CBS to use Super Bowl site as show hub

• CBS will have five sets to run live or taped for live shows from New Orleans at the Super Bowl
• This will give CBS Sports an opportunity to promote its new cable channel shows
• Success with this might lead CBS Sports to expand its studio coverage at the NCAA Final Four

An iron law of media is that Super Bowl TV hubbub must increase every year.

Still, this is pretty elaborate: CBS, for coverage of the Super Bowl in New Orleans, plans to bring along lots of its shows and stage them in an outdoor square.

"It's a whole different approach" from the network's past Super Bowl efforts, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus says. "It's the best example I can think of of the corporation showcasing its various assets and platforms."

Over the years, networks carrying Super Bowls have gradually lengthened their pregame show and brought their other shows on-site.

But CBS' plans for its temporary on-air hub in New Orleans' Jackson Square in the French Quarter will take on-air TV tonnage to a new level — almost rivaling how TV networks use the Olympics to cross-promote various shows. Five sets for the various shows will be used.

In addition to its evening and morning news shows and Sunday morning Face the Nation being on-site in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, CBS will also bring comedian Craig Ferguson's late-night show and the network's daytime The Talk.

CBS also will use the staging area to hype various new sports ventures, including at least 50 hours of shows on its revamped CBS Sports Network cable channel, such as Jim Rome's, and those on its new CBS Sports Radio.

McManus says that while CBS' NCAA basketball tournament doesn't draw nearly the attention of the Super Bowl — but then, nothing else does outside of the Olympics — the network could ratchet up its presence at the Final Four.

"First, everybody wants to see how this works," McManus says.