Yahoo! Sports: Move over Hawkeye, Super Bowl XLIV is now the most-watched television program in history. Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts drew 106.5 million viewers, barely edging out the 105.97 million who watched the series finale of “M*A*S*H” in 1983.

It’s the first time ever that a sporting event in the United States has surpassed 100 million viewers. The soaring popularity of the NFL, Peyton Manning(notes), the hype around the Saints as an inspiration to New Orleans, the first Super Bowl between No. 1 seeds have since 1993 and the Mid-Atlantic blizzard combined to give the league its highest viewership of all-time. Just imagine if Brett Favre(notes) had been playing.

A higher percentage of Americans watched the final episode of the M*A*S*H 27 years ago (approximately 45 percent of the population), but that was also in an era when cable was at its infancy and most people had just three networks from which to choose. Super Bowl XLIV had to go up against The Puppy Bowl, for pete’s sake.

Nielsen Co. reports that 153.4 million people watched at least part of the game, up from 151.6 million last year. In a television industry defined by declining viewership, the fact that the NFL’s biggest game has done a better rating in each of the past five years is somewhat stunning. The audience is supposed to be getting more fragmented, not setting records.

The presence of Peyton Manning was a huge force in the staggering numbers, but don’t underestimate the role of the blizzard of 2010. Record-setting snow totals in the Mid-Atlantic kept people snowbound and likely increased the number of TVs tuned into the game. Amazingly, Super Bowl XLIV did a better rating in Washington D.C. (56.0) than it did in Indianapolis (54.2).

Rolling Stone reports:

Lady Gaga, Eminem, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake and Barbra Streisand are just a handful of the 100-plus stars scheduled to take part in a re-recording of “We Are the World” to benefit Haiti, producer RedOne told Rolling Stone yesterday at the Grammys. Other artists contributing to the new “We Are the World” — a remake of the 1985 USA for Africa charity single that was co-written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie — include Celine Dion, Fergie, Wyclef, Enrique Iglesias and more musicians who attended yesterday’s 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.

“I’m so delighted and so happy to get a dream call from Quincy Jones and Randy Phillips and Lionel Richie,” RedOne told RS. “I know that Lionel Richie has been asked like 150-something times to redo ‘We Are the World’ and he said no to everything until this Haiti thing happened. The moment he saw that it happened he was like, OK, ‘We Are the World.’ And to be one of the people they called to have fresh input to the song, to help produce the song — I have no
words.”

According to RedOne, recording of the “We Are the World” remake will take place today in a Los Angeles studio. In addition to the all-star vocal talent, RedOne promises instrumentation from the likes of Orianthi (the guitarist for Michael Jackson’s This Is It show) and other big-name musicians. The AP reports Bono, Jason Mraz and Akon are also slated to appear on the track. “With music you want to help people feel something in a certain way, and this is something devastating that just happened and I am and we are the world,” RedOne said. “We’re going to be helping people that we don’t know. I have Haitian friends and stuff like that, but we’re going to be helping people that need help right now.”

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According to Karen Civil , Waka Flocka, was reportedly injured in a shooting earlier today in Atlanta. Flocka was approached by men at gunpoint and ordered to hand over his jewelry. After he refused, shots were fired and he was struck twice. He is expect to make a full recovery. Wacka Flocka is known for his single “O Let’s Do It” and association with Gucci Mane.

So far, Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit organization, Yele Haiti, has raised over $1 million for the victims of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake from mobile donations alone. With a series of urgent tweets, an appearance on CNN and the help of his famous friends the singer has mobilized a massive effort on behalf of his homeland, imploring followers to text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to the effort.

According to Albe Angel, CEO of Miami-based Give on the Go, the mobile-communications company working with Yele Haiti to coordinate donations, the organization has raised over $1 million for relief efforts since the earthquake. Yele’s goal is to up that figure to $1 million a day as part of the SMS fundraising drive.

“Since the disaster occurred around 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday and [by] midnight [Wednesday] we cleared $1 million,” said Angel, whose company provides the technology that allows mobile users to make an automatic $5 donation. Give on the Go has announced that 100 percent of the donations raised will go directly to Yele Haiti. More than 200,000 people have donated to the cause, and Angel said he thinks it’s possible that the $1 million-per-day goal could be reached, given the volume of donations that have been coming in. “These types of donations really were spawned by the [2004] tsunami relief effort, and the $1 million that Yele has raised already is a watershed event.”

Wyclef is not the only celebrity who has stepped up to aid the cause. The Jolie-Pitt Foundation, founded by Angelina Jolie and partner Brad Pitt, has pledged $1 million to the emergency medical operations of Doctors Without Borders.

“It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades,” Jolie said in a statement on Wednesday.
Relief efforts have spawned Facebook and Twitter users to take action, and a number of other celebrities have joined in the fight to send urgently needed supplies to the impoverished Caribbean nation, including Alyssa Milano, Olivia Wilde, LL Cool J, Jessica Alba, Demi Moore and Joel and Benji Madden.

On Thursday, President Obama pledged $100 million in aid from the U.S. The United Nations also announced that $10 million would go to relief efforts in Haiti, while the World Bank pledged $100 million.

TMZ reports:

The NBA has suspended Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas indefinitely.

In a statement, NBA commissioner David Stern said:

“Although it is clear that the actions of Mr. Arenas will ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse, his ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game … Accordingly, I am suspending Mr. Arenas indefinitely, without pay, effective immediately pending the completion of the investigation by the NBA.”

Arenas is under investigation for bringing guns to the Verizon Center, where the Wizards play, and allegedly getting into a standoff with teammate Javaris Crittenton.