The World's Best landed CBS's highly-coveted post-Super Bowl broadcast slot for its series premiere after the network considered nearly every show on its schedule.
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"We considered everything," CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl told Ad Week.
"More or less every show on our schedule, somebody threw it out there at one point. The questions we really ask ourselves are, what can benefit the most from this plum slot? What can we really take advantage of?"
Hosted by James Corden, The World's Best will premiere immediately after the network's broadcast of Super Bowl LIII on Sunday and feature elite acts from around the globe representing every genre imaginable.
According to The World's Best executive producer Mark Burnett, the new global talent competition series aims to be "the Olympics of talent shows."
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In order to advance on The World's Best, each act will have to not only impress judges Drew Barrymore, RuPaul Charles, and Faith Hill, but also captivate the "Wall of the World" comprised of 54 international experts in every field of entertainment.
The "Wall of the World" features experts from 38 different countries and every field of entertainment -- from Bollywood to ballet, K-Pop to comedy, martial arts to magic, and everything in between.
More than 100 million viewers are expected to watch Sunday's broadcast of Super Bowl LIII on CBS, and although only a small portion of Super Bowl viewers continue watching whatever airs afterwards, it still typically ranks as one of the highest-rated entertainment program broadcasts of the year.
Last year, NBC aired an episode of This Is Us after its Super Bowl broadcast and the show averaged 27 million viewers, making it the most-watched post-Super Bowl broadcast since NBC premiered the second season of The Voice after Super Bowl XLVI in 2012.
In 2010, CBS aired the series premiere Undercover Boss after Super Bowl XLIV and it averaged 38.7 million viewers -- the third-highest post-Super Bowl show of all time, trailing only the network's premiere of the second season of Survivor, Survivor: The Australian Outback, in 2001 (45.4 million), and a Friends broadcast NBC aired in 1996 (52.9 million).
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CBS also premiered Survivor: All Stars -- Survivor's eighth season and first all-stars edition -- after Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, and it averaged 33.5 million viewers.
Prior to this year, CBS's most recent Super Bowl broadcast was in 2016. For the first time ever, the network decided to air a special broadcast of a late-night program -- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert -- afterwards. It averaged only 20.6 million viewers, the third-lowest post-Super Bowl show of all time.
In 2013, CBS aired an episode of Elementary after Super Bowl XLVII. Elementary averaged only 20.8 million viewers, the second-lowest post-Super Bowl show of all time.
A 2007 post-Super Bowl broadcast of a Criminal Minds episode that averaged 26.3 million viewers completes the list of the six post-Super Bowl broadcasts CBS has aired since it reacquired NFL broadcast rights in 1998 after losing them following the 1993 NFL season.
Kahl said looking at the performance history of CBS's prior post-Super Bowl choices helped the network decide to premiere The World's Best in the plum slot.
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"Undercover Boss got off to a great start, and did a great number. Survivor helped build a long-term franchise," he told AdWeek. "And then at that point, we’d had the luxury of seeing The World's Best, and knowing what we have, and feeling really good about it."
The easily promotable nature of The World's Best's talent performances also played a role in the network's decision, according the Kahl.
"What can you promote in the game amongst all these great commercials, that people will sit up in their chair and go, 'I need to see that?' And this show fit the bill," he explained.
However, The World's Best will not be the only CBS program the network will be promoting during its broadcast of Super Bowl LIII.
"Much like [the question of] what show goes after the game and what can benefit the most, we ask the same thing about promos," Kahl told AdWeek.
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"What shows can we take up to the next level? A lot of times, that means some of the newer shows—that are still in growth mode—that hopefully you'll get some fresh eyeballs on. But we try to give everybody a little bit of love."
"The whole network is represented: news, sports, entertainment. It's a big day for us," added CBS Marketing Group president George Schweitzer.
In addition, the promotional commercials will be new commercials CBS viewers haven't previously seen.
"There aren't any off-the-shelf, generic promos for the shows," Kahl said. "We realize that we want to raise our game just like advertisers raise their game for the Super Bowl. We don't want our stuff looking second class; we want to look as good as the great commercials."
The World's Best will air over ten episodes and conclude with the competition's champion being crowned on its finale on Wednesday, March 20 at 9PM ET/PT.
Following its post-Super Bowl premiere, The World's Best's second and third episodes will air in the Wednesdays at 8PM ET/PT timeslot on February 6 and February 13. After that, the show will move to the Wednesdays at 9PM ET/PT timeslot for the reminder of its broadcast run.
CBS had announced The World's Best's pickup in February 2018 and revealed its judges in October.
The World's Best is produced by Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television, MGM Television, and Fulwell 73 Productions.
In addition to Burnett and Corden, The World's Best is also executive produced by Mike Darnell, Alison Holloway, Ben Winston, Brooke Karzen, Dan Sacks, James Breen and Barry Poznick.