Your Super Bowl XLIV Schedule

I know that everyone reading here knows that the Super Bowl is on CBS and the game is being called by Nantz and Simms, however, I want to get all the pre-game stuff on here as well that day as well as the quirt of a second sideline reporter, and you all need to know the Pro Bowl announcers once they get released, right?

CBS is keeping with the tradition of a 4-hour pre-game show, but they are not going too overboard on their pre pre-game stuff as NBC did last year (2 hours of the Today Show at the Super Bowl starting at 9 AM), instead they are just going to go on the air at noon with The Road to the Super Bowl, followed by Phil Simms' All-Iron Team and then, to the Super Bowl Today and the Super Bowl we will go! (all times PM eastern)

Pro Bowl
NFC vs. AFC 7:30 (ESPN - Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden)

Super Bowl Sunday on CBS

12:00 - 1:00: The Road to the Super Bowl
1:00 - 2:00: Phil Simms All-Iron Team: Super Bowl Edition
2:00 - 6:00: The Super Bowl Today
6:00 - 6:25: Super Bowl Kickoff Show

And once all that is out of the way......

Super Bowl XLIV: New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts 6:25 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, SR: Steve Tasker and Solomon Wilcots)

When CBS starts releasing more about what they are going to do for The Super Bowl Today and who will be involved and what not, I'll be putting up additional posts on it, but for now, here is an early look at what we can expect from CBS during the Super Bowl.

The New York Jets-Indianapolis Colts matchup will serve as an “in-between,” as Barrow calls it, that will allow the CBS Sports team to segue from a typical NFL broadcast into the epic production that will be Super Bowl XLIV. This Sunday, CBS will build on its already heightened coverage of the Divisional Playoffs, which featured 22 cameras, 14 playback devices, and two graphics machines at both games, as well as prep for the Super Bowl grand finale that will feature 50 total cameras, 22 playback devices, and three graphics machines.

However, Barrow warns that an influx of equipment will not change the way he runs the broadcast. “When the game starts, as [director] Mike Arnold will tell you, you’re really waiting for it to come to you,” he says. “You can’t always be trying to invent something by showing this special camera that you added for the Championship game or the Super Bowl, because you might not have anything on that camera to show.”

In addition to more total equipment, the telecast will add Steve Tasker as a sideline reporter, marking the first time all season that a CBS NFL broadcast has featured a reporter on the field. Solomon Wilcots will join Tasker as a sideline reporter for the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.

“During the regular season, we’ve de-emphasized the role [of sideline reporter] and allowed Jim [Nantz] and Phil [Simms] to provide those stories. We still talk to the PR guys, and, if there’s an injury, then we have Jim give updates,” says Harold Bryant, VP of production for CBS. “As the games get bigger, though, we want someone down there in case there’s a big injury or something that happens where we need someone to actually go back into the locker room and be a reporter and get that information.”

When the final second ticks off Sunday, it will be on to Miami, where Barrow will produce his first Super Bowl since 2007, when the Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI.

“Everybody in our crew did the Super Bowl three years ago and has done football together for nearly six years,” says Barrow. “So we all know what our tendencies are and the things that we need to get done.”

I make little secret that of the 4 major networks sports brands that, in my opinion, CBS always has the best production, so I certainly look forward to everything they have in store for this in 13 days in Miami.

CBS caught a rough break the last time they did a Super Bowl (coincidentally also featuring the Colts in Miami) in that it poured nonstop all game. However, Dolphin Sun Life Stadium has been a stadium whose lighting has been pleasing to look at, so with the top-notch production that you know you are getting from CBS, if the weather improves in just the slightest than the last go round, it could easily be up there with one of the best produced Super Bowls with several memorable images.

We are 13 days from the Super Bowl. Are you ready?