According to
Nielsen ratings, the halftime show was seen by 118.5 million viewers, an increase of three million over
Bruno Mars' Super Bowl XLVIII
performance. In comparison, the Super Bowl telecast as a whole had an average viewership of 114.4 million (credited as the
second-most watched program in American television history), and peaked at 120.8 million during the fourth quarter. Following the halftime show, all three of the songs performed by Missy Elliott entered the top twenty singles list on
iTunes, and later reached the top ten.
Billboard reported that industry sources expected Perry's songs to collectively sell around 100,000 downloads as a result of the performance, while Elliott's songs were predicted to sell up to 70,000 downloads, which would be an increase of more than 1,000% from the previous week (where Elliott sold 6,000 song downloads). For the week ending February 1, 2015, Perry's discography registered a 92% sales gain in the United States, selling 121,000 albums and song downloads in total. Meanwhile, Elliot's albums and song downloads sold 73,000, up 996% from the previous week.
Left Shark s in shark costumes during the performance of "
Teenage Dream" During Perry's performance of "
Teenage Dream" and "
California Gurls", she was accompanied by several dancers in various beach-themed costumes, including two dressed as sharks. Left Shark, on
house left, to Perry's right (
stage right), received significant fan and media attention during and after the halftime performance because of its distinct dance moves, which were both offbeat and out of sync with the "Right Shark". Left Shark quickly became an Internet sensation, appearing on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and also became an
internet meme. The identities of both sharks were later revealed to be Perry's longtime background dancers Scott Myrick (Right Shark) and Bryan Gaw (Left Shark). Organizing choreographer RJ Durell stated that the dancers, both long-time stage performers from Perry's past concerts, were not given rigorous choreography but instead told to mimic Perry's moves. In an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter, Durell said that the Left Shark's performance was intentional, stating their objectives were to "perform Katy's trademark moves to the 'Teenage Dream' chorus, which they both did perfectly" and "have loads of fun, and bring to life these characters in a cartoon manner, giving them a
Tweedledee/Tweedledum-type persona". Super Bowl halftime show director
Hamish Hamilton later said that the Left Shark performance was inspired by a
Scissor Sisters performance in the
2005 Brit Awards, where the group played "
Take Your Mama" in front of a
surreal farmyard with massive bird-like puppets. Hamilton stated that, "We were trying to work out how we could bring a beach scene to life and so one of the references that we looked at was that Scissor Sisters performance. The genesis of the Left Shark was actually a singing melon." After the Super Bowl, lawyers for Perry began trying to obtain a copyright for Left Shark and also sought trademark protection. Specifically, they tried to register Left Shark as a trademark with the
USPTO. Perry's team also sought to register "Right Shark", "Drunk Shark", and "Basking Shark". The U.S. Trademark Office rejected her initial attempt to register "Left Shark". Her team initiated litigation against an
Orlando, Florida, artist named Fernando Sosa, who had been making 3-D figurines of Left Shark. == Set list ==