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The network broadcasting the Super Bowl has the unenviable task of delivering a flawless game presentation. Last night, Fox needed to deliver a broadcast for both football junkies and those simply there for the commercials. How did they stack up?
Team introductions
Featuring Snake Plissken? What a bizarre way to welcome the world into the Super Bowl… with Kurt Russell waxing strangely about the Seahawks and Broncos before they were introduced. Russell’s involvement seemed out of place and the production was overdramatic. Welcome to the big game!
Go bigger
Most of the night’s broadcast felt like a normal Fox football broadcast: the current score graphics, typefaces, and overall feeling matched that of their football brand. However, the Super Bowl-specific graphics stuck out and didn’t belong.
- The coin toss: An unnecessarily HUGE graphic as the broadcast went to commercial before the ceremonial flip. Yes, Fox used the latest technologies to make it appear like the words were “sitting” on the field… but the size was out of control.
- Peyton Manning vs. The Legion of Boom: As the Broncos took the field, Fox displayed another giant graphic that “sat” on the field. This one compared Manning’s stats with those of the Seahawks’ defense. Let’s dial down the volume! Important to note: this type of graphic used the vertical space of the television rather than the horizontal space.
- Opening drive graphics: Once Seattle gained control of the ball, Fox displayed an extremely wide and chunky graphic of their rushing statistics. Later, they showed a similarly-structured one about Denver’s defense. The type appeared too large and the graphic took up too much screen real estate. These extreme horizontal graphics clashed with the vertical ones already used.
- Inconsistency before and after commercials: First, Fox showed the current score in the bottom left corner of the screen in a vertical fashion. Each team received very few horizontal pixels to display their logo and score. This was the not the way Fox typically shows the score when going to commercials during the regular season and playoffs. Coming back from commercials, they displayed a clunky New York City graphic in the bottom left corner featuring an illustrated bridge and Statue of Liberty. Both of these graphics sets lacked coherence.
Playmakers
Overall, the game felt like a typical Fox broadcast. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman called the action well and the overall graphics package felt ‘Fox-y.’ However, greater graphic consistency – through appearance and size – would have given the broadcast a more cohesive visual experience.
Unfortunately, no visual experience could distract viewers from the slaughter on the field.
