Atop ABC's List : Super Bowl, Minus Headaches

NEW YORK (AP) – With any luck, the National Football League has gotten this year’sSuper Bowl halftime show controversy out of the way early. Faced with an embarrassing story that the dancers it was seeking as extras for the Rolling Stones performance couldn’t be older than 45, the NFL reversed field and opened it up to everyone. Mick Jagger, 62, may now be able to see wrinkles as he looks out over his audience. It may seem incidental to the main event, but the halftime show has caused plenty of headaches for the NFL. The booking of rock royalty like the Stones – who turned down the gig several times before agreeing this year – is an indication of its importance. The Feb. 5 show on ABC is being overseen by NFL executive Charles Coplin. He’s a former ABC Sports producer who joined the league’s front office in 2001 and took over the entertainment staff immediately after the 2004 “wardrobe malfunction.” That incident, after the NFL had largely handed over production of the show to MTV, persuaded the league to take a tighter grip on the plans, Coplin said. “The guiding philosophy is to be unique, entertaining and appropriate, to cast entertainment that serves as wide a group as possible – from grandparents to grandkids,” he said. For several years, halftime entertainment was an afterthought: the Florida A&M University marching band has not one, but two, Super Bowl performances on its resume. Key years in making it more of an event were Michael Jackson performing with 3,500 children (1993) and U2’s Bono opening his jacket to reveal an American flag stitched in, a few months after the terrorist attacks.

The halftime show was another opportunity to make money, too. Sprint paid the NFL a record $12 million to be sponsor of this year’s halftime show, and is running a contest to fly the winners to Detroit to see the Stones up close. Each year’s TV audience generally approaches 90 million people. Usually only the Academy Awards comes anywhere close in pulling that many people together. But is a football league the right entity to put on such an important entertainment show? Coplin said that’s a subjective question. The NFL turns to others – this year veteran awards show and special events producer Don Mischer – to help run things. “We’re not so myopic to think that we can’t seek outside help,” he said. “And that’s what we do.” Some people in Detroit were unhappy this year’s show overlooks the area’s musical history – from Motown to Madonna to Eminem. The NFL has booked Stevie Wonder to play before the game and has done halftime tributes to Motown twice in the past 25 years. More often than not, like with Paul McCartney last year, the show has no geographical references. Aaron Neville, whose home was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, was selected to perform the national anthem in Detroit. It’s still not certain what the Stones will perform during their 12 minutes onstage, Coplin said. He’s in a delicate position – not wanting to seem like he’s ordering rock legends around, yet also intent on protecting the show’s family-friendly image. “We have a lot of conversations with them,” he said. “We try and convince them to perform in a way that will make them look great and appreciate the fact that the audience is so large.” He’s convinced that “they get it,” however. The stakes are high for the band, too. Sales of McCartney’s catalogue went up 250 percent the week after his Super Bowl show, and U2’s most recent album jumped from No. 108 to No. 8 on the Billboard chart after their gig.

Wow.