Super Bowl XXVII halftime show
| Date | January 31, 1993 |
|---|---|
| Location | Pasadena, California |
| Venue | Rose Bowl |
| Headliner | Michael Jackson |
| Producer | Radio City Productions, Scott Sanders, Don Mischer Productions |
The Super Bowl XXVII halftime show took place on January 31, 1993, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, as part of Super Bowl XXVII. The show was televised nationally in the U.S. by NBC.
In an effort to increase its profile after being counterprogrammed by an In Living Color special the previous year, the show featured a performance by Michael Jackson. The performance was successful in its goals, causing viewership of the Super Bowl to increase between halves for the first time in the game's history, with an audience of 133.4 million viewers in the United States. It is the most viewed half-time performance in the United States before Nielsen started to include out-of-home viewers in their totals in 2020; Kendrick Lamar's performance during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in 2025 had 133.5 million viewers counted domestically, including out-of-home viewers in 48 states. The show, along with other notable appearances by Jackson in late January and February, also helped improve sales of his then current album Dangerous. In 1993, Guinness World Records named the broadcast the most-watched television event of all time in the United States.
Retrospectively, the show has been credited with establishing the norms of future Super Bowl halftime shows (with a greater focus on major names in popular music), and ranked as being among the greatest Super Bowl halftime shows of all time.