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For those of you wondering just how long Super Bowl LIV is going to last before the premiere of The Masked Singer season three, the answer is a little up in the air depending on several game-related factors, of course. But here is an educated guess based on two decades worth of information about the Super Bowl running times.
The Average Super Bowl In Recent Years is 3 Hours and 37 Minutes
We took a look at Pro Football Reference, which gives the running times for the past 20 Super Bowls, dating back to 2000. Averaging them together, we found that the average Super Bowl clocks in at 3 hours and 37 minutes, which means that if Super Bowl 2020 kicks off right at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT like it is supposed to, it should be over right around 10:07 p.m. ET/7:07 p.m. PT.
However, as sports fans know, many factors come into play that determine how long a sporting event last. If there are a lot of things that stop the game clock, like timeouts, injuries, first downs, penalties and such, then the game will take longer. Conversely, if there is a lot of punting, not a lot of timeouts, injuries or penalties, or if the game is a blowout, it will probably not last as long.
The shortest Super Bowl of the past 20 years is Super Bowl XLIV in 2010 between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, which clocked in at a brisk 3 hours and 14 minutes. The longest Super Bowl in that same time period is Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens, which lasted exactly an hour longer than the shortest Super Bowl, at 4 hours and 14 minutes. However, the 2013 Super Bowl is also known as the “Blackout Bowl” because a partial power outage in the Superdome caused a 34-minute delay in the game.
If you want to know the longest Super Bowl in recent years that wasn’t affected by an unforeseen delay, you’d have to go all the way back to Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 between the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots, which lasted 4 hours and five minutes. Fun fact: This is also the Super Bowl that featured Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction.”
And if you’re curious how much time you’ve spent watching the Super Bowl over the past 20 years, the answer is 3 days and 18 minutes, if you have watched them all.
So What Time Will the Masked Singer Start?
An important thing to remember, Masked Singer fans, is that the Super Bowl lead-out show doesn’t start the minute the game ends. There is always the whole confetti-filled celebration, the awarding of the Super Bowl MVP and some post-game analysis from the commentators and pundits. But comparing Super Bowl lengths to lead-out start times for the past 10 years, we did find that there is an average of 32 minutes between when the game ends and when the lead-out show starts.
So averages tell us The Masked Singer will start at roughly 10:39 p.m. ET/7:39 p.m. PT. However, if you’re worried about missing it, it’s probably best to tune in from 10:15 p.m. ET/7:15 p.m. PT onward. That’s the earliest a lead-out show has ever gotten on the air in the last 10 years.
In case you’re curious, the longest it has ever taken to get from the Super Bowl to the lead-out show was in 2017, when FOX’s postgame coverage lasted 43 minutes. Interestingly, one network is definitely faster at wrapping things up than others. On average, CBS and FOX’s postgame coverage lasts roughly 34 minutes on average, while NBC’s clocks in at an average of 28 minutes over the past 10 years.
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