1) Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m. ET, Fox. At first, the Kansas City Chiefs seemed like Super Bowl regulars. They were in the first one (in 1967) and lost, then in the fourth and won. And then came a half-century drought. The Chiefs finally returned in 2019, winning behind 24-year-old quarterback Patrick Mahomes. They lost with him in 2021 and now return — facing the Philadelphia Eagles, who have a 24-year-old quarterback (Jalen Hurts, shown here) of their own.
2) Pre-game fuss, Fox. It all starts at 11 a.m. with “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed.” At noon is “Road to the Super Bowl,” a slick NFL Films project. Then the marathon pre-game show starts at 1 p.m., with Curt Menefee hosting Howie Long, Terry Bradshow, Michael Strahan and more. At 6 p.m., things move to the field for the National Anthem (Chris Stapleton), “America the Beautiful” (Babyface) and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (Sheryl Lee Ralph).
3) Halftime and beyond. Rihanna stars (possibly with guests) in the halftime show, with lots of songs to choose from; at 34, she’s already had 31 singles in the top-10 and 14 at No. 1. And after the game, about 10:30 p.m. ET, Fox opens the second season of “Next Level Chef.” On a sleek, vertical set, Gordon Ramsay zips contestants between three levels, from make-do to state-of-the-art.
4) Puppy Bowl. It’s the 19th year for the pups, with a “kitty half-time.” This year, that’s 2-5 p.m. on Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, HBO Max and Discovery+. Animal Planet uses reruns for an all-day event – 2, 5 and 8 p.m. and midnight, with a “pre-game” show at 1 and 11 p.m. Also, Great American Family (formerly Great American Country) has its own “Rescue Bowl” at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET; a four-hour “Pup-A-Thon” fundraiser is noon to 4.
5) And more. Most networks retreat into reruns tonight, but there are exceptions. At 9 p.m., HBO has “The Last of Us” and Showtime has “Your Honor,” followed at 10 by the mid-section of “Murder in Big Horn,” a three-week documentary. And PBS is all-new: Season-finales of mysteries – a fun “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” at 8 p.m., the grim “Vienna Blood” at 10 – sandwich a quietly moving “All Creatures Great and Small” episode at 9.