by Ken Fang on February 8, 2010
College Basketball
men’s
Villanova at West Virginia – ESPN, 7 p.m.
Maryland-Eastern Shore at North Carolina A&T, ESPNU, 7 p.m.
Kansas at Texas – ESPN, 9 p.m.
Alcorn State at Grambling – ESPNU, 9 p.m.
women’s
Maryland-Eastern Shore at North Carolina A&T – ESPNU, 4:30 p.m.
North Carolina at Duke – ESPN2, 7:30 p.m.
Tennessee at Vanderbilt – ESPN2, 9:30 p.m.
NBA
New Orleans at Orlando – TNT, 8 p.m.
San Antonio at Los Angeles Lakers – TNT, 10:30 p.m.
Inside the NBA – TNT, 1 a.m.
NHL
New Jersey at Philadelphia – Versus, 7 p.m.
NHL On The Fly – NHL Network, 8 p.m.
Entertainment
How I Met Your Mother – WBZ/WPRI, 8 p.m.
House – WFXT/WNAC, 8 p.m.
24 – WFXT/WNAC, 9 p.m.
Damages – FX, 10 p.m.
CSI: Miami – WBZ/WPRI, 10 p.m.
Secret Diary of A Call Girl – Showtime, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – WBZ/WPRI, 11:35 p.m.
by Ken Fang on February 8, 2010
CBS’ broadcast day started early with Face The Nation live from Sun Life Stadium with an interview with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and a CBS Sports roundtable and it ended with the Vince Lombardi Trophy handed to New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson.
In between, the network tried to keep viewers entertained, but it was the game that kept the nation watching. Thanks to a close margin deep into Super Bowl XLIV and a top notch production, the hopes that CBS could average over 100 million people for this game may indeed come into fruition.
For its game production, CBS kept it simple. It’s the game, stupid. There were no shots of Reggie Bush’s girlfriend, Kim Kardashian that Fox seemed to overdo during the NFC playoffs. There were no hackneyed shots of wives or other girlfriends on parade. Instead, CBS focused its cameras on the field. There were two notable replays that worked well. A two point conversion caught by Lance Moore clearly showed him gaining control of the ball then breaking the plane of the goal line before it was jarred loose and called incomplete. Thanks to a reverse angle on the goal line, the call was overturned and the two points given to New Orleans.
The second replay showed a catch by Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey getting hit and his helmet getting jarred by two Colts defenders. CBS’ super slo mo and tight shots were not overdone and were done correctly.
Jim Nantz and Phil Simms meshed well as usual. In their second Super Bowl together, both men did not overhype nor did they overanalyze. Simms allowed the game to breathe and come to him. Right before Tracy Porter’s game-changing interception of Peyton Manning, Simms mentioned that the Saints were saving defensive looks in the 4th quarter in hopes of confusing the Colts quarterback. Sure enough, two plays later, Porter made Simms look like a genius with his 74 yard Pick 6 that gave New Orleans a two touchdown lead.
There were two notable glitches and they came early. When CBS tried to interchange live action and tape for the introduction of both the Saints and Colts, the audio of players failed to come through and all we at home saw was silent players with their mouths moving. Also, the audio from the field was not clear, but when Commissioner Roger Goodell made an introduction of the winner of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, suddenly his microphone was very clear. There were portions of the game where the crowd drowned out Nantz and Simms. That went on throughout the night and never got corrected.
CBS saved shots of New Orleans and Bourbon Street until the game was officially over. I thought the network would go to them after the Porter interception, but there was no need to go that early.
For the Big Game, CBS chose to bring back sideline reporters and they utilized analysts Steve Tasker and Solomon Wilcots. Tasker was used throughout the game while Wilcots seemed to disappear after his first report before the opening kickoff.
Overall, the production led by producer Lance Barrow and director Mike Arnold was top notch. CBS has broadcast the most Super Bowls of any network and it showed on Sunday. The overall grade for Super Bowl XLIV on CBS gets an A minus. Very well done, but there were some areas that could have been done better.
For the pregame, an open that paid homage to CBS’ previous 16 Super Bowl telecasts was well produced. A 15 minute interview of President Barack Obama by Katie Couric appeared out of place as Ms. Couric pressed the President on health care, the trial of an accused terrorist and other issues. Only in the last minute did Ms. Couric ask the President for his Super Bowl pick. That interview would have been more appropriate on any of CBS News program, not before the Super Bowl.
And as far as other pregame programming was concerned, NFL Network’s show from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. was was much too long. While Rich Eisen and Stacey Dales did bang up jobs in hosting their segments, NFL Network might be better served in starting the show at noon instead of 10 a.m. Way too much time to fill and too much talk.
The Super Bowl ads were lackluster as they have been over the last few years. The best ad in my opinion was not an ad, but CBS’ surprise promo featuring David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno. There was a strange theme of seeing men in their underwear this year. At least five ads off the top of my head had men walking either with no pants or in their skivvies and for the most part, they seemed quite creepy.
We should know by mid-Monday about CBS’ Super Bowl ratings and whether it set a viewership record.
