The classic show Lassie was a frequent lead-out program during the early years of the Super Bowl when the game was broadcast on CBS (1967 after Super Bowl I, 1968 after Super Bowl II, and 1970 after Super Bowl IV).

The episode of the NBC sitcom Friends (starring Jennifer Aniston) titled "The One After the Superbowl" - which aired in 1996 following Super Bowl XXX - is the highest rated Super Bowl lead out program ever, as well as the highest-rated episode of the entire series.

The Super Bowl lead-out time slot has occasionally been used by networks to debut new series. Among such shows is ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2003 following Super Bowl XXXVII.

The Super Bowl is the National Football League's championship game, and typically the highest-rated single U.S. television broadcast of any given year. In turn, the program aired immediately following coverage of the game in the U.S. is typically also one of the year's most watched television programs.

Overview [edit]

The Super Bowl provides an extremely strong lead-in to the programming on the channel preceding it, the effects of which can last for several hours. For instance, in discussing the ratings of a local TV station, Buffalo television critic Alan Pergament noted on the coattails from Super Bowl XLVII, which aired on CBS: "A paid program that ran on Channel 4 at 2:30 in the morning had a 1.3 rating. That’s higher than some CW prime time shows get on WNLO-TV, Channel 4’s sister station."^[1]

The Super Bowl lead-out^[2] is typically aired across most U.S. markets simultaneously, and is usually one hour in length, although before the game adopted its standard kickoff time of just after 6:00 p.m. ET in the early 1990s, it was not uncommon for longer programs to be broadcast. When the game moved into a later time slot in 1983, the game and its associated post-game programming would be scheduled until 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time, allowing for only one hour of network programming until the late local news. These programs are almost inevitably delayed, due to the extended length of the pre-game, halftime, and post-game festivities. It is common for affiliates in the home markets of the competing teams to delay the lead-out show further, until after additional local post-game coverage.

In 1979, and largely from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, this slot was used to showcase a new series or movie, such as The A-Team or The Wonder Years, or broadcast a special episode of an "up-and-coming" series. However, many of the series were ultimately unsuccessful, with some being canceled within a matter of weeks.^[3] Since then, virtually all of the programs in the post-game timeslot have been special episodes of series that had already aired for at least one season.

Despite the fact that Fox almost never programs time slots after 10:00 p.m. except on Saturdays (instead encouraging its affiliates to air local news in the slot), Fox has aired lead-out programming after the Super Bowl ever since it began airing them in 1997, which normally preempts local newscasts. The Fox affiliates in the market of the winning team do not necessarily have to do this (an example is Fox flagship WNYW, which aired a post-Super Bowl news broadcast following Super Bowl XLII and delayed the start of the House episode that was Fox's lead out program until the newscast's conclusion).

Currently, a regular-length episode of a drama series will usually air, although in some cases a one-hour episode of a sitcom (normally 30 minutes in length), or two episodes of different sitcoms paired together, may air instead. Quite often the selected series is one of the "prestige" shows for the network showing the game that year, or a moderate hit (e.g. The X-Files on Fox, Criminal Minds on CBS, and Grey's Anatomy on ABC), which the network wants to give a higher profile. The Simpsons has aired in the slot twice, with both airings being paired with the premieres of animated sitcoms (Family Guy in 1999 and American Dad! in 2005). An occasional practice used to maximize the effect of the lead-out, is to make the Super Bowl episode a cliffhanger, with a story that concludes later in the week in the program's regularly scheduled timeslot.

Because the Super Bowl is on a Sunday, networks do not usually air a new episode of their late night talk shows after the game, lead-out program and local news. However on three occasions, new episodes of late night shows have aired after the mentioned programs, each to give an additional promotional push to those shows rarely found on American television; the premiere episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live after Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2003, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2012 after Super Bowl XLVI, finishing a week of shows recorded from Indianapolis, and in 2013, a special episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson from New Orleans after Super Bowl XLVII.

The most common lead out program is the news magazine 60 Minutes which has aired after 4 Super Bowls (VI, XIV, XVI, XXVI). Two other series have followed the big game three times Lassie (I, II, IV) and The Wonderful World of Disney (I, VII, XI). Two more series have appeared in the time slot twice, The Simpsons (XXXIII, XXXIX) and Survivor (XXXV, XXXVIII)

The most recent Super Bowl lead-out program to have also been a series premiere is Undercover Boss, which was launched following Super Bowl XLIV on CBS. Three other series have had their season premieres following the Super Bowl: two editions of Survivor, the Australian and all-star series (which followed Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII), which aired on CBS, and The Voice, which launched its second season following Super Bowl XLVI on NBC.

TV ratings [edit]

The following is a list of shows that have aired after the Super Bowl in the United States:^[4]

References [edit]

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