Meet the Man Behind the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Super Bowl XLV is still days away and Ricky Kirshner has already camped out in a parking lot at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. But he's not there to tailgate or talk football. In fact, Kirshner, a 50-year-old New Yorker and the son of legendary rock producer Don Kirshner, couldn't care less whether the Green Bay Packers or Pittsburgh Steelers take home the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday. He probably won't even watch the end of the game.

As the producer of the Super Bowl halftime show, Kirshner is focused on what happens once the referee blows his whistle to end the second quarter. That's when Kirshner takes over. For the past two weeks, he and his staff have been installing lights and technical gear inside the stadium. Most nights are spent rehearsing the show, headlined by the hip-pop group the Black Eyed Peas, on the field at a Dallas-area high school.

This is Kirshner's fifth Super Bowl, an event that is the most-watched TV broadcast of the year, with an estimated 150 million viewers. He tells us what to expect from Sunday's big show.

A MOVING STAGE SHOW "For the first time since I've been doing the Super Bowl, I feel like we have a halftime 'show.' The last three or four years, the acts have gone out and performed. But it's been more of a concert. What we're doing this year is really a field show.

"People always ask us, 'How do you get the act's stage built in seven minutes?' So this year we decided to start the halftime show with very little on the field and set up the stage as we go. This way people can see how we do it.

"The stage movement is choreographed to the Black Eyed Peas set, along with a field cast of about 800 people. Texas is known for drill teams and dance teams, so we'll have a choreographed show while the stage is built and great music by the Peas."

PURPLE RAIN SHOWERS "Working on the Super Bowl is such a massive undertaking you need to be with people you trust, and that you know can get the job done.

"A famous inside story is that up until 2007, when Prince played, it had never rained during the Super Bowl halftime show. That's what the NFL kept telling us, anyway. And, of course, for my first one it was pouring rain.