Forward

Super Snooze

"It's the first Super Bowl ever without a touchdown for three quarters," Jim Nantz said at the start of the fourth quarter, mustering up as much enthusiasm as he could.

In the end, the Patriots won again. Congrats to Bob Kraft, Norah O'Donnell, Dana McClintock, John Berman, John King, and all the other Patriots super-fans who are reading this right now. Here's Monday's front page of the Boston Globe:

But let's be honest, most viewers thought Sunday's game was anything but super. It was a bore! The Twitter account for Mercedes-Benz USAㅤ even weighed in: "If this game weren't in my stadium, I would have driven away by now." Benz later deleted the post...

How many people watched?

BEFORE the game began, I was predicting a year-over-year Super Bowl ratings increase, in keeping with the NFL's season-long gains. My guess: 110 million. But obviously now I'm not so sure. The game was so low-scoring, I suspect some folks switched over to the "Puppy Bowl" on Animal Planet or "Titanic" on TNT, etc. We'll have all the Nielsen #'s up on CNN Business by midday Monday...

>> A related Q: Did the game give a big boost to "The World's Best?" We'll see...

Let's hear it for Tony Romo and Jim Nantz

"I think Nantz and Romo have approached this game perfectly," The Athletic's Richard Deitsch tweeted. "More humor than I've ever heard in a Super Bowl -- and rightly so." TIME recapped the praise for Romo here...

Chloe's dispatch from the stadium

CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas grew up in Atlanta, and Sunday was her first Super Bowl experience... "Overall, awesome," she told me... But the sense in the stands was that the "game was underwhelming, and so was Maroon 5's halftime performance. All week there was buzz that the band would bring out a surprise guest, but they played it safe." Melas added: "Don't get me wrong, it was an experience I'll never forget -- but if I had one word to describe the game and halftime it would be -- blah..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- "Travis Scott, Big Boi, an incredible gospel choir, and SpongeBob Squarepants all stepped up to help Maroon 5 carry a loaded Super Bowl halftime show," Lisa Respers France and Sandra Gonzalez write... (CNN)

-- Deadline's Dominic Patten says it was "one of the worst Super Bowl halftime shows ever..." It "didn't so much crash and burn as simply sputtered..." (Deadline)

-- Katie Pellico emails: CBS Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson deserves a trophy for "navigating the crush, then executing the perfect post-game Q&A with Brady," in the words of ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. Making for one of the tenser moments of the evening, CBS kept rolling on Wolfson as she maneuvered through the media scrum, waiting on the QB for several minutes. At one point, her mic picked up a man asking, "Jesus, are you okay?" (Twitter)

THE AD BOWL

These ads stood out

"While it's popular to say 'The ads were better than the game,' they collectively weren't, even in the midst of a low-scoring affair," Brian Lowry wrote in this review of the ads.

Based on first impressions, he said "there wasn't a single spot we'll be discussing years from now." But the winners included Bud Light/Game of Thrones, Google, Microsoft, Hulu, Disney, Kia, Budweiser, the Washington Post, and Stella Artois...

"Knowing keeps us free"

The Washington Post's ad in the fourth quarter was for much more than just The Post. I transcribed Tom Hanks' narration:

"When we go off to war. When we exercise our rights. When we soar to our greatest heights. When we mourn and pray." Photos of historic news events. "When our neighbors are at risk. When our nation is threatened. There's someone to gather the facts." Clips of Wesley Lowery, Anderson Cooper and Bret Baier. "To bring you the story, no matter the cost." Photos of Austin Tice, Marie Colvin and Jamal Khashoggi.

"Because KNOWING empowers us, knowing helps us decide, knowing keeps us free."

Then the Post's slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" appeared on screen, followed by the paper's logo... There wasn't any explicit call to action, like "subscribe..."

Bezos rival Tim Cook also shared the ad on social media, writing, "Proud to stand with @washingtonpost and journalists everywhere in support of press freedom..."

Streaming ads on broadcast's biggest night

Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and YouTube TV were all over the broadcast... "START STREAMING NOW," one of YouTube's ads said...

The @Netflix Twitter feed poked fun at the game while promoting "Our Planet..." The company's ad for the series caught my eye... Per Deadline, "'Our Planet' is the first nature documentary series to be featured in a national Super Bowl ad..."

>> @Netflix also gave up a tiny bit of usage data: During the game, Netflix viewing in the United States was down "about 32% compared to a normal Sunday..."

Hulu's "Handmaid's" spot

Hulu hasn't announced a premiere date for season three of "The Handmaid's Tale" yet, but it used the game to start the marketing campaign... Via Hulu PR, the spot took inspiration "from Ronald Reagan's iconic 'Morning in America' campaign commercial to creatively set-up the storyline for the upcoming season, which features themes of optimism, hope and renewal as characters attempt to take a stand against Gilead." AdWeek's Sara Jerde has details here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- This was a "play-it-safe year" for advertisers... (NYT)

-- About the death of Bud Knight: "Anheuser-Busch InBev let HBO hijack its Super Bowl commercial, in one of the biggest and boldest marketing tie-ins" HBO has ever orchestrated... (WSJ)

-- Frank Pallotta emails: Disney bookended the game with a Marvel trailer and a "Toy Story 4" trailer before and after the kickoff, rather than in-game...

-- "How Burger King turned documentary footage of Andy Warhol eating a Whopper into its Super Bowl ad..." (AdWeek)

-- Some people were freaked out by Michelob Ultra's "autonomous sensory meridian response" themed ad... (CNN)

-- Did you notice all the robots? "Michelob Ultra, Pringles, TurboTax Super Bowl ads try to make you feel better about AI taking over, with sad robots..." (CNBC)

-- Brian Steinberg's take: The ad breaks "were filled with visions of intelligent robots and electric cars; nods to new eating habits; tantalizing peeks at streaming video; and reminders of the new power of women..." (Variety)

Media week ahead calendar

Monday: The 15th anniversary of Facebook's birth...

Monday: Alphabet reports earnings after the bell...

Tuesday: Jill Abramson's book "Merchants of Truth" hits bookshelves...

Tuesday: The American Magazine Media Conference takes place in NYC...

Tuesday: Disney, Snap and Electronic Arts earnings, all after the bell...

Tuesday evening: The rescheduled State of the Union and Democratic response...

Wednesday: New York Times and Spotify earnings before the bell...

Thursday: Twitter earnings before the bell, News Corp and IAC after...

Thursday evening: I'll be speaking at this Newseum event in DC, following up on last August's coordinated free press editorials...

Sunday: The Grammys!

Spotify + Gimlet deal this week?

Spotify is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Will the company be touting a Gimlet Media tie-up by then? Friday's reports were about Spotify's "advanced talks" to buy Gimlet... Signaling the announcement could be coming soon... Naturally, there's no comment from the parties involved...

>> Hot Pod's Nicholas Quah: "A source familiar with the matter tells me that the specific price is $230 million... If this deal closes, Spotify's ingestion of Gimlet would be the biggest acquisition in the podcast industry to date. By quite a mile."

HBO's big plans for Mondays

NYT's John Koblin had the scoop on Sunday: "With HBO's programming slate growing and the battle between networks and streaming services getting only more intense, the network will soon start shifting some original scripted series to Monday nights." (Reminder: HBO and CNN are both owned by WarnerMedia.)

"Chernobyl" will premiere on Mondays in May. Other Monday shows "include the final season of the drama 'The Deuce,' a limited series about Catherine the Great starring Helen Mirren and a new series adapted from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books. There will be two hours of prime-time scripted series on HBO most Monday nights."

>> Key graf: "Though the expansion to Mondays is a big change for HBO, the move is largely symbolic. Most of HBO's viewership comes well after an episode's original air date..."

>> Casey Bloys: "It's not just about filling hours. It's just about doing more HBO-level programming..."

David Muir in Afghanistan

"World News Tonight" anchor David Muir spent the weekend in Afghanistan, "interviewing the four-star American General in command of the war, General Scott Miller," per ABC. Muir's report will air on Monday night's broadcast -- notably on the eve of Trump's State of the Union address...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Big editorial in Monday's NYT: "End the War in Afghanistan" (NYT)

-- Margaret Brennan covered a LOT of ground with Trump in her interview. Crisp questions, hard-hitting followups, so she stayed in control despite Trump's desire to talk and talk. Transcript here... (CBS)

-- Thank you, Katie Rogers, for this gem: "In the Pale of Winter, Trump's Tan Remains a State Secret..." (NYT)

Two really important leaks

SATURDAY: John Walcott's story for TIME about Trump's troubled intel briefings. "Senior intelligence briefers are breaking two years of silence to warn that the President is endangering American security with what they say is a stubborn disregard for their assessments." Read...

SUNDAY: Alexi McCammond and Jonathan Swan's story for Axios. "A White House source has leaked nearly every day of President Trump's private schedule for the past three months." Wow...

A "tip from a concerned citizen"

At the time I'm writing this on Sunday night, Ralph Northam is still the governor of Virginia. Frankly many members of the media figured he would resign by now. Practically every prominent Dem wishes he would.

--> WaPo's Paul Farhi reports that the far-right website Big League Politics is crediting a "tip" from a "concerned citizen" who knew about the yearbook. Within a few hours, the site had confirmed and published the photo. Per Farhi, "the source of the tip appears to have been a medical school classmate or classmates of Northam who acted as a direct result of the abortion controversy that erupted earlier in the week..."

Dueling news cycles for the Democrats

With Northam's yearbook on one side and a diverse array of 2020 candidates on the other side, the contrast between two news cycles about Democrats couldn't be any more clear.

On "Reliable," Ruby Cramer said the Northam scandal "certainly stepped on" Cory Booker's 2020 announcement on Friday...

Covering a historic field of presidential hopefuls

My conversation-starter on Sunday's show: Is the historic nature of this diverse Dem field being taken "for granted" somehow? Should we in the press be talking more about it?

David Zurawik said it's something to celebrate: "All of these different voices are going to make this conversation of democracy, in this election, much much stronger." BUT, he said, emphasizing the but, "we can't get lost in that historic part of it, we have to ultimately focus on the POLICY."

Juana Summers nailed it: "You're seeing so many different templates of what an American president, of what a Democratic presidential nominee, can look like." But with newsrooms still lagging in surveys of diversity, journalists need to "think very critically about how to make sure that our coverage does not just reflect the prism of whiteness."

Warren next?

With Elizabeth Warren about to formally announce her candidacy -- she has an event scheduled next Saturday -- I asked the aforementioned Ruby Cramer about the female factor.

Cramer: "Even if it doesn't mean something to the candidates necessarily, and even if it's something they don't want to highlight, it means something to so many people..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Kamala Harris "headlined two fundraisers... aimed at the large pool of Los Angeles and showbiz donors" on Saturday... One was hosted by Universal's Jeff Shell and his wife Laura... Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dana Walden, Chris Silbermann, Jim Gianopulos, Jennifer Salke, Scooter Braun were all spotted there... (Variety)

-- This story by Katie Rosman will get you thinking about the future of the media biz: It's a profile of Nicole Vecchiarelli and Andrea Oliveri, the founders of Special Projects... (NYT)

Hear from AOC's chief of staff

Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, joined me on Sunday's show to talk about how she's using social media to advance policy proposals and answer conservative critics. Chakrabarti: "It's not about social media. She's good at communicating and she's good at taking a message and actually educating people and getting people to realize how these very complex policies work." Watch...

Other highlights from Sunday's "Reliable"

-- Jackie Kucinich predicted that journalists will be spending more time checking the yearbooks of politicians from now on...

-- David Zurawik applauded NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger for challenging Trump...

-- And he previewed "Won't You Be My Neighbor," the documentary about Mr. Rogers that's airing on HBO and PBS on Saturday...

-- Former RedState contributors Kimberly Ross and Andrea Ruth discussed why they quit the website via an open letter...

How to catch up on the show

Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or Spotify... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or catch the complete episode via CNNgo or VOD...

A "Sunday Morning" glitch

"CBS Sunday Morning" apologized "for technical difficulties Sunday that resulted in graphics greeting viewers in major markets, including Washington D.C., New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago and countless other smaller affiliates," TheWrap's Jon Levine reported Sunday. "The problem was not entirely fixed until almost 10 minutes into the broadcast..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- "Clemency" and "One Child Nation" took top honors at this year's Sundance awards... Anthony D'Alsesandro has details here... (Deadline)

-- "After sitting out last year's Sundance market entirely, Amazon returned with a roar, spending some $47 million on five films — more money than any other studio has ever shelled out in a single year at the festival," Tatiana Siegel writes... (THR)

-- Siegel also notes: "Apple finally made good on its promise to buy narrative features. After buying the documentary 'The Elephant Queen' out of the Toronto market last fall, the streamer bought Minhal Baig's coming-of-age drama 'Hala,' which centers on a Muslim teen girl and her sexual awakening..."

-- Netflix "beat out several suitors" for "Knock Down The House," the documentary "that captured AOC and three other women" who ran for office... Netflix also acquired worldwide rights to "American Factory..." (Deadline)

Biggest winners at the DGAs

Brian Lowry emails: It was another big awards weekend in the run-up to the Oscars, with the Directors Guild Awards honoring Alfonso Cuarón for Netflix's "Roma" on Saturday. It's only the second time the DGA has chosen a foreign-language film, 18 years after Ang Lee for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

The guild also picked Bo Burnham (over Bradley Cooper) as best first-time director for the indie darling "Eighth Grade."

Other actors, notably, were among the DGA winners, with Ben Stiller and Bill Hader nabbing prizes for Showtime's "Escape at Dannemora" and "Barry," respectively, while the other series honor also went to HBO – and "Vice" director Adam McKay – for "Succession," the very Murdoch dynasty-like drama...

The Annies and the Eddies

More from Lowry: Elsewhere, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" dominated the Annie Awards, presented in the field of animation, lifting its Oscar prospects; and "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Favourite" topped the film categories at the Eddie Awards, for editing...

>> The Writers Guild weighs in on Feb. 17, a week before the Oscars...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- Jussie Smollett "performed at his first show since his reported attack last week, tearfully telling fans at the event in Southern California that he is not fully healed but he is doing OK..." (CNN)

-- "Grammy-nominated rapper 21 Savage was arrested in Atlanta early Sunday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement..." (CNN)

Glass" still #1 at the box office

"It was an incredibly soft start to the February box office with the top 12 grossing just a combined $55.4 million," Box Office Mojo's Brad Brevet wrote Sunday. "You'd have to go back to the first weekend in September 2017 to find a worse performance from the top twelve films. The top of the box office was a repeat from the last three weekends with 'Glass' taking the top spot while Sony's 'Miss Bala' debuted in third place. Overall, the weekend is expected to be the worst Super Bowl weekend at the box office since 2000..." Read on...

Critics acting like "spoiled children?" Never!

Brian Lowry adds: Variety's Steven Gaydos chided critics for behaving like "spoiled children" — where else, on Twitter — for the abundance of grousing about this awards season if their preferred choices don't win, which seems both quaint and accurate. Gaydos cited what should be a pleasing mix that includes nods to Spike Lee and Glenn Close, and recognition of both international films and studio blockbusters...

Thanks for reading! Email me anytime... See you tomorrow...