McManus’ Dual Role Adds News Twist To Super Bowl Pregame

CBS’ Simms (l) And Nantz To Make “Criminal Minds” Cameo

CBS’ coverage of Super Bowl XLI will begin Sunday with the “Road to the Super Bowl,” at noon ET, followed by “Phil Simms’ All Iron Team” at 1:00pm. The “Super Bowl Today” pregame show will air from 2:00-6:00pm ET, and will include a feature from CBS News’ Katie Couric, as well as live reports from Randy Cross with American soldiers stationed in Iraq. The game is scheduled to begin at 6:25pm. Steve Tasker and Solomon Wilcots will report from the sidelines. CBS has a new episode of “Criminal Minds” slated for immediately after Super Bowl coverage, and game announcers Jim Nantz and Simms will make special appearances on the show. Meanwhile, CBS’ “The Early Show” will broadcast live from South Beach tomorrow through Monday (THE DAILY).

NEWSWORTHY? On a conference call yesterday, Sean McManus was asked if his dual role as President of CBS’ news and sports divisions was a factor in the decision to program news elements in Super Bowl pregame. McManus: “I imagine if I wasn’t running both divisions, the coordination probably wouldn’t be as smooth and the effort to showcase CBS News in South Florida might not be as strong” (THE DAILY). In N.Y., Bob Raissman wrote CBS using a feature from Couric in its Super Bowl programming is “more about giving the star anchor a huge viewer platform that might entice a few more eyeballs to watch her daily newscast, which trails both NBC and ABC in the ratings race” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/30).

McManus Discusses News Aspect Of Super Bowl Pregame Show

GAME BROADCAST: BROADCASTING & CABLE’s Glen Dickson notes CBS will have 500 staffers and 47 HD cameras at Dolphin Stadium for the game. CBS Sports Exec VP & Exec Producer Tony Petitti said, “We want to make sure we’re putting the game first. It’s not about using any one camera or how many replays you do. It’s really about letting the game happen and not trying to force any plan you have onto the game.” Dickson added that Eye Vision system, which “gives viewers a 360-degree look at replays,” will not be used on this year’s game. CBS used it in ’01 and ’04, but “decided it was prohibitively expensive to do in standard-definition, much less” HD (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 1/29 issue). Pilson Communications President Neal Pilson said of broadcasting the Super Bowl, “You do have to be careful that you aren’t providing a prospective the core viewer isn’t used to. You can’t surprise them. You can’t scare off the current fan base” (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 1/29 issue).

COUNTER PLAYS: MEDIA LIFE MAGAZINE’s Toni Fitzgerald noted there will be “very little in the way of Super Bowl counterprogramming.” Other broadcast networks are airing either movies or repeats, and “most cable nets have their usual lineups or rerun marathons on tap, with almost no original programming in primetime.” GSD&M Broadcast Research Manager Susan Hajny: “As consistent as the Super Bowl is, the ratings against it are consistently low too. It’s probably not worth the time and money to do anything special.” Fitzgerald noted that last year, other English-language nets totaled 17.1 million viewers opposite ABC’s Super Bowl, down 19% from the previous year, and “few cable shows” drew more than 2.5 million viewers (MEDIALIFE MAGAZINE, 1/30). McManus said on yesterday’s conference call, “I don’t think any of us are terribly concerned about the counter programming. ... It would surprise me if a network would put on a program that would in many ways be sacrificed because of the ratings” (THE DAILY).

PREARRANGED DEAL? The N.Y. DAILY NEWS’ Raissman reported that CBS’ interview of Chargers LB Shawne Merriman during Wild Card weekend was “a prearranged deal. Merriman was told in advance” that studio talent James Brown, Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe and Boomer Esiason would not ask about his four-game suspension for testing positive for steroids (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/30).

DIVERSITY: In Chicago, Ed Sherman noted Greg Gumbel, who called play-by-play for CBS during the ’01 and ’04 Super Bowls, is the only African-American who has sat in the broadcast booth during the game’s 40-year history. “Fox NFL Sunday” studio host Curt Menefee, an African-American, “cites a lack of turnover at the network level in the last 10 years.” CBS’ Brown added that “networks need to hire more African-Americans as producers and in executive roles.” Brown: “I don’t know any African-Americans in senior positions. Those are the people who make the decisions” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1/30).

CARRIAGE ISSUE IN IOWA: Only one market –- Cedar Rapids/Waterloo, Iowa –- lost a CBS affil when Sinclair pulled its signals on January 6 as part of its carriage dispute with Mediacom. Mediacom is offering those customers 10,000 frozen pizzas with Schwan Food on Saturday. Mediacom has “declined to give out any numbers on subscriber defections,” but DirecTV, which is offering rebates to Mediacom subs, “says it saw a 70% increase in new subs in Cedar Rapids for” September-December ’06 compared to the same time period in ’05 (CABLEFAX DAILY, 1/31).