The broadcast of Super Bowl XLV on Fox averaged about 111 million viewers, breaking the record for the most-watched program in American television history.

The halftime show featured the American hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas, with additional performances by Usher and Slash.

The secondary was led by Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu, who won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award, tying his career-best seven interceptions and returning them for 101 yards and a touchdown.

In order to secure their fifth Super Bowl bid they defeated their longtime rivals, the Chicago Bears, in the NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field.

The offense was led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was in his third year as a starter after taking over for the team's all-time leading passer Brett Favre.

The Packers lost star tight end Jermichael Finley (21 receptions 301 yards, 1 touchdown) to injury in week five who was their leading receiver at the time.

The Packers had played Kansas City, Oakland, New England, and Denver in their four previous Super Bowl match-ups, defeating the Chiefs, Raiders and Patriots, and losing to the Broncos.

Roethlisberger finished with 226 passing yards and two touchdowns, while the defense forced three turnovers and sacked Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco five times, three by James Harrison.

The Jets subsequently forced a safety and scored a touchdown with just over three minutes left, but Roethlisberger's 14-yard completions to Brown and Heath Miller allowed the Steelers to hang onto the ball until time expired.

[27] The Packers started off their postseason with a 21–16 win over the number 3 seeded Philadelphia Eagles after Tramon Williams intercepted a pass from Michael Vick in the end zone with less than a minute left to play.

[48] While past Super Bowl games used their own unique logo designs that changed yearly and featured imagery which reflected the host city, Super Bowl XLV introduced a new standardized, silver-colored emblem, featuring an image of the Vince Lombardi Trophy sitting atop the traditional Roman numerals used to denote each edition, with a stylized image of the host stadium shown in the background.

[53][54][55] Fox televised the game in the United States, with Joe Buck as the play-by-play announcer and Troy Aikman, himself a three-time Super Bowl winner as a Dallas Cowboys quarterback, as the color analyst.

Mike Pereira joined Buck and Aikman in the broadcast booth to comment on instant replay reviews,[56] while Pam Oliver and Chris Myers served as sideline reporters.

At the conclusion of Glee's airing, Fox became the first media network in U.S. television history to garner a single-night primetime average of at least 100 million viewers.

Both brands had their advertisements created by web users as part of the annual USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter contest, which offers a prize of US $5 million.

[64] NFL International provided television coverage for viewers outside of North America, with Bob Papa and Joe Theismann calling the English language feed.

Due to numerous delays, including damage sustained from an ice storm, 1,250 temporary seats weren't ready in time for the game.

[71][72] The latter set of fans were later offered the chance to watch the game on monitors in the North Field Club behind the Steelers bench, but would still get the triple refund.

[81] Pop singer Christina Aguilera sang the national anthem but performed the wrong lyrics for the fourth line of the song,[82] later issuing an apology.

In honor of those occasions, Super Bowl XX MVP Richard Dent and former Dallas Cowboys defensive back Deion Sanders, both of whom were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011, took part in the ceremonies.

They were joined by fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees and past Super Bowl participants Marshall Faulk, Chris Hanburger and Shannon Sharpe.

Then on the first play after the ensuing kickoff, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was hit by nose tackle Howard Green as he threw a pass intended for wide receiver Mike Wallace, causing the ball to go well short of his intended target near the left sideline where it was intercepted and returned 37 yards for a touchdown by safety Nick Collins, immediately increasing Green Bay's lead to 14–0.

Taking the ball back with 2:24 left in the half, Roethlisberger completed a 37-yard strike to wide receiver Antwaan Randle El on their first play.

After that, wide receiver Hines Ward caught three passes for 39 yards on the drive, the last one for an 8-yard touchdown with 37 seconds left in the half, making the score 21–10 at halftime.

Then on third down, linebacker Frank Zombo sacked Roethlisberger for a 2-yard loss on the 34, and Suisham's ensuing 52-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left.

After a 9-yard pass to tight end Matt Spaeth, he threw three completions to Wallace for 27 yards to reach the Green Bay 40-yard line.

On the two-point conversion play, Roethlisberger faked a hand-off to Mendenhall and ran up to the line before pitching the ball to Randle El, who eluded a tackle by Shields and scored on an outside sweep, cutting the Steelers' deficit to a field goal at 28–25.

Green Bay took the ball back with just over 7 minutes left, and found themselves facing 3rd-and-10 after two plays, but Rodgers kept the drive going with a 31-yard completion to Jennings over the middle.

But after a 5-yard reception by Ward, the next three passes were incomplete, turning the ball over on downs and allowing Rodgers to take two knees and end the game in favor of Green Bay.

[92] at Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas The Packers joined the New York Giants as the only teams to win Super Bowls in 3 different decades (1966, 1967, 1996, and 2010).