List of Super Bowl lead-out programs

The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), and is typically the highest-rated single television broadcast in the United States of any given year.

"[1] The Super Bowl lead-out is typically aired across most U.S. markets simultaneously, and is usually one hour in length, although before the game adopted its standard kickoff time of just after 6:00 p.m.

Viewership for ABC's airing of Alias in 2003 after Super Bowl XXXVII was dampened by an unusually-long 40-minute post-game show (which featured a performance by Bon Jovi prior to the trophy presentation), which pushed the start time past 11:00 p.m.

An occasional practice used to maximize the effect of the lead-out is to make the Super Bowl episode a cliffhanger, with a story that concludes later in the week in the program's regularly scheduled timeslot, (3rd Rock From the Sun in 1998, Grey's Anatomy in 2006, and The Blacklist in 2015).

Rarely, and especially before the game moved to a 6:00 p.m. kickoff, the lead-out has been another sporting event,[11] with the most recent case being Super Bowl LVI in 2022—which was followed by coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.

Because the Super Bowl is on a Sunday, before the mid-2000s, networks never carried a new episode of their weeknight late night talk shows after the game, lead-out program and local news.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was next to follow in 2012 after Super Bowl XLVI, finishing a week of shows recorded from Indianapolis.

[73] For example, after Super Bowl XLV, CTV aired the season finale of its original drama Flashpoint, beginning the exact moment its NBC simulcast ended, as Glee rights were held by Global.

Citytv similarly acquired rights to the Super Bowl LIII lead-out The World's Best, and interrupted its schedule to join CBS when the feed left CTV.

[74] CTV was to air a "sneak peek" of the second season of its original sitcom Spun Out after Super Bowl XLIX, but the premiere was pulled after cast member J. P. Manoux was charged with voyeurism.