No one expected it now. Five years ago this was something people might have (speculated about), but not recently. When you look at it, it probably makes a lot of sense.
I think a lot of people will be watching it in the office. People don't have TV sets in their office, but they do have a computer with a broadband connection.
This lends stability to the company. It's always good to let people know who's in charge.
They can pretty much determine how many people went online and how long they were there.
In this world of media fractionalization, this is one of the last times you can count on getting about 90 million viewers at the drop of the hat. Advertisers realize this is the one event where people will actually watch your commercials.