ABC To Air Special "Wipeout" Episode Opposite Super Bowl XLIII

During NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, ABC "plans to counterprogram NBC's game-day entertainment telecasts with a sports-star-studded episode of the summer obstacle-course hit 'Wipeout,'" according to James Hibberd of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. ABC "will air a brief football-themed 'Wipeout' special against NBC's official halftime show headlined by Bruce Springsteen." Immediately following the Super Bowl, when NBC is airing a new episode of "The Office," ABC will air an hour-long "Wipeout" in which "cheerleaders compete against male 'couch potato' sports fans." ABC's "strategy will mark the first time in five years a major broadcast network has gone after a rival's Super Bowl momentum with original entertainment programming." As part of the two-part ABC special, titled "Wipeout Superball Sunday," Pro Football HOFer Michael Irvin "will lend sideline commentary, the Navy's Blue Angels will perform a flyover, the USC marching band will storm the course, contestants will run a [gauntlet] with quarterbacks pelting them with footballs, NFL luminaries will stop by the commentary booth, and the show's signature Big Balls obstacle has been converted into jumbo-sized footballs." The ABC special is "one of the most ambitious Super Bowl Sunday programming plans ever mounted by a non-host network." Yet, for the show's producer Endemol, "it's familiar territory" (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 12/9). ABC Senior VP/Alternative Programming John Saade: "It’s broadcast’s biggest day, and this is a big mass-market show, and it’s fun to be able to participate and be a part of it. This will put ‘Wipeout’ back in the public’s consciousness between runs, and we plan to have a lot of fun with it” (THRFEED.com, 12/8).