Raise your hand if you actually watch the Super Bowl pre-game show.  That's what I thought.  Not very many of you.  The ratings say you do watch, however.  Always, when the TV ratings for Super Bowl week come out, the pre-game show is usually the number two program of the week.  I am completely convinced that these ratings do not reflect the actual viewership.  At Super Bowl parties around the country, at bars around the country, anywhere the Super Bowl is being watched, the pre-game show is simply put on the television while everyone waits for the actual game.  No one actually watches it – it's just on.  The fact that it's four hours long and every conceivable issue regarding the game has been covered from every possible angle over the past two weeks is enough to make even the biggest football fans disinterested.  This is why FOX's decision to add a red carpet to the pre-game show this year, with American Idol's Ryan Seacrest presiding over it, was largely ignored.  The pre-game show had a very American Idol feel to it today, but I don't feel like anyone really cares one way or the other because, as I said, no one really watches it anyway.  If you did watch it earlier today, however, then you know that Seacrest interviewed a few celebrities and FOX aired the video for Paula Abdul's first single in over a decade.  It went about as well as could be expected.

As for Seacrest and his red carpet interviews, they were sufficiently awkward.  Though it definitely seemed out of place in a football pre-game show, FOX did have four hours to fill, so the interviews were welcome.  I definitely didn't need any more football analysis.  Hugh Laurie's interview was the weirdest, as he and Seacrest tried to avoid the shamelessness of his appearance.  Laurie, a Brit, had never attended an American football game before, had nothing of worth to say about the game and was only there because FOX wanted him there to promote the new episode of House that aired directly after the game.  The rest of the interviews were fine.  Nothing special, nothing especially bad.  Seacrest is good at what he does, and he turned a task that could have been a train wreck into something watchable.

As for Paula Abdul's video, well, I don't think it went very well.  Abdul was never a great singer, and her music career is best remembered for her music video co-stars – one with Keanu Reeves, one with a cartoon cat.  American Idol's Randy Jackson played bass in her video (which was one of those pseudo-live performance videos) - Paula danced and lip-synced.  It wasn't terrible and I respect Paula's desire to get back into the recording game, but I don't think she's going to suddenly sell a ton of records.  In a year, I bet she'll want to forget the whole thing.  But, I'll let you decide.  Here's the video, in all of it's YouTube glory.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)