5 Super Bowl Winners You Should Be Betting On

This year, CBS is throwing its modern-day Sherlock Holmes drama Elementary into the mix after the big game. It's the last true drama that's run after the Super Bowl since Fox's House drew 29 million viewers after the New York Giants stunned the until-then undefeated New England Patriots in 2008. CBS has to like its chances, however, as the 38.6 million viewers who watched its premiere of Undercover Boss after a New Orleans Saints victory in 2010 was the largest Super Bowl lead-out audience since 43 million people watched CBS' Survivor after the Baltimore Ravens' last Super Bowl appearance in 2001.

The lead-out crown, however, goes to NBC. Though 17 years have passed and Jennifer Aniston's produced a string of romantic comedies since, its two-part Friends episode The One After The Super Bowl that aired in 1996 is still the most-watched post-Super Bowl show ever. It drew nearly 53 million viewers and took up 46% of U.S. television screens.

Sponsor tie-ins

As we mentioned, the billions companies spend to become official NFL sponsors don't prevent competitors from running ads during the big game.

It does, however, prevent those competitors from using certain trademarked phrases such as "Super Bowl," "Baltimore Ravens" and "San Francisco 49ers" that might help tie the product they're selling to the event. In the case of Papa John's , the NFL's official pizza sponsor, the company gets to set up an online sweepstakes that awards Papa John's Rewards members with free pizza if they correctly guess the outcome of the pregame coin toss. That's no slight edge, considering that its rivals at Yum Brands' Pizza Hut are planning to give away a mystery promotional product as part of its own Super Bowl - umm, "big game" -- ad blitz.