Super Bowl broadcaster Jim Nantz has been waiting to call this one ever since CBS Sports President Sean McManus told him CBS was re-acquiring the NFL back in 1998. CBS would get the Super Bowl in its third year and every three years after that under the NFL’s new agreement that split the big game between Fox, NBC and CBS. Nantz did some quick math and realized the 50th was CBS’s game.

“I realized on that phone call and said to Sean, ‘If we are the beneficiaries of a few more contract extensions, you know what that means?” Nantz told Richard Deitsch of SI.com last month. “It means we will have Super Bowl 50 on our air.”

50. It’s basically the Super Bowl of Super Bowls. The number hangs heavy over everything related to this gargantuan American tradition. It makes for an interesting philosophical question: How do you go about marketing the biggest mass market cultural event in this country as something even bigger than itself?

CBS is damn well trying to figure it out. The big game marks more than a year of promotion from CBS Marketing Group, which ran its first Super Bowl 50 promo Feb. 2, 2015, one night after Super Bowl XLIX became the most-watched event in the history of U.S. television.

The network’s marketing team created a gold-themed campaign in line with the 50th Super Bowl and shot promos with dozens of CBS talent.

And now that Super Sunday approaches, the network is bringing out all the bells and whistles you would expect for the momentous occasion. The programming hoopla includes a whopping 13-plus hours of Super Bowl content, an updated logo and graphics package for the game and a post-Super Bowl Late Show special with Stephen Colbert.

Game day programming starts at 2 p.m. with The Super Bowl Today, featuring CBS’ NFL crew plus a slew of contributors including Brandon Marshall, Jim Rome and Allie LaForce. Features include a segment on the six living Super Bowl play-by-play announcers reflecting on the game, a profile of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and an essay on how the world and the game of football has changed in the last half-century.

Sit-down interviews include Bill Cowher chatting with Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning and Phil Simms talking with his Super Bowl XXI opponent, Denver GM John Elway. CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King will conduct a live interview with President Obama and the First Lady. There will also be a look-in with troops in Afghanistan.

Homages to the troops, the country and the game of football have become staples of every Super Bowl, but this year CBS is also turning back the clock to look at the heritage and history of the game. As part of its pre-game coverage, the network is airing a series of “Difference Makers” vignettes with special guest narrators. Bill Belichick will honor NFL Films founder Ed Sabol, who died a little more than a week after Super Bowl XLIX, and his son Steve, who passed in 2012. Saints quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi will narrate a feature on his grandfather Vince Lombardi and Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson will discuss the legacy of former Washington quarterback Doug Williams, the first African-American quarterback to start a Super Bowl. A “Decades” segment will look back on the Super Bowl from the 1960s to today.

The programming lineup is just part of the equation. Then there are the ads and the ad revenues. Last year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched event in the history of U.S. television, so anything close to a repeat performance will garner huge numbers and advertisers are taking note.

As was reported last summer, a 30-second solo song and dance in the American TV spotlight will cost advertisers $5 million. That’s an increase of 11% from last year and a huge jump from the $3.8 million the network got the last time it aired the Super Bowl just three years ago.

Among the first-time advertisers expected to pony up for the big game are LG Electronics, Pokemon, Colgate and Amazon. Evergreen sponsor Budweiser is back, with a decidedly more poignant ad then those cute puppies: In this year’s ad, Dame Helen Mirren gives a sharp rebuke to would-be drunk drivers around the world. Bud Light and Coca-Cola are both returning sponsors, while Pepsi will sponsor the halftime show for a fourth straight year.

CBS has been tight-lipped about what in-game promos of its own shows will be included, though cross-promotion for the Grammys, Colbert and some of the network’s primetime fare is expected.

Then there’s the game itself and the inevitable question of whether it will live up to the hype. Will Peyton Manning and the Broncos be able to stay close against Cam Newton and the ascendant Panthers? Can Carolina handle playing from behind if they face an early deficit? How many defenders can Newton dive over to hit the end zone?

There will be only one winner on the field, but there are a few before the game even begins. The network, its partners and the NFL, which continues to loom over the entire American sports landscape, even with its greatest production now a half-century old.

[Image courtesy of Robert Deutsche/CBS]

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