CBS gives itself an A-minus for a C-minus Super Bowl

The Athletic

This was the second lackluster Super Bowl for the team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo. Two years ago, they called another Tom Brady-winning dud of a game, a 13-3 New England Patriots victory over the Los Angeles Rams that was the lowest-scoring game in Super Bowl history. This year, they had to deal with a Tom Brady-led blowout. “I thought we had an A-minus telecast for a C-minus game,” lead producer Jim Rikhoff told The Athletic. “You can’t control the game. We’ve been fortunate to have three great AFC championships where we had great telecasts and then maybe two subpar games on the field in the Super Bowl that our group has done. You always want to have a great game, but when you don’t have that, it’s often more of a challenge for the production. You have to cover the game that happens in front of you. I do think Jim and Tony struck a great balance between entertainment and football acumen. That’s what people want. They want to learn about football and they want to be entertained, especially in a game like the Super Bowl where you have a lot of peripheral viewers who are not hardcore football fans. But I also think Jim and Tony are great for the hardcore football fan. That’s a hard balance to strike for this game.

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