LAS VEGAS — Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas on Sunday is shaping up to be quite a doozy.
There's the Kansas City Chiefs and their prolific offense, led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and mustachioed coach Andy Reid. On the other side of the field, there's the San Francisco 49ers, led by Mr. Irrelevant quarterback Brock Purdy, running back Christian McCaffrey and defensive standouts like Nick Bosa.
And — of course — there's Taylor Swift.
The Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champions and have been regulars in the big game during the 2020s, making it for the fourth time in five seasons. The 49ers haven't won a Super Bowl since 1995 but have been among the NFL's best teams the past several years, losing to the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54.
Here's a guide for watching Sunday's game:
What time does the Super Bowl kick off, and what channel is it on?
Kickoff happened just before 6:40 p.m. Eastern on WLTX-TV in Columbia. However, there is much more coverage on CBS/WLTX before the game and things to look forward to afterward.
There was briefly an outage on Spectrum cable before the game but that has been resolved for most customers.
Here's a look at the programming lineup:
12 PM - Road to the Super Bowl
1 PM - You Are Looking Live!
2 PM - The NFL Today
6 PM - Super Bowl of CBS Kickoff Show
6:30 PM - Super Bowl LVIII
After the game
Tracker - (Series Premier) The new CBS series Tracker stars Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw, a mysterious reward seeker and expert tracker, based on the novel The Never Game.
News19 at 11 - News19 will have an exclusive on-on-one with Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley, as well as the story of a South Carolina lawmaker who's suing Facebook parent company Meta after the death of his son.
Who is performing at the Super Bowl halftime show?
R&B/pop icon Usher is the headliner. He confirmed that he won’t be alone at Allegiant Stadium. In previous years, most Super Bowl performers have included guest stars — except for Rihanna, who was a solo act last year.
Who is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl?
Country music star Reba McEntire will sing the national anthem.
Andra Day will also sing Lift Every Voice and Sing before the game while Post Malone will give a rendition of America the Beautiful.
Doink Camera Makes Its Debut
For the broadcast, CBS is debuting the doink cam, which are cameras set up in the goal posts to catch a kick that hits one of the posts, or to give other unique angles.
There will be six 4K cameras in each goalpost — three in each upright. Two will face out to the field on a 45-degree angle, and the other lined up inward to get a photo of the ball going through. The cameras also have zoom and super slow-motion capabilities that could show how close a kick made it inside the uprights or straight down the middle.
CBS tested the cameras during a New York Jets preseason game at MetLife Stadium and a Las Vegas Raiders game in October at Allegiant Stadium. Cohen said CBS analyst Jay Feely, who kicked in the NFL for 14 seasons, also gave his input on where to position the cameras.
Since Super Bowls are usually testing grounds for ideas that eventually make their way into all NFL broadcasts, the doink camera could join the pylon cams as a standard part of the league’s top games in future seasons.
Other than kicks, the cameras on the uprights can provide unique end zone angles, including on sneaks near the goal line or an aerial view near the pylon.
However, don’t look for CBS to show angles from the doink cam just because they have it.
“We’re not going to force in the elements. We’re going to find out what works to help tell the story of the game and the moment,” Bryant said.
The upright cameras are part of 165 cameras CBS has for Sunday. The network also has cameras throughout the Las Vegas strip, including one at the top of the Stratosphere.