What Wednesday #33: Super Bowl
Today I’m working on the biggest show on earth.
What Wednesday is where I talk about what I’m watching, reading, playing, etc, because for some reason I think you’ll find that interesting. If you have recommendations, I’d love to hear them :)
What I’m Doing: Working on the Super Bowl
Today’s post is going to be pretty short, because most of my waking hours this past week have been spent on getting ready for the Big Show. Fox, my employer, has the Super Bowl this year (it trades off every year between CBS, NBC, and Fox). This is my first Super Bowl, and it’s been about as crazy as I expected.
My week started with a sunrise shoot of a guy raising a flag in a concrete facility (random, I know). Wednesday, I was in Charleston interviewing some Navy SEALs who trained with the Falcons in the off-season. Yesterday, I finished up my piece on Houston Texans defensive end Devon Still and his daughter Leah, who was diagnosed with cancer at 4 (don’t worry, she’s been in remission for a while!). Today, I’m still scrambling trying to land an interview with the CMPD Chief of Police (spoiler, probably not going to happen).
Thankfully, I didn’t have to go to Houston for the actual Super Bowl. I know it sounds weird, but I’ve gone to enough sporting events in my life. It would definitely be an experience, but there’s a fairly good chance I’ll make it to one sometime, and with a 34 week pregnant wife, now’s definitely not the best time. Besides, these days I’m more interested in meeting interesting people than events, and I met plenty of them this week.
If you want to catch some of my work, you’ll need to tune in a little early. Like up to 2 hours early. The piece on Leah Still is my primary piece, and I think it turned out great. And if you happen to miss it, I’ll definitely be posting it on Monday. But the thing I helped with that will probably generate the most…umm…discussion is what I shot first thing in the week. The sunrise flag raising.
It’s for a piece that’s set to the Johnny Cash song “That Ragged Old Flag”, a song that I had never heard of until now. The piece has an insane budget (it cost $30,000 just to use the song) and should look incredible. What’s interesting is that though it’s usually a patriotic song, to use it in the current political climate will probably create a little controversy, with enough symbolism and lyrics to be used by both sides. (Oh, and before you say anything, Fox Sports is not in any way connected to Fox News. We have different aims, executives, and staff. There’s no crossover between us at all, beyond cross promotion.) I’m really interested to see how everyone responds.
And watching that response will be really easy because, let’s face it, everyone will be talking about the Super Bowl on Sunday. The numbers are staggering: two years ago, 114 million (!) people watched the Patriots beat the Seahawks, making it the most watched TV broadcast of all time. This one is projected to beat that. Now, only a fraction of that will be tuned into the pre-game show, but the numbers there are still massive. My Leah Still piece should have around 15–20 million viewers, which is still over half of last year’s record breaking NBA Finals Game 7. Not the pre-game — the entire game itself. That’s crazy!
The “Ragged Old Flag” piece will air at the very end of the pre-game, right before the team intros. There should be 60 million viewers at that point. The numbers are dizzying and easily the largest of my career. There aren’t any bigger stages than this, and it’s kind of hard to wrap my mind around.
Anyways, hope you enjoy the show!
