Did Beyoncé break the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl XLVII clash between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens was marred by a sudden blackout two minutes into the third quarter. Proceedings were put on hold for over half an hour as staff at the New Orleans Superdome attempted to restore power. It was subsequently suggested that Beyoncé’s extravagant, juice-guzzling half-time performance might have been responsible for the outage.

As Rolling Stone report, NFL sources have now confirmed that the singer’s performance was not a contributing factor to the blackout. According to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, there’s “no indication at all that this was caused by the halftime show. I know that’s out there, that Beyoncé’s halftime show had something to do with it. That is not the case from anything we have at this point.”

Doug Thorton, responsible for managing the electricity supply to the Superdome, blamed an “abnormality” in the power system, but stressed it was “too early” to make firm claims about what went wrong.  The show managed to hit ratings of 108.41m, making it the third highest rated TV broadcast of all time in America, although it brought in fewer viewers less than Madonna’s supremely gaudy 2012 Super Bowl show.