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So much for the death of television. 97.5 million people, a Super Bowl record, watched my beloved New England Patriots lose to the New York Giants, according to Fox. 107.5 million people watched the last half-hour of the game, besting the 106 million that watched the final episode of M.A.S.H. Television advertisers, who paid $2.7 million for each 30-second spot, definitely got their money's worth. Altogether, they spent $156 million on the five-hour game. It takes Google three days to make that much money.

Adding insult to injury, the TV ads did an excellent job of driving traffic online — the usual reason why one buys Web ads. MySpace's Super Bowl ads page has received 14.5 million views as of this afternoon, and GoDaddy.com received 1.5 million views during the game by viewers looking for the ad that didn't make it past Fox's censors.

As for my Patriots? There's always next year — and pitchers and catchers report February 14.