Sunday’s Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs marks the biggest day of sports broadcasting for networks.
Here are some things to know about Fox’s coverage as well as other Super Bowl-related programming on other networks:
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NINTH SUPER SUNDAY FOR FOX
This marks the ninth Super Bowl broadcast for Fox, and the second time it has done the game in Miami. CBS has done the most Super Bowls with 20, followed by NBC (19), Fox and ABC (seven). CBS and NBC both aired the first Super Bowl.
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IN THE BOOTH
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will call their sixth Super Bowl, the most by an announcer/analyst team on one network. Of the 22 pairings that have done the game on television, Pat Summerall and John Madden have the record with eight (five on CBS and three on Fox).
Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino will be the rules analysts, Reporters Chris Myers (fifth Super Bowl) and Erin Andrews (third Super Bowl) will be on the sidelines.
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PRODUCTION NOTES
Fox will use more than 90 cameras for the game, including multiple 8K cameras. This will also be the first time that the entire game will be shot in 8K. By comparison, Fox’s first Super Bowl broadcast in 1997 had 29 cameras.
Richie Zyontz has been part of CBS and Fox’s production teams for 13 Super Bowls. This will be his sixth as lead producer. Rich Russo is the lead director for the fourth time.
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RATINGS
The average audience for the playoffs is down 2% from last year. It was up through the first two rounds but took a dive due to the championship games not being close. Last year, both went to overtime.
How will that translate for the Super Bowl? Last year’s game on CBS between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams averaged 98.19 million on CBS, the lowest figures since 2008, when 97.45 million watched the New York Giants ruin the Patriots’ bid for a perfect season. The record is 114.4 million for the Super Bowl between Seattle and New England in 2015, which was on NBC.
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PREGAME COVERAGE
Fox comes on the air at 11 a.m., with “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed Super Bowl Special.” NFL Films’ “Road to the Super Bowl” follows at 12 p.m., and “Fox Super Bowl Kickoff” at 1 p.m.
The ”Fox Super Bowl Pregame Show” comes on at 2 p.m., leading into kickoff at 6:30 p.m.
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OTHER PREGAME PROGRAMMING
NFL Network will air an 8 1/2-hour edition of “NFL GameDay Morning,” starting at 9 a.m.
ESPN’s “Postseason NFL Countdown” will go on the air at 10 a.m. for four hours.
For those with pregame fatigue, the Puppy Bowl kicks off on Animal Planet at 3 p.m.
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FOR THE CORD CUTTERS
AT&T Now, Sling, Hulu, YouTube TV and fuboTV all have Fox. For those who don’t subscribe to a streaming service, it will be available on the NFL’s website.
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SPANISH BROADCAST
Fox Deportes has the Spanish-language broadcast for the third time. It will have eight hours of coverage beginning at 2 p.m. Adrian Garcia-Marquez and Rolando Cantu will call the game with reporting and interviews from Jaime Motta.
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ON THE RADIO
Sirius XM will have 10 channels dedicated to the game. Besides the Westwood One national feed as well as the Kansas City and San Francisco broadcasts, the satellite radio service will broadcast the game in Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), German, French, Hungarian and Portuguese.
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POSTGAME COVERAGE
After Fox’s’ broadcast ends, FS1 will have an expanded version of “The Super Bowl Postgame Show.” ESPN and NFL Network will also have postgame shows.
The third season of “The Masked Singer” gets the coveted spot after Fox signs off.
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