Rolling Stone reports on this growing phenomenon, “This Sunday, millions of Americans will gather around their televisions to watch  their favorite athletes compete in a thrilling contest of physical will,  fearless playmaking and instinctive grace. A bunch of other people will be  watching the Super Bowl.

On February 2nd, Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl telecast will celebrate its  10th anniversary, and Puppy Bowl X is expected to surpass last year’s  record total of 12.4 million viewers. Without a doubt, the show is the country’s  most successful annual instance of counter-programming. It’s also undeniably  adorable. But how did this event, which, fundamentally, is a few hours of  puppies running willy-nilly around a faux-football field, come to be? And how  did it turn into a cultural phenomenon so big that, this year, First Lady Michelle Obama, along with first pooches Bo and Sunny,  hosted a Puppy Bowl “training camp” on the White House’s South Lawn?

(Image: Animal Planet/Damian Strohmeyer)

Mostly on a whim, recalls David Doyle, a former Animal Planet vice president  of program development, who was on the production team for the inaugural Puppy  Bowl in 2005. “The scheduling group at Animal Planet came up with the mandate  that they wanted counter-programming material for the Super Bowl,” he says,  which is like trying to figure out the best way to make a punch to the head hurt  a little less than normal.

During a meeting, a suggestion was made that the best defense against the  programming juggernaut would be to “point a camera at puppies” on a football  field, in a sort of dog version of the televised burning Yule Log that airs every holiday season.  Margo Kent, the executive producer for Puppy Bowl I, remembers that “It was  always a joke: How do you counter the Super Bowl? Let’s just put a box of  puppies up there and call it a day. It’s not worth trying to go against the  Super Bowl.”

The joke quickly became a reality. “The next thing I hear,” says Kent, “is  we’re really putting a box of puppies on the air.” And while “box” is a humble  description of the small scale arena the network built for its puppies to play  in, Kent is accurate about the homespun feel of that first Puppy Bowl. Airing on  February 6th, 2005, the telecast, narrated by NFL Films voice and Philadelphia  Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas, was filmed in a spartan studio in Silver  Spring, Maryland and featured two teams of puppies — selected, as they are  today, from area rescue shelters and with help from the American Humane Association — cavorting on a small-scale  football field amongst a plethora of chew-toys. A referee threw a flag when a  puppy named Riley piddled on the field of play. Max, a Jack Russell terrier, was  selected as the MVP. The show drew 5.58 million viewers. A hit was born.

Recalls Kent: “It was one of those moments on the network’s side — where  everything is always over-calculated — where they took a risk and said, “You  know what? It’s a funny idea. Let’s just do it,” By the next year, she says  “people I knew were already planning Puppy Bowl parties. We were surprised at  how fast it caught on.”

And as the show’s viewership grew —  the viewership for Puppy Bowl  IX was greater than that of college football’s Cotton Bowl, and just  behind that of the NFL Pro Bowl — its producers added more elements: A kitty  halftime show, Pepper the Parrot singing the national anthem, bunny, chicken and  hedgehog cheerleaders. This year’s game (which was filmed in October) took place  on a vast soundstage in New York City, where 21 cameras captured the dogs as  well as parade of penguins and a halftime show by Internet sensation, Keyboard Cat. Other new elements included an interactive  fantasy draft and MVP voting.”

(Keyboard Cat performs during the Puppy Bowl X Kitty Half Time Show. Image: Animal Planet)