Hot topics: Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson and Sandy Hook students at Super Bowl

In the world of television, Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson and students from Sandy Hook Elementary School are hot topics and making waves on Feb. 1, just two days before the 2013 Super Bowl. On Thursday, Jan. 31, Beyonce held a news conference and neither confirmed nor denied a Destiny's Child reunion. She also said that she would sing live and not lip-synch, like she was accused of doing at Barack Obama’s inauguration. Also on Jan. 31, an NFL spokesperson confirmed that Jennifer Hudson is set to perform “America The Beautiful” with Sandy Hook students right before the 6:30 Super Bowl kick-off. It all adds up to an exciting TV event for the more than 110 million fans that are expected to tune in to CBS for the 2013 Super Bowl that pits the Baltimore Ravens against the San Francisco 49ers.

On Thursday, Beyonce met with an army of reporters to talk about her upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. “We’ve been preparing for about four or five months, so of course, I’m nervous,” she stated. She added that many of her ideas were too big and had to be toned down or nixed altogether. “It took so many months to just decide what the stage was because some of the things that were in my head just weren’t possible to put together in that amount of time.”

For weeks, people and the media have been speculating about a possible Destiny’s Child reunion. Band member Michelle Williams denied that it would happen at the Super Bowl because she was appearing in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of “Fela!” in Washington, DC. However, the theatre’s website has the following message posted in red letters, “PLEASE NOTE: Michelle Williams will not be appearing Jan. 31-Feb. 3.” That’s more than enough time to make a quick trip to New Orleans and back.

Beyonce also tried to silence her critics about her reported lip-synching performance at the presidential inauguration. She emphatically stated that she plans on singing live on Super Bowl Sunday. “I am well rehearsed and I will absolutely be singing live. This is what I was born to do. What I’m born for.”

Jennifer Hudson and 26 Newtown students from Sandy Hook Elementary School will also play an important role during the 2013 Super Bowl. They will start the big game by performing “America The Beautiful” together. The NFL is paying for the trip for the students and their parents. Twenty-six is significant because that's how many students and teachers that were killed on Dec. 20 in Newtown. To protect the students' privacy, their names and ages are being withheld.

According to an NFL rep, Hudson and the students will sing and then be followed by Alicia Keys singing National Anthem, the coin toss and finally kick-off. On Jan. 31, Jennifer Hudson tweeted, “I’m blessed and honored to be singing ‘America The Beautiful’ with Sandy Hook elementary school chorus at the Super Bowl on Sunday.” There’s no doubt that it will be an incredibly touching TV moment.

CBS will broadcast the 2013 Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 3, starting with pre-kick coverage (coin flip, national anthem) at 6 p.m. Fans can start their day off early with the following pre-game shows, all on CBS.

11 a.m. EST: “Road to the Super Bowl”: The yearly look at the NFL season, produced by NFL Films.
12 p.m. EST: “New Orleans: Let the Good Times Roll”: Musician Wynton Marsalis hosts this TV special that examines New Orleans, host city for the 2013 Super Bowl.
1 p.m. EST: “Phil Simms' All-Iron Team: Super Bowl Edition”: Phil Simms and Jim Nantz take a look at some of Simms' favorite moments and memories from the Super Bowl. The TV special will feature interviews with Bill Belichick, John Elway, David Tyree, and Sean Payton among others. The show will also feature the first reunion between Leon Lett and Don Beebe, who were involved in one of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl history.
2-6 p.m. EST: CBS Pre-Game Show: The 4-hour marathon begins at 2 p.m. and airs live from three sites in New Orleans: Jackson Square, Champions Square and the Superdome. It will feature the usual "NFL Today" crew of James Brown, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe, and Bill Cowher, along with Jason La Canfora, Lesley Visser, Solomon Wilcots, and Steve Tasker. Clay Matthews from the Green Bay Packers will also be on hand.

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