the World Cup globally. Still, the Big Game wasn’t the one factor individuals tuned in for this week. On Monday, Jon Stewart reclaimed his place at The Daily Show desk and introduced in 1.9 million viewers—essentially the most the present has seen since 2018. It’s an election yr, and as Alison Herman wrote in Variety, “anyone who has living memories of the War on Terror is powerless to resist Stewart’s particular blend of cynicism and moral righteousness.” Or, possibly after seeing Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin, they’re simply eager for the times when Stewart would go on CNN to call Carlson a “dick” on Crossfire.

While this will likely look like a craving for the times of extra appointment tv and setting our VCR to tape My So-Called Life, and it’s, there’s one thing else at play. There is a malaise related to streaming nowadays, when scrolling by the countless libraries of “Eh, OK, Sure” TV on Netflix or Hulu doesn’t really feel all that completely different from the senseless channel-surfing individuals did within the ’90s whereas they had been ready for Friends to begin. With streamers elevating costs and including commercials, possibly the urgency of watching one thing because it’s occurring has the juice to convey individuals again to broadcast.

Streamers definitely assume so. In a quest to get extra subscribers, one among their greatest performs has been to safe the rights to live sports. Apple TV+ has baseball and soccer, Amazon Prime Video has Thursday Night Football, Netflix simply landed WWE wrestling. Hulu and Disney+ may be bundled with ESPN. Outside of sports activities, Max has the CNN live feed. Netflix simply hosted the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The Oscars will air on ABC on March 10, however it’s also possible to watch them on Hulu or YouTube TV.

All of which to say, even when dwell TV is making a comeback, it’s a comeback buoyed by streaming. One of the explanations, past Taylor Swift and Usher, that a lot of individuals tuned in to the Super Bowl was that, along with CBS, the sport additionally aired on Nickelodeon, the place it was hosted by SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star. (I’m instructed it was enjoyable to look at on edibles.) The recreation additionally streamed on Paramount+, and though some viewers reported glitchiness early within the recreation, the straightforward entry throughout a number of platforms boosted the sport’s viewership numbers. HBO’s present Sunday Night Sad present True Detective: Night Country has surpassed the primary season in whole viewers. Quite a lot of them watch the present when it airs on Sunday, and an enormous chunk watch on Max. Nearly one million individuals—930,000—watched Stewart’s return to The Daily Show; some 6 million extra have watched his return monologue on YouTube.

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For years we’ve been debating whether or not the watercooler present is over. Was Game of Thrones the end? Has Last of Us revived that zombie idea? I stay on the fence. There’s way more area of interest programming for area of interest pursuits than seemingly ever earlier than, however international sporting occasions and world information occasions will at all times seize the general public’s consideration in a means viral moments can’t. People watching the Super Bowl nonetheless knew the Chiefs received in additional time earlier than they noticed it on X.

On Wednesday, my telephone buzzed with an alert from The New York Times. Something terrible had occurred throughout the Chiefs’ victory celebration in Kansas City. Later, I realized that one particular person, a preferred native radio DJ, had been killed, and greater than 20 others had been injured, in a mass taking pictures on the occasion. But I didn’t be taught that by diving additional into my telephone. I turned on MSNBC.