Super Bowl counterprogramming

Although it is consistently one of the most watched sports television events in the United States,^[1] television networks and television stations have often attempted to counterprogram against the Super Bowl with original television programming. Counterprogramming is a broadcast programming term and occurs during the halftime period of the game, trying to sway audience away from the Super Bowl broadcast while the game is not in progress.^[2] In addition, despite it being a championship game putting the two best NFL teams against each other, no Super Bowl to date has gone into overtime, nor has any team come back from more than 10 points behind to win.

The first major success at counterprogramming the Super Bowl halftime show came with Fox Broadcasting Company program of a special live football-themed episode of its popular sketch comedy show In Living Color during the halftime of Super Bowl XXVI, which attained a viewership of over 20 million. The most commercially successful counterprogramming of the Super Bowl halftime show has been the annual Lingerie Bowl, drawing millions of viewers and national American advertisers.

After the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy in 2004, the NFL began a string of more conservative halftime musical acts from the classic rock era, such as Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones; this string was broken in 2011 when the NFL announced The Black Eyed Peas would perform in Super Bowl XLV's halftime. Recent recurring programs have included Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl, a program featuring dogs playing in a model football stadium (with its own "halftime show" featuring kittens), and the Lingerie Bowl, a series of pay-per-view broadcasts of all-female football games played in lingerie—which was also spun off into its own league. Cable networks have been known to air marathons on the night of the Super Bowl.

Counterprogramming efforts are not limited to television; for Super Bowl XLV in 2011, WCHK-FM, a station in the Green Bay, Wisconsin area announced it would counterprogram the game with dead air, since the hometown Packers were in the game.^[3]

List of Super Bowl counters

Notes

1. ^ Associated Press (2006-02-07). "Super Bowl 2nd-most watched show ever". MSNBC.com. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11205332/. Retrieved 2007-01-15. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Hibberd, James (December 8, 2008). "'Wipeout' special set for Super Sunday". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3iea59cb79796a9dff7024386d316b0583. Retrieved 2008-12-26. 
3. ^ "Green Bay Packers fan "Chuck FM" will play "nothing during the game" Sunday". Radio-Info.com. 2011-02-04. http://www.radio-info.com/news/green-bay-packers-fan-chuck-fm-will-play-nothing-during-the-game-sunday. Retrieved 2011-02-06. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Engstrom, p. 346
5. ^ D'Abell, Farren (2003-06-04). "Boy Meets Boy: Gay Dating TV". Windy City Times. http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=1560. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Ryzik, Melena (February 2, 2008). "'Just Fine as Tackles, but They Can’t Pass". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/arts/television/02bark.html. 
7. ^ ^{a b c} Ardent, Joe (January 31, 2008). "ABC's of Super Bowl XLII". The Press-Enterprise. http://www.pe.com/lifestyles/stories/PE_Fea_Daily_D_super_abc01.1ec8eb5.html. Retrieved 2008-12-26. 
8. ^ [1]
9. ^ http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TV_PUPPY_BOWL_RATINGS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-02-09-13-23-16

References

• Engstrom, Erika. "The 'Reality' of Reality Television Wedding Programs". Based on Engstrom's "Hegemony in Reality-Based TV Programming: The World According to A Wedding Story (Media Report to Women (2003) 31(1) 10–14) and "Hegemony and Counterhegemony in Bravo's Gay Weddings (Popular Culture Review (2004) 15(2) 34–35). Collected as chapter 13 in Galician, Mary-Lou and Debra L. Merskin (2007). Critical Thinking about Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media: Media Literacy Applications. Routledge. ISBN 0805856153. pp. 335–53.

External links

• Top 7 - Super Bowl CounterProgramming