Super Bowl Kickoff Time 2016: TV, Live Stream Schedule for Panthers vs. Broncos

Welcome to Super Sunday, an unofficial holiday worthy of savoring a slew of appetizers among the company of family, friends and colleagues while watching the fate of the NFL championship with 115 million others. 

Here is a look at the schedule for the entire day’s action surrounding the duel between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos:

Time: 6:30 p.m. ET

TV: CBS

Live Stream: CBSSports.com Stream

TV Commentators: Jim Nantz and Phil Simms (booth), Tracy Wolfson and Evan Washburn (sidelines)

Radio: Westwood One Sports

Spanish TV: ESPN Deportes

Odds: Panthers, -3.5 (OddsShark.com)

Venue: Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara, California)

The Super Bowl returns to the Bay Area for just the second time ever and first since 1985, when the hometown San Francisco 49ers trumped Dan Marino's Miami Dolphins, 38-16, in Super Bowl XIX on the campus of Stanford University. 

The Broncos are here for a record-tying eighth time as quarterback Peyton Manning, who joined Denver in 2012, seeks his second ring. But Manning’s offensive heroics of years past weren’t the Broncos’ catalyst in their road to the Super Bowl. 

Denver rode its dominant defense to a 7-0 start that led to its fifth consecutive division title and the top seed in the AFC playoffs, where the Broncos topped the likes of the NFL’s best in Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady. Denver’s defense was No. 1 overall for the first time in franchise history in 2015. 

John Elway, two-time Broncos Super Bowl-winning quarterback and current general manager and executive vice president of football operations, has assembled a team that carries 45 players who have played in 245 playoff games, including 18 Super Bowls. 

This is Denver’s second Super Bowl appearance since Elway took the reigns in 2011, and during that span, the Broncos have tallied the second-most regular-season wins in the NFL with 58. 

Opposite the seasoned and experienced Broncos are the up-and-coming Carolina Panthers, who have only three players on their 53-man roster who have won a Super Bowl—safety Roman Harper, tight end Ed Dickson and offensive tackle Michael Oher; all of whom won a ring with another team. 

But this brash bunch hasn’t shied from the competitive stage, having surged through the NFC playoffs while outscoring their two opponents, the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals, 80-39, en route to their first conference title since 2003. 

Anchored by quarterback and MVP Cam Newton, the Panthers remarkably led the league in scoring (31.2 points per game) despite losing No. 1 receiver Kelvin Benjamin to a torn ACL in training camp. 

Carolina will also counter Denver with a stout defense of its own that allowed the sixth-fewest yards (322.9) and points (19.2) per game, which should give Manning and his aging arm fits. 

This matchup offers eerily similar aspects to Denver’s last trip to the Super Bowl, when it set an NFL record with 37.9 points per game but was trumped 43-8 by the Seattle Seahawks’ vaunted defense. But this time, the more dominant defensive unit resides with Denver. 

The Broncos were able to rattle Brady throughout the AFC Championship Game, hitting the defending Super Bowl MVP a whopping 20 times, which accounted for nearly a fifth of the number of hits he took all season, per Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. 

Newton’s 6’5”, 245-pound frame and dual-threat ability will make him much more difficult to contain, but if the Broncos can unsettle him early and often while jamming his receivers at the line of scrimmage, they should be able to dictate the game.