Television and Entertainment
The game was broadcast in the United States by CBS and featured the broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall and color commentator John Madden (their fifth and final Super Bowl broadcast for CBS). Lesley Visser and Pat O'Brien reported on the sidelines. Greg Gumbel hosted all the events with help from his fellow cast member from The NFL Today Terry Bradshaw, as well as Dan Fouts and Randy Cross. Also, history was made when Lesley Visser became the first female sportscaster to preside over the postgame Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation.
This would be the last Super Bowl to air on CBS until Super Bowl XXXV at the end of the 2000 season. CBS lost the NFC package to Fox following the 1993 season, leaving the network without the NFL until it acquired the AFC package from NBC for the 1998 season. Super Bowl XXVI was not originally in CBS' rotation; since it had just broadcast Super Bowl XXIV two years earlier. CBS would have received Super Bowl XXVII as part of the rotation while NBC would have aired Super Bowl XXVI. Instead, the NFL made an exception for CBS, which had acquired the rights to the 1992 Winter Olympics, and allowed the network to air the Super Bowl as a lead-in program for its Olympics coverage.
For this game CBS debuted a new network-wide red, white, and blue graphics package as well as a new theme song (composed by Frankie Vinci) for its NFL coverage. The graphics package lasted on CBS' sports broadcasts until the end of 1995, after which CBS discarded it in favor of an orange and yellow color scheme. The new theme music lasted until CBS lost the NFL at the end of the 1993 season, but continued to be used by CBS Radio until 2002. Several remixed versions of the 1993 theme were used upon the return of the NFL to CBS until the end of the 2002 season, when CBS replaced its theme with one composed by E.S. Posthumus.
Super Bowl XXVI was telecast in over 100 countries around the world, including Australia (Network Ten), Canada (CTV), Mexico (Canal 5) and the United Kingdom (Channel 4).
Following the game was a 60 Minutes interview with future President Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton and an episode of 48 Hours. Super Bowl XXVI was featured in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Lisa the Greek", which aired three days prior to the game and correctly predicted that Washington would win.
Also, this game was part of a broadcasting service test commissioned by the U.S. Navy. The ships participating were the USS America; USS Concord; USS Eisenhower; USS Inchon; USS Monterey; USS Normandy and the USS Sierra.
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