Spurred by Fox Sports having the rights to air the game itself, as well as the hometown advantage that comes with this year’s championship game being played in its market, WNYW New York will be covering every angle leading up to the big event.
WNYW Sees Big Opportunity With Big Game
Fox O&O WNYW New York is going to be packed with special Super Bowl programming the week leading up to the Feb. 2 championship game, in essence becoming the flagship TV station of the country’s No. 1 sports event.
Spurred by Fox Sports having the rights to air the game itself, as well as the hometown advantage that comes with this year’s Big Game being played at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, WNYW will be covering every angle of the event, from weather and traffic concerns and football festivities in midtown Manhattan to celebrity chefs’ suggestions for Super Bowl party food.
“We wanted to go beyond just having talking heads discuss the latest play,” says News Director Byron Harmon. “This is for hard-core as well as casual fans.”
The station got into the Super Bowl game early, launching its first special program, the weekly half-hour Super Bowl Friday, back in September. Just last weekend, the station added a second half-hour Super Bowl program, which airs at 10:30 p.m. Saturdays.
The WNYW morning show, Good Day New York, will broadcast the week of Jan. 27 from Super Bowl Boulevard, the 14-block theme park-like venue being set up on Broadway through the heart of Times Square, complete with football celebrities as guests, Harmon says. Road to Glory, a special showcasing the teams in the championship game, will air from 6 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 1.
The Road to Glory (M-F) 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. specials will be anchored by a different anchor each day along Super Bowl Blvd. (Russ Salzberg, Duke Castiglione, Dari Alexander and Steve Lacy)
The Saturday, 6-8 p.m. Road to Glory special will be hosted by Russ Salzberg.
Good Day New York will be anchored by Greg Kelly and Rosanna Scotto on location each day from Super Bowl Blvd.
All of these shows will have a mix of celebrity guests, athletes, analysis, events and feature stories.
With everything from game prep to celebrity parties going on that week, the station’s nightly newscasts that week will also be heavy on the Super Bowl, augmented by reports from Fox affiliates (Harmon says Fox has yet to determine who or how many will be in town), as well as Fox Sports.
“I think this is going to be awesome for the city,” Harmon says. “And for a news organization, this is like manna.”
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