Fox idolizes itself with event coverage
Fox’s Howie Long, as the network’s Super Bowl pregame coverage began Sunday morning, said for players and coaches awaiting the kickoff “the minutes seem like hours; the hours seem like weeks.”
That would also be true for viewers who watched all the pregame coverage. But Super Bowl pregame shows, like pregame chips ‘n’ dip, are meant for hours of off-and-on grazing.
And, it lets a network hype its parent company’s other properties on a show that draws more eyeballs – even though pregame shows aren’t really about football – than nearly everything in TV sports outside of the NFL.
News Corp.’s Fox took full advantage. It used Ryan Seacrest, host of its “American Idol,” in what was billed as the first made-for-TV Super Bowl red-carpet walk – and probably not the last.
Said Fox NFL pregame comedian Frank Caliendo: “Boy, nothing says ‘NFL-tough’ like Ryan Seacrest. I guess Richard Simmons was booked.” Or, maybe it had something to do with Simmons not being on any current Fox show.
Caliendo went on to appear with TV psychologist Dr. Phil –whose syndicated show is owned by Fox. Seacrest, on the carpet, talked to actors from the (Fox) TV series “House” and upcoming (Fox) movie “Jumper” and played a video from a regular person on (Fox-owned) MySpace.com. After “Idol” judge Paula Abdul performed a song that’s on “Idol” judge Randy Jackson’s new album, Jackson drove home the message - “Paula Abdul is hot!”
Off-carpet, Fox had plenty of the usual pregame staples like player up-close-and-personals – who knew New York Giant Plaxico Burress collects socks? – and musical acts such as Willie Nelson and Sara Evans singing “Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” But this being the Super Bowl pregame, not just any venue, the pair changed the line at least once to “mamas, don’t raise your cowboys to be babies.”
After Seacrest introduced Fox NFL pregame weather reporter Jillian Reynolds as “the first lady of Fox Sports,” she gave viewers taped nightlife reports from the Super bowl parties. At a Victoria’s Secret shindig, underwear model Karolina Kurkova volunteered what she finds interesting about football: “The get-down-and-dirty. It’s fun to watch.”
But if Fox’s pregame show, like all pregame shows, was about as nutritious as Super Bowl home snacking, Fox deserves a huge gold star for its closing element: A reading, with roles for various NFL-related people, of the Declaration of Independence.
Once kickoff came, announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman sounded like they were calling their usual Sunday afternoon game – which was good. They largely avoided breathless hype – such as Fox’s Long saying the undefeated Patriots were playing “for forever.”
Tom Petty, who in performing at a Super Bowl halftime joined an elite fraternity that includes the incomparable Up With People as well as Carol Channing, New Kids on the Block and Jessica Simpson, had a fully functioning wardrobe.