Fox's coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII in less than three weeks and the amount of coverage for the event will be unprecedented thanks to Fox's wide reach on cable in addition to broadcast television.
Starting with coverage of the game itself on Fox, it will be called (unsurprisingly) by Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver, and Erin Andrews. In addition to the normal broadcast crew of Buck and Aikman, Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira will be in the booth to provide immediate analysis of any controversy.
The main pregame show on Fox will run for four hours from 2 to 6 PM. It will begin at Times Square and end at MetLife Stadium, marking the first-ever dual state pregame show. In addition to the usual endless game breakdowns, features are planned detailing the life of Vince Lombardi (who grew up in Brooklyn), title games that took place in New York, the weather, and the life of Pat Summerall.
There is also going to be a red carpet segment, which could be painful if past history is any indication. It's been the most widely panned pregame element in recent years
The game itself is the endgame on Fox's broadcast channel, but coverage leading into the pregame show won't be confined to Fox Sports 1 over the weekend. On Saturday night at 8 PM, the NFL Honors show, hosted by Alec Baldwin (if he doesn't do anything to get fired) will air on Fox and the 2014 Hall of Fame class will be announced. Before the pregame show begins on Sunday, the yearly NFL Films Road to the Super Bowl production will air at noon and will be followed up with another NFL Films production, Football America: Our Stories. This one-hour presentation is the culmination of the Together We Make Football commercials that we've seen endlessly during this football season, and the five winners will be revealed.
What about the bulk of Super Bowl week coverage on Fox Sports 1? Well, if you're into obscene amounts of coverage, FS1 has you covered. Fox Super Bowl Daily will air twice per weekday, at noon and 6 PM respectively, and airs in a two hour block on Saturday at 5 PM between live events. Each weekday also features a three hour Afternoon Huddle show live from Radio Row, hosted by Chris Myers and Matt Hasselbeck. NASCAR Race Hub and Crowd Goes Wild will both also be airing in their normal time slots (4 and 5 PM respectively) during the week. Fox Sports Live will also air in its usual evening time slot, but won't be on location in New York – it'll be business as usual in Los Angeles.
On Monday, Fox Sports 1 on 1 will feature Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan, and Jimmy Johnson talking about their Super Bowl histories with Curt Menefee. It's followed up with the official Super Bowl Kickoff Spectacular, featuring NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie (which I'm sure won't generate any controversy at all). Tuesday brings us encores of the two Being: The Finest specials from earlier this year about the NYPD and NYFD football teams. On Friday, three episodes of Fox Sports 1 on 1 will re-air, including the panel from Monday and episodes featuring John Elway and Tom Brady. A three-hour pre-pregame show also airs at 10 AM on Super Bowl Sunday, featuring the Fox Football Daily crew.
Non-football live telecasts are also going to be plentiful during the week. The fun starts early on the Sunday morning before the Super Bowl, with an eight hour block dedicated to the Tudor United SportsCar Championship, coverage which begins Saturday afternoon on Fox's broadcast network. The marquee event of the Sunday before the Super Bowl is #1 Arizona hosting Utah in Pac-12 hoops. On Monday night, #6 Villanova takes on Georgetown in a classic Big East matchup. Tuesday will see St. John's travel to take on #20 Creighton. On Wednesday, Fox Sports 1 will air the NASCAR Hall of Fame Ceremony live, and will follow it up with Butler-Seton Hall.
We've got more Big East hoops on Thursday with Providence and Marquette, and Fox Sports 1 will also air a Golden Boy event featuring a title fight between Victor Ortiz and Luis Collaza. After the 1 on 1 encores on Friday, soccer will be on the menu, as the US Womens National Team makes their 2014 debut against Canada. Finally on Saturday, Marquette-St. Johns (from Madison Square Garden) and #4 Michigan State vs Georgetown will get us through the afternoon, leading into two hours of UFC 169 prelims and three hours of supercross at night.
Needless to say this will be the biggest week for Fox Sports 1 since their August launch and Fox is going to use the Super Bowl to raise awarness for the channel. We've seen NBCSN's ratings rise and fall as the Olympics come and go. The challenge for FS1 will be if any of the Super Bowl week viewers stick around.
The fourth, and final, phase of Fox's takeover of Super Bowl week relates to their other cable networks – specifically, FX, FXX, FXM, and Fox News. While these networks aren't directly involved with the Super Bowl, they're going to at least have a Super Bowl presence on your screens. Fox News will be airing numerous live shows from the Fox Sports Times Square set on Thursday and Friday, and will be providing reports (of what exactly, I'm not sure) from MetLife Stadium. FX will air a robot movie marathon on Super Bowl Saturday hosted by Fox Sports robot mascot Cleatus. Also on Super Bowl Saturday, FXX will air a marathon of The League's fifth season and FXM will air a marathon of football-related movies. Both networks will have their bumpers hosted by members of Fox's NFL talent pool.
Alright, do you have all that? Fox is going to be carpet bombing viewers with content heading into Super Bowl Sunday, and they're really setting the bar quite high with their coverage. I'm curious as to whether or not they'll run out of things to talk about before the opening kickoff, but I guess we'll see as the week moves along.
