How stars took over Super Bowl
The show has come a long way since the game’s debut in 1967, when trumpeter Al Hirt played along with marching bands
M ichael Jackson burst out of the stage in the centre of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, in spectacular fashion. And he just stood there, still as a statue, for a full 70 seconds, as the crowd thundered deafeningly. A guitar solo split the air, and he removed his sunglasses. The King of Pop’s feet began moving, as he launched into Jam, and then displayed his trademark moves — moonwalking, spinning and gyrating — for Billie Jean and Black or White.
It was halftime at the 1993 Super Bowl between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys, but more Americans at home tuned in to watch Jackson than the first half, the New York Times reported. All told, the broadcast drew an estimated 133.4 million US viewers, according to the Los Angeles Times — setting a record for television viewership at the time and cementing a new era of Super Bowl halftime shows, ones replete with superstars and showmanship.
STARRY SPECTACLE
The NFL was ecstatic given that halftime shows had long been a weak spot in Super Bowl production. After Jackson’s success, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, the Black Eyed Peas, Slash, Prince, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Coldplay, Bruno Mars and other big names were tapped to perform. The pop star driven performances generated buzz and retained viewers. Today (Monday morning in the UAE), Justin Timberlake will take the stage in Minneapolis.
The show’s come a long way since the Super Bowl’s debut in 1967, when trumpeter Al Hirt played along with marching bands from Grambling State University and the University of Arizona, according to the Times-Picayune. While the bands marched in various formations, forming outlines of a riverboat, the Liberty Bell and the continental US, it wasn’t a spectacle so much as a way to fill time.
During the next several decades halftime featured the same sort of acts — often with a theme that had nothing to do with football. There was nothing inherently wrong with these shows, but they certainly weren’t conversation pieces.
In 1991, the NFL brought in boy band New Kids on the Block to perform, mak-
ing halftime of Super Bowl XXV the first to feature a contemporary pop artist. But not many people actually saw it, because ABC didn’t air it until after the game.
In 1992, Gloria Estefan led another panned halftime show, replete with giant inflatable snowmen, children rapping about Frosty and the Snowman and Olympians Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano ice skating around a stage.
END TO THE MARCHING BANDS
It was a huge flop for the network, particularly because Fox — which wasn’t yet affiliated with the NFL — siphoned a large portion of the game’s viewership from CBS.
During halftime, Fox aired a live episode of its often irreverent sketch comedy show In Living Color. CBS lost 22 per cent of its audience, as In Living Color racked up 22 million viewers, the Chicago
Tribune reported. its creator, Keenen Ivory Wayans, had predicted correctly when he told the Tribune of the halftime: “Most of the time, people just get up and go to the bathroom or check to see if the food is done or make another beer run.”
The NFL didn’t want anyone changing the channel in the middle of the biggest audience draw of the year.
The next year, everything would change. The organisation enlisted Radio City Music Hall Productions with the goal of creating a relevant halftime show that would appeal to 18- to 34-year-olds, according to the New York Times. They chose Jackson, and the NFL hasn’t enlisted a marching band ever since.