It was easy to envision a confident smile on the face of Sean McManus during a conference call.
The president of CBS News and Sports is on the verge of being closely involved in producing the first Super Bowl to reach 100 million viewers.
McManus, also the game’s executive producer, didn’t come right out and predict the Colts-Saints contest would top the 98.7 million that watched the Steelers beat the Cardinals last year.
But he noted to reporters that all the ingredients were there for a “Super Sunday.”
“If we get a close game, I think we will get extraordinary ratings and a huge audience,” McManus said. “And if we get just an OK game, I still think we’ll get strong viewership because of the story lines involved.”
They include the almost legendary reputation of Peyton Manning and the mystique surrounding New Orleans and the city’s football team.
Another factor, according to McManus, is the overall popularity of the NFL during the regular season and the playoffs. Ratings of all networks were up considerably.
Even ESPN’s coverage of last Sunday’s Pro Bowl was up 37 percent in audience ratings compared to 2009.
Weathermen also seem to be McManus’ allies.
He talked about forecasts calling for sunny skies in Miami and cold weather and more moisture for the heavily populated, snowbound northeast.
Great TV-watching weather.
Super Bowl XLIV will be CBS’s 17th Super Bowl telecast and the first completely aired in high definition.
The network’s production personnel like to contrast today’s battle with the first Super Bowl, played Jan. 15, 1967, in a half-filled Los Angeles Coliseum.
CBS and NBC carried the Packers-Chiefs game during this Stone Age production, with both networks utilizing the same feed.
The total viewing audience: 51.8 million, with CBS slightly ahead of NBC.
(A trivia note: CBS used three announcers — Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker and Frank Gifford — while NBC had Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman in the booth. Only Gifford is still alive.)
Obviously, HD wasn’t even an electronic dream in 1967, and instant replay was 11 months away from reality.
CBS’s Tony Verna introduced that now-familiar staple in the Army-Navy game Dec. 7, 1967.
Today’s contest will offer what McManus calls “the most innovative electronic stuff in the business.”
Among the wide variety of cameras are six high-speed machines, appropriately called “Super Vision,” which can be used in determining questionable calls on fumbles, receptions, goal-line plays and out-of- bounds situations from various angles.
For director Mike Arnold, a successful Super Bowl telecast is simple: Don’t miss any crucial plays.
“I want to be almost like a baseball umpire,” he said. “I don’t want to be noticed. I want people to talk about the game.”
McManus and the production crew leave game predictions to lead analyst Phil Simms.
“Obviously, a game like this can take many turns,” Simms said.
“One important key deals with the Saints’ defense, which can’t allow Manning time to set up and throw.”
The kickoff, scheduled for 4:25 p.m. (KCNC-Channel 4), will be preceded by the now-traditional four- hour-plus pregame show featuring interviews with players, ex-Super Bowl stars, and a variety of looks at New Orleans. Katie Couric also will interview President Barack Obama.
McManus, briefly assuming the role of a TV critic, believes one pregame segment stands out — Bill Cowher’s interview with Plaxico Burress, filmed in the Oneida Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where the former Giants receiver is serving time after pleading guilty to a concealed weapons charge.
Need a day-long Super Bowl fix?
The NFL Network begins its coverage at 7 a.m., while ESPN joins the audience battle at 8.
Steve Sabol’s NFL Films premieres its annual “Road to the Super Bowl,” normally a classy production, at 10 a.m. on CBS.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
