Television and Entertainment
The game was televised in the United States by CBS and featured the broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall and color commentator John Madden (the latter making his Super Bowl debut as a broadcaster). The broadcast also featured the introduction of the telestrator to a national audience.
The game was one of the most watched broadcasts in American television history, with more than 85 million viewers. The final national Nielsen rating was a 49.1 (a 73 share), which is still a Super Bowl record, and ranks second only to the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983 among television broadcasts in general. (Super Bowl XLV holds the record for total U.S. viewership, with an average audience of 111 million, but only earned a rating of 46.0 and a 69 share).
The pregame festivities featured the University of Michigan Band. Singer Diana Ross performed the national anthem, which followed a moment of silence in support of the Polish trade union Solidarity; following the crackdown by the communist government of Poland on the pro-democracy union. The coin toss ceremony featured hall of fame quarterback Bobby Layne.
Up with People provided the halftime entertainment featuring a salute to the 1960s and Motown. This was the first Super Bowl to be played in the Midwest.
60 Minutes was broadcasted after the game, representing the Super Bowl lead-out program.
Read more about this topic: Super Bowl XVI
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“All television ever did was shrink the demand for ordinary movies. The demand for extraordinary movies increased. If any one thing is wrong with the movie industry today, it is the unrelenting effort to astonish.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)