No malfunctions during the Super Bowl, please

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Feb 3, 2007 | by Scott D. Pierce Deseret Morning News

PASADENA, Calif. -- The last time his network telecast the Super Bowl, CBS Sports and News president Sean McManus wasn't paying much attention to the halftime show.

After spending some 5 1/2 hours in the truck that housed the control room, McManus "went to my office trailer," where he was "watching it very casually and looking over some notes."

"I was actually walking back into the (control room), and one of our technicians came up and said, 'Did you see what happened?' I said, 'No, I didn't see what happened.' And then when I got in the truck, I learned what happened. And from there, it developed into the story that we're all familiar with."

Who can forget the incident that brought the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" into the lexicon? The millisecond when Justin Timberlake grabbed hold of Janet Jackson's costume and intentionally or inadvertently -- depending on who you ask -- exposed her breast.

"I was actually, probably in between trucks when it actually happened, because it was the one break that I had during the day from noon until 10 o'clock at night," McManus said. "So ironically, somehow the Lord prevented me from seeing it live.

"Unfortunately, He did not prevent the rest of America from seeing it live, but I was spared."

That single incident set off a firestorm of controversy that continues to rage today, what with the FCC trying to clamp down on "indecency" and the networks fighting back. But McManus doesn't seem particularly nervous about Sunday's halftime show, even though it will feature Prince. And Prince isn't exactly known for his wholesomeness.

"The NFL has total control of the entertainment at the Super Bowl. Listen, they had the Rolling Stones last year. The Rolling Stones have had a number of rather racy lyrics, and they worked with the NFL to avoid them being broadcast. And so I think I trust the NFL, that the show that they put on will be appropriate for the audience at the Super Bowl. So I'm pretty confident they've got it in hand."

But the network will employ a 5- to 7-second delay on the pregame (featuring Cirque du Soleil) and halftime shows; the game itself will go out live.

And, busy or not, McManus will be among those watching Prince perform during halftime.

"Well, based on what happened when I didn't watch it last (time), I probably will, yes," he said.

AMONG THE BIGGEST rivalries in football is the one between CBS and Fox. But CBS Sports executives came to the defense of their counterparts at Fox over an incident at a playoff game a few weeks ago. During Fox's coverage of the New Orleans-Philadelphia game, a shot of the crowd caught a woman wearing a shirt that said, "(Expletive) Da Eagles."

And the expletive was the one that generally will get you an R- rating if it's in your movie more than once.

Even though the shot in question wasn't live -- it was a replay of the crowd reaction after a Saints touchdown -- nobody at CBS believes for a moment that it was intentional on Fox's part. (Although some wacko advocacy groups have advanced that theory.)

"I don't know what happened in the Fox (control room) truck, whether it was obscured by a time code on the bottom of the screen. That could have been the situation in that case," said Tony Petitti, executive vice president of CBS Sports. "The size of the monitors on the replays is much smaller.... So there's a lot of reasons it could happen."

It's the director's responsibility to choose which shots go on the air. He chooses from dozens of camera shots on dozens of monitors, making snap decisions every second. And he's choosing shots from cameras that are moving even as he chooses them.

"The director's taking a look at the shot he wants to select.... He's got a crowd shot and he knows that camera's in a good place and he's about to cut to it," Petitti said. "So he may have looked at it a second. He's already on to his next shot by the time he selects that shot.

"It's easy to say that it's a terrible thing that happened. But in reality, of all the decisions that are being made, the speed they're being made in that truck, it's a tough thing to criticize."

There was a certain there-but-for-the-grace-of-God feeling -- although, given the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, the same sort of thing has already happened to CBS.

"Look, it's just something that we're aware of," Petitti said. "We talk to our production teams throughout the season about what we think is appropriate, to be careful. When you see a shot like that, to move off it, obviously, as quickly as you can and to apologize.

"It is live television, and we try to do the best we can to prevent that. There's no one that wants that to happen."

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com