From ManningCast to McAfee to Star Wars: ESPN, Disney Pull Back the Curtain on Super Bowl LXI Plans

ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an overview of the massive Disney and ESPN efforts around Super Bowl LXI. At the center of the discussion was Andy Tennant, the network's vice president of Super Bowl production, who began by acknowledging the most important thing: how much time is left on the countdown clock in the ESPN cafeteria in Bristol, CT.

93 days, 5 hours, 13 minutes, and 28 seconds till kickoff, Tennant said as the panel discussion began.

The campaign and countdown began at the conclusion of Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara as ESPN produced a symbolic handoff from one NFL season to the next, with live content from SoFi Stadium. Good Morning America announced the next morning that the company's entire library of intellectual property was headed to the Super Bowl, and coverage moved to Disneyland, the traditional destination of the game's MVP.

So this season February 14, 2027 (yes, Valentine's Day) at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles is where a wealth of activities that have been ongoing for nearly a year hit their apex. And, according to the executives who spoke at the ESPN Edge Innovation Conference, the plan is not to deliver one telecast. It is to deliver a menu full of viewing options designed for fans big and small, old and new.

Tim Reed, ESPN's vice president of programming and acquisitions, said the whole distribution plan grew out of a single target. From the jump for us, our overarching goal was to deliver the most-watched Super Bowl, Reed said. The record to beat? 127.7 million viewers.

(l-to-r) ESPN's Tim Reed, Steve Ackles, Andy Tennant, and Lisa Salters discussed Super Bowl LXI at ESPN's EDGE Innovation Conference.The foundation is a main broadcast on both ESPN and ABC, in English and Spanish, with Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge on the sidelines and Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth. Univision will carry a separate Spanish-language production, and ESPN Deportes will have its own.

Now that alone in itself is more than any other broadcaster's done before; this will be the first time that a Super Bowl is on broadcast and cable, so right there it's a big jump, Reed said.

But ESPN will be doing much more than just the most that has ever been done and that is where, Reed said, Disney+ comes into play as well as ESPN2 and other ESPN networks. For example, The ManningCast will air on ESPN2, marking Peyton and Eli Manning's first Super Bowl together. Pat McAfee's Field Pass, a new show launched this season, will make the jump too.

Pat McAfee in the Field Pass just launched, so that's new, but we're going to bring that to the Super Bowl and give the on-field perspective for everybody to see, Reed said.

Tennant said the access will be unprecedented: There's never been an access like Field Pass done at the Super Bowl ever. The Playbook predictive analytics stream rounds out the lineup.

Disney's biggest swing for younger viewers is its Star Wars alt-cast. And then also the one that's ultimately targeted at youth co-viewing is our Star Wars Funday Football. And again, that's going to be available across Disney+, Disney XD, Disney Channel, Reed said.

Tennant, a self-described Star Wars geek, has seen early prototypes. Basically, you're going to be able to watch the game as if you were watching the main broadcast, only the players would be animated versions of Star Wars characters, and they would be playing in a setting that is famous from a Star Wars motion picture, he said. In my 31 years at ESPN, it is one of the most creative things that I have ever seen, both in terms of the scene where they're going to actually play the game and I think they will melt the Internet.

Steve Ackles, executive producer of Monday Night Football, praised the collaboration with Beyond Sports. To take the real-time data, render it out in an animated environment literally 60 seconds later, it's the same exact game, he said. It's really cool, it's really innovative, and I think kids really enjoy it.

The Star Wars FunDay Super Bowl production promises to be next-level when it comes to quality and storylines.For Ackles, who will be in the big chair on Super Bowl Sunday just as he is every Monday night, the challenge is making the scale feel routine despite new heights in terms of scale as there will be 21 trucks in the compound as opposed to the typical six for a MNF broadcast (and six trucks is already a lot).

We're working diligently on every aspect of: what do we do with the coin toss? How we go into the third quarter rollout?, he says. There's a lot of different things that can be brought to life with a lot of planning. And from a broadcast quality, there should certainly be a difference. For example, the graphics package is going to be enhanced for our Super Bowl. But for the most part we want everyone in the booth, sideline, and the truck to kind of do the same thing we do each week for Monday Night Football. The fans are used to Monday Night Football so we don't want it to be too different. But there will be some bells and whistles for sure, and we're still working on a lot of different things.

Among the things Ackles could discuss were two brand-new 8X 4K UHD cameras making their debut and an extra tape release truck dedicated to making sure no camera angle or replay is missed. The game will also be delivered in 4K UHD.

Lisa Salters, who moderated the panel and works the sideline on Monday Night Football, noted that Monday night feels like the Super Bowl every week because it is the only game on. Ackles said the crew approaches it that way. We're gearing up every single week for the Super Bowl, but we're also doing the game. We treat every game as such, and we're going to put every effort into it.

The crew w

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