This weekend, The Big Game (as we think we are legally required to call it) will air. For those of us who don’t care about football — hello! — there is a very short list of Super Bowl-related things to attract our attention. You’ve got your half-time show; your commercials; your snacks, if you go to a party; and our subject today: the lead-out TV show.
For those not familiar with the lingo, this is the show the network picks to give the boost of the millions of eyeballs too tired or drunk to change the channel after the game: this year, Fox is airing the game, and the beneficiary will be The Masked Singer, lol. Maybe this scheduling boon will propel The Masked Singer to a triumphant forty-season (and counting) run, like Survivor, which got the Super Bowl lead-out for its Season 2 premiere in 2001. But maybe it’ll end up in less impressive company.
We went to the good old Wikipedia list of Super Bowl lead-out episodes dating all the way back to Super Bowl I in 1967 — when, fun fact, apparently both NBC and CBS carried the game! We each picked the most “what the fuck” lead-out we could find — the show that had the least cultural impact despite the leg up its network granted it. We’re each going to tell you a little bit about whatever the hell that show was. And then we’re going to tell you about another show the network in question could have aired that year, but didn’t.
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- Lead Topic 🏈 Extra Extra Hot Great XLIII