Super Bowl LX commercials put an emphasis on artificial intelligence, 1980s and ‘90s culture, feel-good situations, Pittsburgh celebrities and, uh, an out-there focus on rear ends.
Pittsburgh native actor Jeff Goldblum (“Wicked: For Good”) turned up in ads for Comcast Xfinity’s Wi-Fi, revisiting his “Jurassic Park” role, and in another Super Bowl spot for Apartments.com/Homes.com alongside “Saturday Night Live” veteran Heidi Gardner. (Sofia Vergara outdid Goldblum, starring in at least three spots.)
The Rocket/Redfin ad featuring Lady Gaga singing the “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” theme song (“It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) featured images of neighbors helping one another (finding a lost dog, recovering from a storm) and implored viewers to embrace their better angels: “America could use a neighbor just like you.” (A previously aired NFL brand spot returned for the Super Bowl using Fred Rogers’ song “You Are Special.”)
This also reflected the most frequent theme in ad for this Super Bowl: Positive, feel-good situations. An ad for “Star Wars” movie “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a Lay’s Potato Chips spot with a retiring farmer, a Toyota ad about passing a seat-belting ritual down to the next generation and Budweiser’s Clydesdale protecting a bald eagle chick, many ads delivered warm fuzzies.
AI ads surely caused the most head-scratching among viewers. While some, like one for website design site Wix, explained how AI will help customers create a website, others, like for Open AI’s Codex, gave viewers nothing except its name. (Other AI products advertised included Microsoft 365’s Copilot, GenSpark, Google Gemini, Alexa and SalesForce.)
Speaking of confusing ads, a Netflix spot for the Brad Pitt-starring “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” sequel offered no title. Variety says the movie will be called “The Adventures of Cliff Booth.”
For ‘80s culture, Jon Bon Jovi drove up in a convertible in a State Farm ad as “Living on a Prayer” played to save a woman from signing up with a fly-by-night insurance company and Ben Stiller crashed onto a stage while performing in a hair metal band in an Instacart spot.
Moving into the ‘90s, the Backstreet Boys sang about the quality of T-Mobile as a cell carrier. Backstreet’s “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” played under a Coinbase ad as well.
“Good Will Dunkin’,” a Dunkin’ Donuts spot that aped ‘90s sitcom conventions and starred Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Ted Danson, Jason Alexander, Matt LeBlanc, Alfonso Ribeiro and Jaleel White, proved one of the most entertaining spots of the night.
And then there was the oddest trend among Super Bowl ads: The ones focused on rear ends, from a Levi’s booty-shaking spot to a Novartis ad encouraging men to “relax your tight end” for a PSA blood test. There was also a Raisin Bran ad featuring “bran ambassador” Will Shat (William Shatner) making innuendo jokes about fiber (“I’m getting too old for this Shat”) but I never saw it on NBC; it was made for Peacock, which streamed slightly different ads from what viewers saw on the linear TV broadcast.
‘Brilliant Minds’ yanked
NBC medical drama “Brilliant Minds,” starring Green Tree native Zachary Quinto, looks like it’s done. NBC won’t bring the show back after the Winter Olympics and will fill all of Monday night’s prime time with “The Voice.”
The remaining episodes of “Brilliant Minds” will likely air later this season or get burned off over the summer.
Back to Oz
“Wicked: For Good” will stream on Peacock beginning March 20.
“The Wizard of Oz” will air on broadcast television for the first time since 1998 when digital subchannel MeTV (Channel 11.2 over the air in Pittsburgh) televises the 1939 film in October during its “Halloween BOO-nanza” programming event.
Now playing
Reruns of “Schitt’s Creek” now stream on HBO Max in addition to Hulu following the death of the show’s Emmy-winning star Catherine O’Hara.
Cornerstone Television (WPCB, Channel 40) expanded its Saturday night movie lineup for 2026, airing faith-based films weekly at 6 p.m.
Renewed
AMC renewed excellent crime drama “Dark Winds” for a fifth season ahead of its Feb. 15 season four premiere.
HBO’s late-night comedy “It’s Florida, Man” will return for a third season.
Channel surfing
HBO Max’s “The Pitt” didn’t show up on Nielsen’s streaming originals ratings chart until almost the end of its first season. But now that the show is a multiaward-winning hit, “The Pitt” made it onto the same ratings chart for its first season two episode at No. 5, with 939 million minutes viewed (behind “Stranger Things,” “Landman,” “His Hers” and “Runaway”), its highest weekly total ever. … Saturday at the Directors Guild of America Awards, Amanda Marsalis won the dramatic series trophy for a Season 1 episode (“6 p.m.”) of “The Pitt.” … At the March 2 Children’s Family Emmy Awards in New York, Pittsburgh’s Fred Rogers Productions CEO Paul Siefken will be inducted into the Silver Circle, honoring industry veterans with 25 years of “distinguished service” to the television industry. … The 19th season of “Murdoch Mysteries” debuts on Acorn TV on March 2. … Last week’s “Muppet Show” special on Disney and ABC drew 3 million viewers on ABC but it had the highest ratings in the key demo of viewers ages 18-49 of any program on broadcast TV Tuesday or Wednesday nights last week. … Early Nielsen ratings data shows NBC’s coverage of the Milan Cortina Olympics’ opening ceremony average 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, up 34% from the Beijing winter games in 2022.