Zoren: Many watched Super Bowl but a lot of fumbles in broadcast and commercials

Super Bowl LVIII garnered the largest audience ever for football’s biggest event.

Thank you, Taylor Swift.

That’s what CBS and the NFL should be saying considering this year’s 9-point boost in the demographic for young woman viewers.

OK, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers have allure. That admitted, Swift, and not Patrick Mahomes or Christian McCaffrey, made the difference, believe me.

In general, the Super Bowl broadcast was mediocre.

Even the game stank until both teams came alive in overtime.

I began calling it the “Yawn Bowl” or the “Three-And-Out Revue.”

Tony Romo was particularly putrid in the broadcast booth. As the game started, he kept harping on one thing: 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy must be nervous or will have to overcome nerves when there was no sign Purdy was fighting emotion.

Romo just decided on a narrative and repeated it until he bored viewers more than the game did. I was mouthing his saw with him. His analysis was lame, too.

Romo made you wish the game wasn’t on CBS, because on Fox or NBC, we could have heard the abler, better prepared, and more enlightening Troy Aikman or Cris Collinsworth.

The much-anticipated commercials were also a bust. Some bordered on the creative or entertaining, but most suffered from the identical problem: lack of wit

There was humor.

Ad writers came up with several good jokes — Jennifer Aniston not recognizing David Schwimmer on a studio lot, Tina Fey trotting in “30 Rock” alumni, a PAC touting Robert Kennedy Jr.’s presidential bid airing an ad from his Uncle Jack’s 1960 campaign — but they never went past formulating a gag to driving a point home.

For all the decent ideas, there wasn’t a trace of being smart, sharp, or edgy in addition to being mildly funny.

For me the bit that worked best was a State Farm promo that mocked Arnold Schwarzenegger for not being to say the ‘r’ in the word, “neighbor.”

He kept saying “neighbah,” especially when his “Twins” co-star Danny De Vito appeared to pronounce “neighbor” right.

The ad that upset me most was the preview featuring Ariana Grande (Glinda) and Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) in the upcoming movie of “Wicked.” Both of their acting seemed superficial, and the scenery looked opulent and flashy without being, yep, witty.

Michelle Yeoh’s Morrible alone holds out hope.

As halftime shows go, Usher’s was decent.

At least, he wasn’t asked to bolt from a defined stage area and parade around the stadium with a camera clumsily preceding him. I’m glad that tactic is dead.

“Decent” is the extent of the verdict because Usher entertained but didn’t rate a “wow” or even an “A” for extra effort. Part of the problem Usher or any halftime performer faces is television camera crews — wait, let’s blame television directors — especially at sports events, do not know how to shoot live entertainment, especially not dancing.

They need to focus on the star and show all of him. The directors are too busy changing angles or shooting the inconsequential to give the featured player a chance tograb the lens and build intensity.

About the only segments of Super Bowl LVIII that happened flawlessly were Reba McEntire’s sincere and unstrained singing of “The Star Spangled Banner” and Andra Day’s moving rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Soros’ Audacy bailout

Good news or bad news?

Financier George Soros came to Audacy’s rescue by buying close to $415 million of the bankrupt company’s debt.

Audacy, which owns more than 220 radio stations, including our market’s WIP (94.1 FM), WPHT (1210 AM), and KYW Newsradio (103.9 FM and 1060 AM), filed for and received Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late January.

The granting of Chapter 11 allows a business to retain its assets and manage its affairs while it reorganizes finances.

Soros’ investment makes him Audacy’s largest shareholder. He controls about 40% of the company.

Just considering the radio stations I listed in Audacy’s stable, it’s clear the company strives for a high-performing product. WIP, WPHT and KYW are all longtime, integral parts of Philadelphia culture.

Each one has achieved excellence in its specialty — sports talk, general talk, and news — and each fields personalities like Dom Giordano, Ike Reese and Howard Eskin who are veterans of our region’s airwaves — and in Reese’s case, of our beloved ballfields — and have developed a loyal following.

So it is seems beneficial that Audacy should have a savior of sorts, pending a ruling Tuesday in bankruptcy court deciding whether Soros’ bailout is acceptable under Audacy’s Chapter 11 provisions.

The conundrum is George Soros.

Rich and activist, he has been the bankroll behind many politically progressive initiatives including providing funds to aid the campaigns of Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner and other leftwing district attorneys and political leaders throughout the country.

Soros is the progressive equivalent of the right’s Charles Koch, one of the Koch brothers. The other brother, David Koch, died in 2019.

George Soros is a partisan. One has, therefore, to wonder, if his potentially dominant stake in Audacy will affect its on-air product. Soros is exactly the type likely to dictate the tune he wants played and the dance he wants done on properties he controls.

One of Audacy’s better points is when it acquired CBS radio stations a few years ago, it left successful stations with their successful formats. Administration and interior policy may have changed, but WIP, WPHT, KYW and others have remained what listeners expect them to be in spite of a transfer of ownership.

Tune in, and the traditions that define the stations are preserved.

My worry is whether Soros will insist on a particular political stamp or messaging consistent with his progressive activism. Such a bang for his buck would certainly affect WPHT, which thrives as one of the country’s premiere conservative talk outlets.

Broadcasting has become sectionalized. Stations cater to a specific group that is inclined to buy its bromide no matter how loaded with its brand of particular kryptonite it is.

Look at television news — well, alleged television news — with Fox shilling for the right while MSNBC panders to the left, CNN skewing left while trying to convince folks it’s straight down the middle, and NewsMax eschewing objectivity as much as Fox or MSNBC.

Conservative talk radio has been the only kind to thrive. All liberal- or progressive-oriented radio formats have failed miserably, not a bad tradeoff for the left as it tends to dominate televised information, including on ABC, CBS and NBC.

WPHT serves a specific audience that turns to it for the kind of discussion and viewpoints it prefers.

Agree or disagree, everyone can have a radio haven of his or her own.

Being familiar with WPHT, on which I am heard on Dom Giordano’s program every other Friday at 1:45 p.m., I can tell you the local hosts, Dom, Rich Zeoli and Dawn Stensland do their homework in terms of checking facts and vetting guests before they put them on the air.

I don’t know Rich, but I’ve known and worked with Dom and Dawn enough to trust their work ethic, research and general process for how they arrive at their opinions.

Dom, in particular, is and always has been tireless in gathering data and making critical contacts to inform what he says on the air from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays.

That’s why Soros’ involvement with a major broadcaster concerns me.

If he stays hands-off, which I doubt, I thank him for giving Audacy a breather. If he meddles and turns the airwaves to a conduit for his beliefs, I’d rather he spend his millions in his usual dubious way.

Stay tuned.

Hedgerow’s top-notch offerings

“Law & Order” fans should be aware that Janis Dardaris, an actress who has played several roles in the series over its decades, perhaps most memorably as a judge, is plying her consistent excellence locally in “The New Electric Ballroom” at Media’s Hedgerow Theatre.

Dardaris plays one of three sisters whose life on a windy Irish island has been hermetically bleak since the two older sisters had an exciting but ultimately calamitous fling at a flashy nightclub 40 years before Enda Walsh’s (“Once”) searing play takes place.

Dardaris, and her frequent co-star on local stages, Marcia Saunders — an Emmy recipient for narrating a series for the Discovery Channel — bring piercing clarity to Walsh’s intense and potentially dense work.

They make you feel and understand the emotions of the sisters as they go from romantically charged girls to women who pointedly never leave their house.

A stern, domineering Marcie Bramucci, as the youngest sister, and the wonderful Stephen Patrick Smith as an island gadfly who can’t stay away from the sisters even when they demand he leaves them alone, add to the depth and texture of director Emma Gibson’s production.

Hedgerow, a repertory theater for 101 years, shrewdly pairs “The New Electric Ballroom” with Susan Wefel’s delightful and poignant turn in Willy Russell’s one-hander, “Shirley Valentine.”

It’s worth it to make two trips to see both plays, each of which comments smartly on the other.

SAG predictions

Award season has expanded. Once upon a time, only the Oscars and Golden Globes mattered for movies and the Emmys and Globes for television.

Now some other award givers claim attention.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards, to be bestowed starting 8 p.m. Saturday during ceremonies broadcast on Netflix, is one of them.

Because I analyzed television acting and program competitions in detail when the Golden Globes and Emmys were given, and because I intend to analyze the Oscar race in my March 4 column, for the SAG Awards, though they show a refreshing individual streak, I’m going to limit commentary to a simple prediction and preference for each category:

Best Actor in a Drama Series: Prediction: Matthew Macfadyen for “Succession.” Preference: Macfadyen.

Best Actress in a Drama Series: Prediction: Sarah Snook for “Succession.” Preference: Snook.

Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Prediction: Jeremy Allen White for “The Bear.” Preference: White.

Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Prediction: Ayo Edebiri for “The Bear.” Preference: Edibiri.

Best Actor in a Limited Series: Prediction: Steven Yeun for “Beef.” Preference: Jon Hamm for “Fargo.”

Best Actress in a Limited Series: Prediction: Ali Wong for “Beef.” Preference: Bel Powley for “A Small Light.”

Best Drama Series Ensemble: Prediction: “Succession.” Preference: “Succession.”

Best Comedy Series Ensemble: Prediction: “The Bear.” Preference: “The Bear.”

Best Actor in a Movie: Prediction: Paul Giamatti for “The Holdovers.” Preference: Cillian Murphy for “Oppenheimer.”

Best Actress in a Movie: Prediction: Emma Stone for “Poor Things.” Preference: Stone.

Best Supporting Actor in a Movie: Prediction: Robert Downey Jr. for “Oppenheimer.” Preference: Downey.

Best Supporting Actress in a Movie: Prediction: Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers.” Preference: Randolph.

Best Ensemble in a Movie: Prediction: “Oppenheimer.” Preference: “American Fiction.”