A big day for potatoes, of the couch and chip variety

Things you may want to know as you plan your television viewing for Super Bowl Sunday:

The kickoff is scheduled for 3:25 p.m., but CBS’ pregame coverage on Channel 2 begins at 9 a.m. with NFL Films’ much-anticipated “Road to the Super Bowl.”

Following that at 10 a.m. will be Phil Simms’ “All-Iron Team,” sort of CBS’ version of the All-Madden team. Simms’ team is called “all iron” because he has long been obsessed with ironing his own clothes.

The four-hour “Super Bowl Today” pregame show runs from 11 a.m. until game coverage begins at 3 p.m.

The itinerary between 3 p.m. and kickoff will include player introductions, the national anthem sung by Billy Joel and coverage of the pregame entertainment provided by Cirque du Soleil.

Sean McManus, president of CBS News and CBS Sports, was in Pasadena recently for a national gathering of newspaper reporters who cover television. One question directed at McManus was: “Six hours of pregame stuff -- don’t you think people will be nauseated?”

Said McManus: “Well, they may be nauseated, but they still watch.”

McManus added that the four-hour Super Bowl pregame show is now standard for all networks and said, “We do it for two reasons -- there is enough to talk about and our sales team can sell it.”

CBS has been able to get as much as $2.6 million for a 30-second commercial spot during the game, not surprising since the average U.S. audience at any one time is expected to be around 90 million.

The worldwide audience could be as many as 1 billion. The game will be televised in 232 countries and territories in 33 languages by 54 international broadcasters and will be aired live in China, where in Beijing kickoff will be 7:25 Monday morning.

The NFL has said China is its fastest-growing market. An exhibition game between New England and Seattle will be played Aug. 9 in Beijing.

Westwood One will provide radio coverage of the Super Bowl to more than 600 stations nationwide, including KFWB 980 in Los Angeles. Westwood One commentator Boomer Esiason will play two positions that day -- working the game alongside Marv Albert on radio after fulfilling his role on the CBS pregame show.

Sirius Satellite Radio is offering the game on 10 channels in seven languages. Channel 124 will carry Westwood One’s coverage and channels 125 and 123 will have the participating teams’ local broadcasts. Other channels will have broadcasts in Spanish, Russian, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and German.

Super Bowl highlights, available in English and Spanish, can be downloaded from iTunes for $1.99 the day after the game.

And, in case you haven’t heard, Prince will perform at halftime. The last time CBS televised a Super Bowl was three years ago, when the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” highlighted the halftime show.

The greatest Super Bowl champion of them all, as determined by a 53-member panel of experts, will be announced Saturday, culminating a two-year joint project between NFL Films and NFL Network.

It has come down to the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and which is No. 1 will be announced on CBS in two segments, 11 a.m. and noon. These segments will be reshown on NFL Network Monday at 5 and 6 p.m.

Coming in third are the 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers and in fourth place are the 1989 San Francisco 49ers. Both will be featured on NFL Network today beginning at 5 p.m.

Maybe just as important as which team is the greatest Super Bowl champion is this: Which Super Bowl commercial is the greatest of all time? There will be a one-hour special on CBS tonight at 9 devoted to answering that question, as determined through online voting via CBS.com. Mean Joe Greene’s Coke commercial, which made its debut during the 1980 Super Bowl, has won the competition the last five years.

Among the commercials Sunday will be a 15-second public-service announcement with coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith promoting the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program.

larry.stewart@latimes.com