Sunday's Super Bowl TV audience set a viewing record for the annual National Football League Championship and eclipsed the 1983 benchmark set by the comedy "M*A*S*H" to become the most watched US telecast, according to early ratings data on Monday.

A record 106.5 million American TV viewers watched the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday's game, broadcast on CBS, Nielsen media and CBS said.

The figures topped the record held since 1983 by the finale of "M*A*S*H," which drew 106 million viewers.

The previous record for a Super Bowl was the 98.7 million Americans who tuned in to see the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals in 2009.

In an era of declining live viewership for TV shows, audiences for the Super Bowl have grown for each of the past four years, demonstrating why advertisers paid up to $3 million for a 30-second commercial spot during Sunday's more than three-hour broadcast.

CBS said the audience for Sunday's game reached a peak of 114.1 million TV viewers in its last half-hour. Overall for the game, 68 percent of US TV sets that were turned on on Sunday were watching the football game, it said.