1) Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m., NBC. The Cincinnati Bengals are one win away from an amazing turnaround. Two years ago, they head football’s worst record, 2-14 … giving them a chance to draft quarterback Joe Burrow (shown here); this year, they were 10-7, then won three play-off games by a total of 13 points. Standing in their way is Matthew Stafford, who went 12 years without a playoff win; traded to the Los Angeles Rams, he went 12-5, then raced through the playoffs.
2) Super Bowl fuss, all day, NBC. The “Road to the Super Bowl” film will be at noon, followed by a five-hour pre-game show. At 6 p.m., NBC moves to the stadium; Mickey Guyton sings the National Anthem, Jhene Aiko does “America the Beautiful” and the Mary Mary duo does “Lift Ever Voice and Sing.” The halftime show has rappers Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem, plus Mary J. Blige.
3) Winter Olympics. The ice dancing finals start at 8:15 p.m. on USA, clashing head-on with the Super Bowl. NBC will take over at about 10:45, after the trophy is handed out. For USA, that’s part of a day stuffed with live coverage – speedskating at 6 a.m., men’s hockey (U.S.-Germany) at 8, women’s hockey (semi-finals) at 11:10 p.m. and the “big air” ski qualifying rounds at 1:30 a.m. In between, there’s taped coverage of speedskating, curling and women’s freestyle skiing.
4) “All Creatures Great and Small,” 9 p.m., PBS. Most networks bury themselves in reruns on Super Bowl Sunday, but PBS goes the other way, with one of the best episodes of a fine show. There are huge personal moments for James and others, plus a veterinary dilemma and more. This was the season-finale (and a great one) in England, but next week PBS jumps straight to the Christmas episode.
5) And more. While people are talking about football, others will be playing basketball. The pros have Hawks-Celtics at 2 p.m. on ABC; college has Connecticut-St. Johns at noon on Fox and Iowa-Nebraska at 3 p.m. on Fox Sports1. At 8 p.m., PBS has a new “Around the World in 80 Days,” with Fogg in the Old West. And at 8 and 10:30 p.m., Sundance has one of the all-time great movies, “E.T.” (1982).