Article: Growth of a TV behemoth Hard to believe, but the Super Bowl telecast was once a relatively subdued affair

The Super Bowl had to grow into its name.

Starting with its television coverage.

The first Super Bowl, in which the Green Bay Packers thumped the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, drew an estimated 77 million television viewers on Jan. 15, 1967, but had to be shown on two networks to do it. Super Bowl XXXI, in which the Packers hope to thump the New England Patriots, is expected to be seen by about 122 million people and that's down from nearly 138.5 million who saw all or part of Super Bowl XXX. (Marketing experts think this year's small-market teams will mean smaller ratings.) By now, the Super Bowl comes wrapped in TV tradition, rituals we've come to cherish: days of live reports from the site ...

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