The first time CBS aired a Super Bowl, ads cost $42,000 per minute (compared with nearly $3 million for 30 seconds now), the network was required to share its live video feed with NBC, and original tapes of the broadcast were lost because, well, both networks accidentally taped over them.
So much about TV's coverage of Super Bowls has changed since that first title game in 1967. As the U.S. population has grown, viewership has skyrocketed -- from 75.5 million for that first Super Bowl (40 million on CBS, 35 million on NBC) to 151.6 million for last year's Pittsburgh-Arizona game on NBC. And with NFL ratings at their highest point in 20 years, Colts-Saints seems likely to be the most-watched game in Super Bowl history.
Sunday's game is significant for CBS because it caps the network's 50th season televising the NFL. That association, dating to 1956, was interrupted only by a four-year stretch (1994-97) when CBS lost NFC rights to Fox, before snagging the AFC package from NBC in 1998.
''There was a time when CBS Sports really did mean the NFL,'' Sean McManus, president of the network's news and sports divisions, said last week. ''The biggest games were on CBS, the best announcers were on CBS. It really was the dominant carrier. That tradition really propels us to where we are today. There are so many memories, whether it's the pass from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark, that are memories you've seen on CBS.''
In winning 42 Sports Emmy awards for its NFL broadcasts, CBS has employed a long list of announcer greats -- from Pat Summerall and John Madden, to Curt Gowdy and Lindsey Nelson, to Dick Enberg, Ray Scott and Vin Scully. Even Bob Costas and Al Michaels called NFL games for CBS before becoming more famous on other networks. CBS also has been a trailblazing pioneer, unveiling innovations that have shaped coverage.
Jim Nantz, CBS' lead NFL voice and a network employee since 1985, remembered last week how ''how devastating it was when we got kicked to the curb [in 1994]. It was hard for me because half of our department disappeared. It took a long time for those wounds to heal.''
CBS' AFC contract runs through 2013, and Nantz said he can't fathom the network losing rights again.
SIMMS, NANTZ SHOW
Sunday will be a showcase for Nantz and Phil Simms, working their second Super Bowl together since Nantz left the studio and replaced Greg Gumbel in the booth before the 2004 season.
''I love being Phil's partner,'' Nantz said. ''I feel so good about the vibe we're getting from people. I feel a huge difference, especially this year. I really feel we've hit our stride. We don't have to act like we get along, because we genuinely get along.''
Nantz and Simms can tweak each other and disagree without it seeming disrespectful. Simms, 55, will be working his sixth Super Bowl, including two earlier ones for NBC. Among TV analysts, only John Madden has worked more (11).
