CBS announced today two Super Bowl specials that will air prior to SUPER BOWL 50.
First, SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIALS 2016 will celebrate 50 years of great Super Bowl commercials with a top 50 countdown culminating in a live announcement of the greatest Super Bowl commercial of all time from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. home of SUPER BOWL 50. It will be broadcast Tuesday, Feb. 2 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network and available live and on-demand across digital platforms through CBS All Access. It is hosted by Boomer Esiason, Analyst for CBS Sports’ NFL pre-game show THE NFL TODAY, and Katharine McPhee, star of the CBS drama SCORPION.
Also, SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIALS ALL-STAR COUNTDOWN, a new special hosted by ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT’S co-host Kevin Frazier from Pier 48 in San Francisco, to be broadcast Saturday, Feb. 6 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network and available live and on-demand across digital platforms through CBS All Access. The special will be a Super Bowl Commercial celebration where Frazier will take viewers through the top 10 spots revealed in the SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIALS 2016 special and offer sneak peeks of the highly anticipated commercials to air during CBS’s SUPER BOWL 50.
This year, SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIAL 2016 has the top editors and writers of Time, Inc. publications, including Jess Cagle, editorial director at People, Dalton Ross, executive editor-at-large at Entertainment Weekly, Daniel Roberts, writer at Fortune, Susie Poppick, associate editor at Money, Sean Gregory, senior writer at Time, and Richard Deitsch, senior editor at Sports Illustrated, as the Time Inc. Editorial Blue-Ribbon Panel in charge of ranking the 50 Super Bowl Commercials from spots 50 - 3. The top two commercials will be posted on CBS.com at 8:00 PM, ET/5:00 PM, PT, at which time viewers can vote for the greatest commercial of all time. The winner will be revealed live during the East Coast broadcast at 10:00 PM, ET.
The Super Bowl wouldn’t be the same without the commercials during the game. For the advertising community, the Super Bowl is their Super Bowl, and they often create commercials specifically for the enormous viewership that the game provides. For many, watching the commercials is the most entertaining part of the Super Bowl and advertisers try to get their money’s worth by unveiling their most original and creative spots. This year’s two-hour special, now in its 16th year, will celebrate the greatest commercials that have become almost as big as the game itself in the last 50 years.
Also included in the special on Feb. 2 will be reports by Kevin Frazier from various locations in San Francisco about how the city is preparing for Super Bowl Sunday. Frazier will interview stars from classic Super Bowl commercials and provide scoop on where some of the stars are now. In addition, THE NFL TODAY will weigh in with their Super Bowl commercial analysis, and their picks will be posted on CBS.com when the site launches on Thanksgiving Day. Each week beginning Monday, Dec. 7, five new spots from the special will be posted to CBS.com until the special airs. The categories include Game Changers, Best of Bud, Animals, Celebrities and Over the Top.
SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIALS 2016 is being produced by IMG Productions, JUMA Entertainment and Robert Dalrymple Productions. Robert Horowitz and Steve Mayer are the executive producers, Tony Lanni is the co-executive producer and Robert Dalrymple is the producer. Mark Ritchie will direct. SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIALS ALL-STAR COUNTDOWN is being produced by JUMA Entertainment and IMG Productions. Robert Horowitz is the executive producer, Tony Lanni is the co-executive producer and Robert Dalrymple is the producer. Michael Dempsey will direct.
BOB HOROWITZ is the president of Juma Entertainment (“Fashion Rocks”/ “The Singing Bee”) and the Executive Producer of “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials” for 16 years