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NEW YORK — Super Bowl LXI is 2.5 years away. But ESPN has already started game-planning how it will produce and televise its first Big Game, noted president of content Burke Magnus. Since its founding in 1979, ESPN has dreamed of landing a Super Bowl. During the most recent NFL rights negotiation, ESPN finally cracked the Big Game rotation, scoring the rights to two Super Bowls after the 2026 and 2030 seasons. ESPN’s first two Super Bowl telecasts will be simulcast on sister Disney network ABC. (ABC televised 2006’s Super Bowl XL in Detroit, but that game was produced under the aegis of the old ABC Sports.)
ESPN never does anything halfway. Magnus said the network wants to cover the Super Bowl like it’s never been covered before when the day finally arrives Feb. 14, 2027. The game will also be played in Disney’s backyard in Los Angeles.
Start with the primary Super Bowl telecast itself. One of the reasons ESPN lured Troy Aikman and Joe Buck away from Fox with five-year contracts worth a whopping $95 million and $65 million, respectively, was their Super Bowl gravitas. They called six Super Bowls at Fox, more than any broadcast duo outside of the late John Madden and Pat Summerall. They’re the best NFL announce team in the business, in my book.
Alternate Telecasts and Pregame Ambitions
Then there are Peyton and Eli Manning. Magnus “for sure” wants the Super Bowl–winning brothers to create a ManningCast on ESPN2. Besides the Mannings, ESPN will also likely offer a “MegaCast”-like slate of viewing options, similar to its approach with the College Football Playoff national championship. Given the critical acclaim for Disney’s Toy Story Funday Football telecast last season, I think it’s a lock that the Mouse House will offer a kids-focused version of the Big Game.
ESPN is also exploring new ideas that haven’t been tried by Super Bowl broadcasters Fox, CBS, and NBC. Since CBS’s Super Bowl pregame programming ran seven hours, I asked Magnus for the over/under on ESPN’s first Super Bowl pregame show. He laughed. “Seven days,” he said.
Meanwhile, Magnus has created a full-time job that might get a few clicks on LinkedIn. Namely, ESPN is seeking a vice president of the Super Bowl, whose only job will be everything and anything related to ESPN/Disney’s production of Super Bowl LXI.
“It was very, very important to me that we had a person, and a small team of people built around this leader, who are fully dedicated,” explained Magnus. “As I like to say, get out of bed every morning thinking about that Super Bowl—and only that. So that they can keep everything moving in that direction. Because really what we want to do is bring everything that the Walt Disney Co., ESPN, ABC, etc., have—and bring it all to coverage of that game. We want to redefine what covering a Super Bowl looks like. We have, in many ways, the luxury of not having an imprint in people’s minds of what that might look like since we haven’t ever been there.”
