Behind-the-Scenes as CBS Covers Super Bowl
You probably think all the action happens out on the field for the Super Bow, but before the players hit the field, the team from CBS Sports is hard at work, preparing for what will likely be the biggest TV event in the nation this year, with more than 100,000 people expected to tune in.
But, as part of "The Early Show Saturday Edition"'s pre-Super Bowl special from Miami, viewers got an exclusive look behind the CBS Sports scene, with none other than Lesley Visser showing co-anchor Chris Wragge around the facilities.
Visser is the only woman in pro football's Hall of Fame.
Visser told Wragge she'd covered 26 Super Bowls, and never given a tour of that type, one that enables viewers to be privy to what goes into a broadcast of that magnitude.
With cameras following, she took Wragge into the game truck, which Visser said is "actually where it all happens. Anyone who's watching the game, it will come through this truck. Very rarely do people get to see this."
Special Section: The 2010 Super Bowl
Lance Barrow, coordinating producer of "The NFL on CBS," told them, "We usually have about 22 cameras for a regular football game. We have over 50 here at the Super Bowl. ... We have a towered camera that's on a 500-foot tower outside the stadium. We have a camera on top of a hotel that is right by the racetrack, not far from here, sky cam."
How do the guys in the truck choose the replays people see, especially with so many angles to choose from? "I don't think there's an absolute about it," Barrow says. "You just pick what you think are the best-looking pictures and hopefully you pick the right one!"
When Visser had to leave Wragge to go to a rehearsal, he spotted a sign saying, "No Admittance." Naturally, he barged right in!
And lo and behold, sitting there was play-by-play man Jim Nance, who remarked, "It's hard to say there's anything bigger than this. If things go as we expect they will, it will be the most-watched television event in the history of our country so, that gets your attention!"
More than 78,000 people will be crammed into Sun Life Stadium on Sunday, watching what Wragge called "the biggest game of the year. And this broadcast will be beamed to close to a billion people worldwide. It doesn't get any bigger."