There has been a lot of projection about the size of the audience that will watch the Super Bowl broadcast on CBS (CBS). Some predict as high as 100 million viewers, while others say there's no guarantee that it will reach last years 91 million viewers. Either way the program will help CBS at the very least make a bunch of money for the month.
As far as the February sweeps though, even if they get the high-end numbers, it still will be a challenge to overcome the Fox juggernaut and their overall position in the 18-49 demographic. Competitors are more concerned with the power of "American Idol" than they are with the Super Bowl. When you think of "American 
Idol" numbers, even if CBS does get 100 million viewers, it would only take about three episodes of "Idol" to catch them, or at the most the part of a fourth. That would only be two weeks at the very most of catching up with the CBS numbers.
Still, with the Super Bowl numbers, CBS should be able to be the most watched network of the February sweeps period. The question is if they will be able to overcome the Fox (NWS-A) combination of "Idol," "Prison Break," and "24" in the 18-49 demo.
Another important broadcast to watch is the post-game offering of "Criminal Minds." Last year ABC (DIS) hit the jackpot with their offering of "Grey's Anatomy," which really wasn't doing that much until they were played after Super Bowl.
Concerning this, Shari Anne Brill, vice president of programming with Carat USA, said, "I don't expect 'Criminal Minds' to get anything near what 'Grey's' did last year primarily because 'Criminal Minds' skews to older females and the Super Bowl skews more to younger males."
Most seem to think that it might get a good push from the exposure, but won't be anywhere near the breakout that "Grey's" has become. I would also be surprised if something like that happened.
In the end CBS will still make a lot of money this month, and should be positioned for a 1st place finish for the overall sweeps.
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