Super Bowl preview

Super Bowl Sunday? Here’s a TV overview

In the first 58 years of the Super Bowl, a pattern was set.
There would be lots of repeat champions, but no team would even get a shot at a three-peat … until now.
At 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday (Feb. 9), the Kansas City Chiefs try for their third straight championship. Standing in their way are the Philadelphia Eagles, plus history.
The Super Bowl began (shown here) with the Packers winning comfortably against the Chiefs and then the Oakland Raiders; the third year, however, they didn’t make it to the game. Later, there were back-to-back wins by the Dolphins, Steelers (twice), 49ers, Cowboys, Broncos and Patriots. In each case, the team failed to reach the game in the third year. Now the Chiefs arrive, with Patrick Mahomes (of TV-commercials fame) at quarterback, Travis Kelce (of Taylor Swift fame) at tight end and a 17-2 record this season.
It should be fun. Here’s our casual fan’s guide to the day on TV: Read more…

Super Bowl preview aims at fans … and all the others

TV has abandoned the notion of grabbing all the viewers at once … except on Super Bowl Sunday.
Nowadays, a show is a hit if it gets five million people to watch it live. The Super Bowl? At a typical moment during the game, more than 100 million people are watching.
That means the sprawling pre-game show faces a challenge: It must range “from people who like football to people who aren’t that much football fans,” said Drew Kaliski, who produces the show.
Yes, there will be talk about the game itself (Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Bucs), which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS. We’ll have more about that at the end of this story. But the pre-game shows, starting at 11:30 a.m. ET, will also have Joe Biden, James Corden, Jay Pharoah, The Weeknd, Roy Wood and Desus & Mero (shown here , with lots of packaged features. “They’re informative, they’re emotional, they’re entertaining,” Kaliski said. Read more…