Super Bowl 50 Programming Preview: What CBS, ESPN, and More Have in Store

by Alicia Montanaro, Editorial Assistant

CBS will air a Super Bowl 50 pregame show titled The Super Bowl Today from 2:00-6:00 p.m. ET before the big game on Sunday, Feb. 7. The show will celebrate the Super Bowl by integrating the following into its coverage: historical footage, great moments, videos, player vignettes, and reflections highlighting the history of the Super Bowl since CBS first broadcast it in 1967. Lead host James Brown will be joined on The Super Bowl Today by analysts Boomer Esiason, Bill Cowher, Tony Gonzalez, and Bart Scott, as well as hosts Ian Eagle and Greg Gumbel, contributing analysts Brandon Marshall, Trent Green, and Amy Trask, NFL Today insider Jason La Canfora, reporters Tracy Wolfson, Evan Washburn, Allie LaForce, and contributor Jim Rome…

…ESPN’s weeklong coverage of Super Bowl 50 began Monday, Feb. 1 at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA, and continues in the Bay Area through the post-Super Bowl NFL PrimeTime and SportsCenter shows on Sunday, Feb. 7. ESPN’s home during the Super Bowl will be at Marina Green in San Francisco, where broadcasts will originate for SportsCenter, NFL Insiders, NFL Live, Postseason NFL Countdown, and PTI. The commentator team for ESPN’s Super Bowl coverage includes former NFL players, coaches, and team executives with a combined 30 Super Bowl appearances and 17 championship rings. Some of the notable television hosts, analysts, insiders, and reporters include Michelle Beisner, Chris Berman, Mike Ditka, Ron Jaworski, Ray Lewis, Hannah Storm, and Steve Young. Coverage of the Super Bowl will also be featured on ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, ESPNDeportes.com, ESPN Deportes Radio, ESPN International, ESPN Digital and Print, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN’s social media accounts, and the ESPN The Party event on Friday, Feb. 5…

…CBS will debut a new special, Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials All-Star Countdown, which will offer sneak peeks of the highly anticipated commercials to air during CBS’Super Bowl 50. Host Kevin Frazier (Entertainment Tonight’s co-host) will also take viewers through the top ten spots revealed in Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2016. The special, filmed from Pier 48 in San Francisco, will be broadcast Saturday, Feb. 6 8 p.m. ET on CBS. It will also be available live and on-demand across digital platforms through CBS All Access…

…The Super Bowl 50 edition of Inside the NFL premiered on Showtime on Feb. 2 at 9:00 p.m. ET. Host Adam Schein was joined by Super Bowl XXI MVP and New York Giants Legend Phil Simms, former Bengals quarterback and four-time Pro Bowler Boomer Esiason, and New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall, to preview the upcoming game. Hall of Famer Michael Irvin and CBS Sports Network’s Craig Carton also joined as special guests. The Super Bowl 50 Edition of Inside the NFL highlighted the Peyton Manning versus Cam Newton matchup, discussed how the football landscape will be for Super Bowl 100, and presented a feature on the deceased Zemarick Holt and his Arkansas Tech University teammates…

… DishLATINO announced on Feb. 3 that it would start delivering ESPN Deportes in high-definition, marking a significant shift toward increasing HD distribution to more Hispanic households nationwide. With this change, comes the first ever ESPN Deportes Super Bowl telecast. This broadcast will feature Spanish-language coverage leading up to the game, including a 90-minute pregame special at 4:30 p.m. ET, and a postgame show. Other major events that will be telecast on ESPN Deportes this year are EURO 2016 and the UEFA Champions League…

…This Sunday, Feb. 7, CTV will deliver exclusive Canadian coverage of Super Bowl 50 from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. CTV’s broadcast, which is also available to stream on CTV Go, includes more than seven hours of pre-game programming, with coverage beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on the day of the big game. The network’s live production includes a variety of new technological advances, including EyeVision, which provides viewers with a 360° perspective on the field, Pylon Cams filming the goal lines and sidelines, and Next-Gen Stats to provide a broader set of statistical data in real-time. Immediately following the conclusion of CTV’s Super Bowl 50 coverage, a new episode of the network’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs before returning to its regular timeslot of Thursdays at 8:30 p.m…

…Beginning this Monday, Feb. 8, ProFootballTalk Live with Mike Florio moves into its new morning show timeslot on NBC Sports Radio. ProFootballTalk Live with Mike Florio will air live each weekday from 6:00-9:00 a.m. ET, with an encore in West Coast drive time from 6:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m. PT (9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. ET). The final hour of the program, featuring Florio’s NFL insight and coverage of the most current football news and analysis, will be simulcast on NBCSN and streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra through mid-April. This week, Pro Football Talk Live has been on-site at Super Bowl 50 from Radio Row in San Francisco. Super Bowl Week Guests include Hall of Famers Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Troy Aikman, plus active stars Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Antonio Brown, and more…

… The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is set to air right after the Super Bowl on CBS this year, instead of a show from a prime-time series. This is the first time that CBS has handed the coveted post Super Bowl slot to a late-night show. Since launching in September, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has grown 18% in total viewers (3.16 million) and has allowed for the network to double its Late Show ad rates. Scheduled to join Colbert after the Super Bowl are guests Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Margot Robbie, Key & Peele, and at least one surprise guest…

…CBS This Morning’s Gayle King will be conducing a spotlight interview with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during CBS’s Super Bowl pregame show on Feb. 7. CBS This Morning expects that CBS’s broadcast of the big game, as well as King’s interview, will attract new viewers to the show which has been stuck in third place behind ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today. Also, they anticipate for one of their biggest audiences on Feb. 8, since people’s television sets will still be tuned to CBS from the night before…

…The NFL has introduced its Super Bowl Babies campaign that will feature a :60 TV commercial during the game on Sunday, Feb. 7 on CBS. The new commercial titled “Super Bowl Babies Choir” is part of the NFL campaign, “Football is Family,” and features the biggest collection of Super Bowl Babies, or fans born in the Super Bowl winning cities approximately nine months after the game. The :60 commercial will be supported by :10 teasers introducing the featured Super Bowl Babies, and is set to air after the third quarter.