Here it is Tuesday already, so I'm going to assume you have your Super Bowl Sunday all planned -- calendar cleared, snacks and beverages stockpiled, relatives informed to leave you alone all day.
What? No? Better get on that. In fact, you can begin to prepare for the big game starting tonight with what some believe is the best part of the Super Bowl -- the commercials.
Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials 2016 (now in its 16th year) airs at 7 p.m. today on CBS with co-hosts Boomer Esiason and Katharine McPhee.
Trivia: You know the 54-year-old Boomer from his 14 seasons (1984-97) as an NFL quarterback (Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals) and his TV NFL analyst duties since 1998. Why call yourself Boomer? His real name is Norman Julius Esiason. I rest my case.
You recognize McPhee (she's 31, by the way) as the pretty one who lost to Taylor Hicks in Season 5 of American Idol, and as the co-star of the CBS drama Scorpion. Maybe you caught her in her big feature film debut, 2008's The House Bunny. Nah, probably not.
Tonight's two-hour special celebrates 50 years of memorable commercials (traditionally the priciest ads on TV) with a Top 50 countdown. The top two commercials will be posted on CBS.com at 7 p.m. so viewers can vote for the greatest Super Bowl commercial of all time. The winner will be revealed live at 9 p.m.
Who had the unenviable chore of picking the Top 50? The honors were done by editors and writers of Time, Inc. Publications. They work at People, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Money, Time and Sports Illustrated, so we assume they know what they're talking about.
Will your favorites be included? Which ones do you recall best? Was it Ridley Scott's 1984 Apple commercial introducing Macintosh? Maybe it was Cindy Crawford's sultry 1992 Diet Pepsi commercial. Or the Budweiser Frogs (1995), or 1979's Mean Joe Green Coca-Cola commercial with the kid. ("Wow. Thanks, Mean Joe.")
Greene and "the kid," Tommy Okon, will be reunited during the special.
For me, the top pick has to be any one of the number of Budweiser ads starring the Clydesdales. The 2013 commercial, "The Brotherhood," featuring a foal (later named Hope) and "Landslide" by Stevie Nicks, was especially memorable. Tears still come to my eyes when the horse breeder is reunited with his grown-up baby Clydesdale three years later.
The special comes from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of Super Bowl 50, and will include reports by Entertainment Tonight's 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 info on where some of the stars are now. Maybe he'll interview the horse.
By the way, Fortune reports CBS is demanding $5 million for a 30-second commercial Sunday. That's a half-million more than what NBC got at last year's Super Bowl. Why pay so much? Last year, 114.4 million people on average tuned in.
• Wait. There's more! At 8 p.m. Friday, CBS presents Super Bowl's Greatest Halftime Shows. The two-hour special will include performances by U2, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Prince, Paul McCartney and others.
I don't know about you, but I doubt anyone will ever top Katy Perry and her dancing sharks.
And I wonder if the special will include Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004.
• And more! At 7 p.m. Saturday, Frazier will host Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials All-Star Countdown. It sounds redundant and probably is, but CBS is going to milk this cash cow for all it's worth.
In the hour special, Frazier will report from San Francisco's Pier 48 and take viewers through the Top 10 ads as revealed in tonight's special. He'll also unveil sneak peeks of the highly anticipated commercials to air during Sunday's Super Bowl.
• And more! Following Frazier's special at 8 p.m. will be the fifth annual NFL Honors with host Conan O'Brien. The two-hour special will recognize "the NFL's best players, performances and plays from the 2015 season."
The Associated Press picks the honorees. They include Coach of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Offensive and Defensive players and rookies of the year, the Most Valuable Player and the sentimental favorite, the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 02/02/2016